Why is my character such a bad guy?

It's hard to say without reading your story. By bad, also, I don't know for sure what you mean. Like kicking puppies and cheating widows and orphans bad? Or is he unreliable romantically? Or is he a coward or some other kind of antihero who could nonetheless be intriguing and have a possible redemption arc?

Some possibilities that come to mind:

1. The story you really need/want to tell about these people isn't the one you eventually envisioned. Maybe it won't be a romantic tale at all, or maybe it will be bittersweet, or maybe it will be about the FMC telling this guy to go stuff himself. Maybe he's the person he needs to be for the story as it's evolving. If this is so, you maybe should just go with it and see what develops.

2. He's on some kind of redemption arc. Again, he may be the character he needs to be for that story too.

4. Maybe the story is focusing too much on his actions and not enough on his internal journey. Is he the main pov, or the secondary one, or does he share it equally with the female pov? If we're only seeing him through her eyes, we may not be seeing how his actions are justified in his mind.

5. Conversely, maybe the story needs to focus on the FMC and her journey more, including wants and needs that aren't wrapped up with the MMC. That way, even if he is a jerk for some of the story, it won't fall into that awful "woman likes guy who treats her badly" trope. If she's angry and pulls away from him when he's being a jerk, that could be an important element too.

5. Maybe he's not as bad as you're perceiving him to be. We get so close to our creations sometimes we lose perspective and are sometimes surprised when readers think someone is better or worse than we think they are.

These are all just random ideas. I'd suggest you write it and bounce it (or even just some early chapters) off some readers to get their feelings about your MMC and where they expect his arc to go. I wouldn't change it based just on feedback, but they can let you know if the behavior of your MMC is as problematic as you fear.

gettingby said:

So, why am I making him one?

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Because somehow when you're writing him as a flawed character, he comes out to be a jerk.

Stop making him out to be a jerk.

...don't know what to tell you. The whole "jerk" label is subjective and I don't have the writing in front of me to tell.

The whole jerk dilemma was the topic of K.M Wieland's blog this morning. Maybe you'll find something helpful there: http://www.helpingwritersbecomeauth...-character-this-trick-equals-insta-adoration/

Maybe you're making him do mean things without giving a touching reason. For example, if he constantly tries to control his lover, just say that his parents vanished when he was little and now he is protective of the people he loves.

Of course without reading the piece can't really offer specifics.

But...

gettingby said:

And my POV character doesn't think this guy is a jerk.

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The reader will factor in the lover's opinion of this guy, including the "reasons" for his presumably bad behavior, but in the end the reader makes their own judgement about him based on his words and his actions in the context of the story.

If his words and actions all indicate "jerk", then the reader will likely think "jerk". All the reader knows is what you have chosen to put on the page.

But you can choose to reveal other aspects of him. If his bad behavior is required for the story, then have him say or do something that in some way provides a counterbalance, as long as what you add fits into the context of the story. It doesn't have to be a lot--a small unexpected act of kindness goes a long way. You don't have to make him a "nice" guy. Just add enough so that the reader concludes there is more to him than "jerk".

gettingby said:

And my POV character doesn't think this guy is a jerk. The story revolves around a very selfless act by the guy who's coming across like a jerk. The thing is a real jerk wouldn't do so much to help someone in the ways he tries. The way he is coming across is throwing off the balance of the piece.

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This sounds fascinating and quite captivating, really. So maybe this guy isn't really a jerk or a bad guy but he's just got really crap social skills?? If so, there could be a lot of meat to work with, esp if your narrator has gained a window into seeing what most others aren't.

I can't say I agree with the examples K. M. Weiland uses in her video. None of them come across as jerks, to me, and none do jerky things.

Being a smartass is not the same thing as being a jerk. It simply isn't. There's no relationship between the two. The characters she mentions are all smartasses, and this is good. These are the characters we like best. But none of them are jerks. They simply do nothing to deverse being called this.

No reader even has to like your characters, and some of the best character out there have been true jerks, particularly in the mystery field. You save a jerk by making him empathetic, not likable, and by having him do the right thing when it matters. But if he's a true jerk, he is never going to work out in a romantic story, and no one is ever going to like him.

You have to make his love interest see him as a good person, and you have to make the reader see him as a good person. The reader has to say, "He's really a nice guy inside, and I understand why he sometimes does things that make him look like a jerk when he really isn't one."

The character also has to understand that the jerky things he does are wrong. He has to feel bad about doing them. Real jerks derive pleasure from being a jerk. Good people who do jerky things regret doing them, and feel bad inside because of them, even when they do them over and over.

Let's face it, if a character decides to go off in his own direction, the author must either (1) speak to him very sternly, and set him back on the right path, or (2) decide that he knows himself best, and adjust the story accordingly. It's your world. You have the power.

If you keep trying to write him as a deserving person, and he keeps coming out a jerk, either you really have a different story you want to write, and it's working its way through, or you need to focus on what makes the character a not-jerk, and intensify that.

Are you simply writing in "flaws" because you're afraid of him being too perfect, and they're overwhelming his good parts? Then ease up. Making a character human doesn't mean he has to kick cats and trip blind people.

If you also make the girl a jerk, then they will deserve each other. Problem solved.

*waves hand* This is probably not the answer you are looking for.