Handling frustrating characters

[limyaael]

Well, I was going to do the rant on D&D stereotypes, but I didn’t really feel like it. I felt like doing this instead.

Comments

[alex_von_cercek]

This rant is odd and beautyfull.

There's also the inverse situation of what you describe. On the opposing team, there will be someone who is moderate and calm and non-fanatical and who generally disagrees with everything his side does.

Making me wonder what the hell he's doing there. Still, he'll see the Daqrk Lord's Dark Soldiers stomping on a kitten or something, and he'lll realize the ERROR OF HIS WAYS and trudge over to the hero's side.

[limyaael]

That I don't get either. Why, if the guy is really "good," is he staying with the Dark? There's usually no compelling reason given.

[venusrain]

Because Good is Dumb, of course! Haven't you ever played an RPG? It's implied.

xD Had to say it.

[limyaael]

I actually liked him at the end of the third book. I still dislike Cersei, though, which makes me really, really hope I can still do so when she gets a POV in the next book.

[limyaael]

Thanks. I really enjoyed writing that book. ;)

I disliked Catelyn, but mostly because of what she did to Jon and because she never really changed: it was always pray and cry, pray and cry. Sansa frustrated me at first, but she got better over the last two books.

[yesthatnagia]

Your essays are a HUGE help to me. They are almost always JUST the kick to the head I need to make me get off my butt and fix stuff in my writing.

Mind if I friend you?

And as for #4... Can you do too much of that? And how do you know it's too much (ASIDE from the reader wanting to smack everybody)? Did I just answer my own question?

[limyaael]

I don't mind at all. *friends you back*

With 4, I think there's such a thing as too much if every character has the same characteristics. Otherwise, I think authors go too far in the opposite direction: the heroes are too perfect, and never have flaws.

[peri_peteia]

So...what do you do when your main character is the frustrating character? Or should that even be possible? Because, in my WiP there's a secondary protagonist who opposes the main protagonist much in the way that a "frustrating character" would, only, the main protagonist is, in large part, wrong.

[alex_von_cercek]

Have him realize the error of his ways and become the bestest person on the planet in a marvelous epiphany in which the truth of the world is revealed to him is a majestic flash of triump, and his eyes are opened and now hee sees, and he says stuff like "How could I have been soooooooo blind?" and "Now I see...only now I see...now my EYEZORZ ARE OPEN3D!"

[peri_peteia]

I suppose while I'm at it, the cause of her realization can be the pure and holy TWU WUV of her soooooouuuuuulmate, because only their Transcendent and Perfect Twu Wuv Like No Twu Wuv Before It Or Since could have the power to COMPLETELY ERASE prejudices she's been taught since she was a small child. And with the power of that Transcendent and Perfect Twu Wuv Like No Twu Wuv Before It Or Since, she will overcome and teach everyone else in the world how to be good and pure and true and...

I think I just made myself sick...

[limyaael]

I think the rules I gave still apply, although perhaps with more force if you're writing the story from just one POV. Remember that the story has to capture your reader. If the character is so frustrating that the reader hates him, and he can't get away from him because the book's solely from his viewpoint, then it's possible to overwrite a frustrating character.

[onyxflame]

1) When writing from their point-of-view, remember they really believe in whatever views they hold.

This is hard for me, especially with villains, and not just in regards to annoying stuff. It's hard for me to understand, for instance, a character who thinks nothing of doing murder if it advances his cause. Of course I could just write it like one of those "the good guys beat up the orcs" scenes, because of course orcs don't matter because they're not people or anything. [/sarcasm]

4) Put some frustrating characters on the heroes’ side.

Heh...I think just about all of my chars are frustrating in one way or another. And there's actually more complexity than just "good guys and bad guys". Yay me. :P