Changing main character

[Jurgenaut]

Hey guys!

I have all these great ideas for my story, but I guess I need some professional hints before I start putting it on paper.

I want the story to have deeper meanings about life and what we do with it, and there is, I think, a great potential for it.

In the first part of the book, the main character is a woman (no name yet) who's not really that likeable. She works at the same company her departed father worked at, where she is boss over a small unit of 'field agents'. She's sexy, hard and she might seem self-confident.
She has a daughter who spends most of her time with computers, which she despises. There's a deep relation here, and basically the mom wants to shape her daughter into a copy of herself to feel better, to know that her path in life is 'valid'.
Anyway, the company has a break-in, and a lot of very sensitive information is stolen (it's a Data Warehousing company), and the main character gets her group to hunt the culprit.

The villain is somewhat of a keyser söze of net crimes, and noone knows him or her (well, it's a him).
However, he wants to be found by this woman and her group, since he needs something from her (bio-signature/passwords).

They meet, and there will be a lot of revelations, and the villain will claim her heroship. The story goes on, naturally.

The questions:

Exactly how obviously unlikeable can I make her? I realize some people wouldn't want to read on if she is too bad. Her unlikeable properties are
* the way she treats her daughter
* her total fixation with looks
* disdain for anything that others value, but not she

Can I cover these things up with giving her a biting sense of sarcastic humour?

Should I treat the change of main character like different books within the book (think Tolkien)?

And... I'm considering having her killed off later on (by her company, no less). This is important in order to empathize that the new hero is correct, and the reason she dies is that she didn't listen to him. Also, it will lead to her daughter being adopted by him, giving her a larger role in any eventual sequels (I'm actually considering a trilogy, but that's not the point).

I'd appreciate answers, or rather oppinions. Oh, and I'd be writing in Swedish, so don't worry about my English holding non-writer standards. :)

[pianoman5]

You might get away with it, but you're generally on less solid ground with an unlikeable protagonist.

It's more usual to have a main character that the reader can empathise with. It's arguably a human weakness, but most of us like to read about 'nice' people with a heroic streak in them. It fulfils our basic desire to be better people than we are, and is a more or less essential part of storytelling.

If she's nasty but with redeeming qualities (e.g. if she's the victim of childhood abuse, or has been a neglected middle child etc) and you reveal why she is the way she is, your readers might forgive her. But a vain, selfish creature who manipulates her daughter? That's not the stuff of a typical sympathetic protagonist, especially if you're going to knock her off later in the book.

Perhaps you'd be better off to begin with your story with the (eventual) hero, since by convention that's what readers expect, and introduce this woman later as a vital but secondary character? Or you could tell the story largely from the daughter's point of view, which might be a good idea if you're planning a bigger future role for her.

[Pthom]

An example of a most unlikeable main character is Frank Clevenger in Keith Ablow's (http://209.171.58.123/keithablow/index.asp?page=home&menu=none) books. In Denial, Clevenger is downright nasty. As the series progresses, Clevenger grows into a more likeable bloke. At least, that's what I'm told...I couldn't get past chapter one of Denial. :wha

[Writing Again]

I figure there are enough people in the world I dislike. Why read about another one?

[maestrowork]

Your main character don't have to be likeable, but there must be some kind of redeeming quality about him/her that makes the readers care about the character.

[HConn]

The only thing that matters is if the reader is interested.

[zerohour21]

But in Native Sun by Richard Wright the character Bigger is extremely unlikable with virtually no redeeming qualities to him, yet that is a pretty popular book that a lot of people enjoy to read. I read it in high school in my senior year back in late 1999 or early 2000 and however you might feel about the character, I thought the storyline verall was pretty damn good, although later on in part 3 with all the huge speeches it does get rather boring and preachy.

As for your story, I say go for it if you think you can pull it off. It might be a good idea to explain why your character is the way she is, rather than making it so she is a narrow-minded self-righteous bitch and leaving it at that. Making a story with a nasty, rotten-to-the-core character and still having a lot of people enjoy the book anyway might be a hard task, but think of it as a challange, and if you can pull it off, it would prove that you are a good writer.

[Gala]

<blockquote><strong><em>Quote:</em></strong><hr>Exactly how obviously unlikeable can I make her? I realize some people wouldn't want to read on if she is too bad. Her unlikeable properties are <hr></blockquote>

I don't consider these qualities that bad. I've read stories where a serial murderer is the main character, (American Psycho) or a self-absorbed woman in a gory job is (Kay Scarpetta); or an un-evolved attorney is (Many John Grisham books). I could go on.

