Ute Carbone
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Inside the Writer's Garret

On writing and life, with a little chocolate thrown in from time to time.

The good, the bad, and the fictional

3/6/2019

7 Comments

 
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This months IWSG question, whether I'd rather write heroes or villains, raised some interesting thoughts in my writerly head. 
My first response was neither. I tend to like books where the hard and fast lines between good and bad are blurred.  Those are the kind of stories I strive to write. But that answer is a little disingenuous. Of course, stories need good and bad. Of course, the two play against each other.  That's how a good story is created.  And I've written my share of heroes and villains,  The worst of them held a knife to my heroine's throat. The best of them saved a man from being buried in an avalanche, risking her own life to do it.  Certainly, these fit the good/bad pattern of behavior. 
The best characters I've created, though, carry both good and bad to some degree. And I think the secret  (which isn't really a secret) to writing any character is to make sure they aren't cardboard cutouts, that they are characters not caricatures.  The best are like the people you and I know, folks who sometimes make bad decisions even though they are good people. Or do good even if they would never consider themselves heroic. Kind of like us, only more so--with a bigger push towards good or evil.
I'm thinking, now, of a character in my novel The Tender Bonds. Jack is the estranged father of the protagonist, Patty.   The story is about her reconnecting with him and with her family roots. But Jack isn't the wonderful man she remembers from early childhood. He's in prison for vehicular manslaughter--driving drunk he killed a woman and three children.  He's not done well by his daughter, making little attempt to stay in her life. And yet.  He isn't a monster.  He, in fact, loves his daughter.  How do you reconcile the two?   In the end, I figured out that it wasn't Jack's "badness" that made him so flawed, it was his weakness. He's an alcoholic who could not or would not deal with his drinking problem. He's a father who feels that he can't raise his daughter and feels she'd be better off without him. He's a husband who could not keep his marriage together. And he's a  man who's carelessness  causes a ton of collateral damage--including a daughter who feels she isn't worthy of love.  I like Jack as a character. I like the complexity I was able to create with him. It's more difficult, I think, to try and make characters that are complex, that mix good with evil to varying degrees. But it is also more rewarding.

Thanks for reading.  Click the button for more on this and other insecure writer's musings
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7 Comments
Lisa link
3/6/2019 10:23:44 am

You are so very right. We all have light and darkness in us and cardboard doesn't do that justice. You explained this very well and made Jack sound so human. This question was awesome this month and I've really enjoyed reading so many different answers to it.

Reply
ute
3/6/2019 04:36:37 pm

It is an interesting one...lot's of room for discussion.

Reply
Margaretha link
3/6/2019 12:41:49 pm

Since, in real life, good people sometimes make bad decisions, when characters do the same, they are more real. I often find myself identifying with both hero and villain...

Reply
ute
3/6/2019 04:37:34 pm

Me too. I think we like to be heroes. But if the villain is made human, it can be eye opening.

Reply
T. Powell Coltrin link
3/6/2019 01:47:44 pm

Even in the worst of people there is good most of the time. Good people a combination too. But I wonder what is the meter for determining villain over hero?

Teresa

Reply
Ute
3/6/2019 04:39:27 pm

That's a really good question. I think, often, the "villain" is the thing that stands in the hero's way and keeps him from getting what he wants. Which would mean that circumstances can be villainous, too--diseases or accidents or wars. JMO.

Reply
Melissa Maygrove link
3/7/2019 05:39:48 pm

Although I enjoy complex characters, I like the assurance of an HEA, so I read and write romance.

Reply



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