Which would you rather see in a YA novel?

I would worry that if your character doesn't redeem him/herself somewhat, your readers would feel cheated -- and definitely wouldn't want to pursue a sequel, cliffhanger or not. We need at least some sympathy for our MC.

I'm gonna go with, what does your character want to do? If you let them lead, you'll have your ending! (That's what I do, YMMV)

If she's going to turn bad and stay bad, you might want to shift the "turn bad" moment until a little later in the game. Otherwise it might be harder to feel as though your character is truly taking a journey/changing throughout the whole book. But I don't know your story, and YMMV.

I'd like to see some redemption, but you could leave hints that the battle isn't over. Know what I mean?

A full return to goodness could be just as unsatisfying as her staying bad. Such a change should be difficult. I'd like to see her on the pathway to a return to good, but I also want to see that her bad ways haunt her.

wandergirl said:

I would worry that if your character doesn't redeem him/herself somewhat, your readers would feel cheated -- and definitely wouldn't want to pursue a sequel, cliffhanger or not. We need at least some sympathy for our MC.

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This was my thought. I really like bad characters, but I need there to be something about them that still makes me care, or else why would I read on? So maybe end the character at a middle ground somewhere?

A non-stand alone novel with a protag that goes bad seems like a very hard sell to me. I suspect you'll have a challenge making readers like and care about your protag enough to want to see her spiral down to badness. If you can swing that (which you could with some work), then you'd probably want to end it in whatever way resolves whatever story problem you presented at the start of the book. Just like a protag that's good and stays good. It's about resolving a problem, regardless of what alignment your protag is.

The book probably doesn't just follow the life of this girl as she turns bad. (If it does, good vs bad is not the issue you want to worry about ) There's likely a story goal that she's trying to achieve that makes her turn bad. So whatever she has to do to win that is where you should go. If staying bad = win, stay bad. If she has to return to good to win, have her return to good. Or have her lose if she refuses to return to good to get what she wants. Those are harder endings to make satisfying though.

nicolemarie said:

However, a couple friends that I’ve talked to have mentioned that they would rather see her stay evil because it isn’t done as much and it would leave it open to a sequel.

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As a reader, I agree that letting an evil character stay evil isn't done as often, and could be really interesting. I am so sick of stories where the main character is redeemed but the redemption doesn't make any sense, or is completely implausible.

However, a story about redemption that's believable can be very satisfying, so I can't say for sure which would work best for your characters.

If staying bad wouldn't fit your characters or story, then let them be redeemed. As long as it's well written, your readers will be along for the ride.

Death Note is an extraordinarily popular manga, anime and film franchise with youths across the world.

The main character is pretty diabolical and never redeems himself. At the end of the books, he is defeated by the antagonists: the heroes.

The cliche that any morally questionable character must start out bad then become good, is just that-- a cliche. If you want to write a story about a stereotypical villain as the protagonist, by all means do so.

Whether it is harder to sell that kind of story to publishers or not is another matter, but I think there is an audience for any well written story.

The appropriate audience for an unapologetic villain protagonist will probably not be those who always need a happy ending or have strong "black and white" outlooks on morality. It is more likely the right audience will be people that think it might be fun to occasionally be naughty; it's wish fulfillment. I mean, if you were to present most people with the choice of becoming Batman or the Joker, most people would say Batman because they have been morally conditioned to be Batman, but there are still many who would think being the Joker would be a lot more fun.

Personally, I think villains get to have more fun than heroes do and tend to make much more interesting characters because heroes usually represent moral normality while villains tend to represent everything that is not. There is something attractive about that rebellious behavior; that refusal to be another cog in the wheel and another tiny spec of dust in the universe.

I do not think it would be more difficult to write a villain people can identify with and root for. There are plenty of popular heroes that some people believe are silly or cliche. You can't please everyone, and you don't need to. You only need to create a character your target audience will like. The opinions of anyone else is irrelevant because they aren't going to buy your book anyway.