To me your character's qualities pale in comparison ;)

It depends on your target audience.

You know your character well. Let her talk; write it down. She may surprise you.

If she were a pedophile, now that'd be bad and I'd tell you to stop. But the traits you've listed aren't all that bad or dark to my mind; she could be most people strolling the mall.

Have fun with your story; it's better to be over the top and cut back later if necessary, than to restrain what you know is your characters (and your) truth.

[macalicious731]

There have been all sorts of other threads on this topic. Check short fiction for some links, and maybe four or five pages back on novels...

Whenever this topic comes up, I always toss in Albert Camus' L'etranger. When my senior high school class read it, everyone hated him in the beginning of the novel except, well, me. He was a very stoic, non-purposeful person, but there was something about all of his qualities that were essentially human nonetheless.

Anyway, by the end of the story, everyone else finally liked him, everyone felt badly for him.

Not to mention it's one of the world's most philosophical stories ever written. ;) So I suggest to you to read, or re-read, Camus!

[Tish Davidson]

You might think about whether you really want the main character to be the one who is killed off. I'm assuming that you're telling the story in some version of third person point of view in order to carry this off, but readers sometimes get annoyed when they have invested in a character that then gets killed. It can be done, but it is hard.

[Writing Again]

I personally would not follow a main character half way thru a book then kill them off.

The reader invests time and emotions in the main character they are reading about. At the point the main character dies the reader is going to be angry, dissapointed, and wonder why they bothered to read this far in the first place.

If I had the story you describe I would alternate chapters between the two characters from the beginning. Then towards the end have one of them die and the other live and succeed.

[macalicious731]

I personally would not follow a main character half way thru a book then kill them off.

I find it interesting that both Tish and WA brought up this point. Personally, I wouldn't mind, as long as it's part of the story. If you're killing of the character just for shock value, then it's annoying. You mentioned, however, that the point of the character's death is to recognize the new character as the "hero."

I'm going to throw Harry Potter into the example. As of right now, I'm pretty much convinced Harry isn't going to make it to the end of the series. But, that's definitely not going to stop me from reading, because I still want to know what happens.

In my WIP, I have two main characters, one of which is going to die at the end. It's part of the story. As the story stands, it's the only possible ending. Things might change, but I'm almost positive it won't, because then the story won't work.

[Flawed Creation]

Harry will most likely live until essentially the very end of the 7th book.

if he DOES die, it doesn't really effect things, because it's still his story. he's there for the climax, missing onlyn the denouement, which shows what he accomplished through his death.

in my WIP, the protagonist dies very near the end. later books feature a new protagonist, but the first book is always about the protagonist, even after he dies. he still dominates the story.

that's different and easier than having the protagonist die halfway through, ad switching the focus of the story to someone else. i've read stories in which the protagonist started dead. for instance, the fourth of asimov's elijah bailey novels. (no, it's not a ghost story. he doesn't appear in the fourth book except in flashbacks.) however, the book is still about him.

my advice would be to figure out who the story is about, and write primarily from that POV

[Ravenlocks01]

If she's nasty but with redeeming qualities (e.g. if she's the victim of childhood abuse, or has been a neglected middle child etc)
You might want to steer clear of these cliches... Besides, tossing in something like this really doesn't inspire reader empathy unless we can empathize with the character already, and if we can, then what's the point?

Make her nasty, but give her qualities we can identify with. You said she wants to shape her daughter into a copy of herself to feel better, to know that her path in life is "valid." That must mean she has some deep-seated doubts about herself. Show us those. Most of us can identify with self-doubt.

[novelator]

If you write from more than one POV you can kill off a main character without leaving the reader empty-handed. Say you write from two POVs, then kill one off half-way through the book. You might evoke greater empathy for the one that remains, or a virulent hatred--just depends on who's left. Readers will follow a hated antagonist to the end to see them served their just desserts the same way they will follow a beloved protagonist to the end to see them reap their rewards.

I normally write from one to four POVs in a story. In my current work-in-progress, one of my four POV characters just died a couple of days ago. I'm still rattled by that. I didn't know they would actually die until I wrote the last lines of the scene and I liked the character immensely. But, my point is, I still have three main characters to tell the story--two antagonists, one of whom is a pitiable person, and one protagonist, who I'm cheering on to victory.

Mari

[James D Macdonald]

Just write the book. See how it reads. Adjust as necessary.

Remember, no one but you sees anything other than the last draft.