I think any character who starts evil and then stays evil will need to be offset by a genuinely 'good' character. In Death Note (for example), the evil main character is at least partially balanced by the people who are coming after him, even if a few of them aren't exactly above reproach either.

Of course, some people find it a lot more fun if evil characters at least toy with the idea of turning good. (God knows it would have made the second half of Death Note a bit easier to get through...)

YAwriter72 said:

I'm gonna go with, what does your character want to do? If you let them lead, you'll have your ending! (That's what I do, YMMV)

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This makes the most sense. Don't force the character to do something not in their nature. If they want to change, change them. If they want to remain, allow them to do so.

Write it both ways and see which is better.

nicolemarie said:

I’m curious as to whether people prefer the redemption/salvation ending or the ending in which the character continues with their evil ways.

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I just spent ALL NIGHT up reading the most depressing, desolate, heart-wrenching and hopeless book I have ever read only because I HOPED there was a happy ending in there somewhere. So, I would have to vote for redemption on an epic scale.

If you're hoping for serialization, you'll have to give your MC redeeming moments that will allow the reader to hang on to some kind of hope for them. Especially, I think, with YA fiction.

I mean, how many people read Harry Potter to the end waiting for Snape to redeem himself, even AFTER he killed Dumbledore.

SarahMacManus said:

I just spent ALL NIGHT up reading the most depressing, desolate, heart-wrenching and hopeless book I have ever read only because I HOPED there was a happy ending in there somewhere. So, I would have to vote for redemption on an epic scale.

If you're hoping for serialization, you'll have to give your MC redeeming moments that will allow the reader to hang on to some kind of hope for them. Especially, I think, with YA fiction.

I mean, how many people read Harry Potter to the end waiting for Snape to redeem himself, even AFTER he killed Dumbledore.

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I have to agree - I always search for the happy ending, and I feel like the story is not finished if it doesn't at least hint at a happy ending. So, I'd have to go with redemption too.

Smish said:

Write it both ways and see which is better.

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That's a fun idea.
Being able to sit down and read both would help in you decide.

I don't know. Personally, I like the ones where someone goes from good to bad to good, but I have an idea for a book involving my MC turning from good to bad, and then sacrificing herself to destroy the evil that was corrupting her.

Take a look at your character? Is her good self in there still? Did the evil/changes to her personality warp her completely?

Forget what others think and focus on your character.

Another aspect of the problem that hasn't been adressed is that I think people would get sick of "Wait, she's evil." "No wait, she's good." "No--evil!" Your story doesn't have to be totally linear, but...ug. I don't think I can coherently say what I'm trying to say. Am I making any sense?

Like, what if you were reading Peter Pan and Wendy was like "I'm going to stay in Never Land forever. No wait, I want to go home! But I want to stay a kid forever! No, but I want to get married eventually." What if that were the whole novel? How annoying would that be?

Also, does she view herself as evil? I don't think that happens very often in real life. (Probably it could be made to work, though.)

Stunted said:

Another aspect of the problem that hasn't been adressed is that I think people would get sick of "Wait, she's evil." "No wait, she's good." "No--evil!" Your story doesn't have to be totally linear, but...ug. I don't think I can coherently say what I'm trying to say. Am I making any sense?

Like, what if you were reading Peter Pan and Wendy was like "I'm going to stay in Never Land forever. No wait, I want to go home! But I want to stay a kid forever! No, but I want to get married eventually." What if that were the whole novel? How annoying would that be?

Also, does she view herself as evil? I don't think that happens very often in real life. (Probably it could be made to work, though.)

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Makes sense to me

Happy endings are overrated, and sometimes overdone.

I'd rather see an evil character who stays evil, then the happy redemption scene. Like others have said, it's not done often. IMO at least it's interesting, and it's more realistic.

I think an important question is: what do you mean by "evil?" Does it make sense, her change? Motives in this kind of scenario are everything, I think.

I have an MC that starts out evil and pretty much stays that way (by evil, I mean dark assassin-type evil). But we know why, and we see her struggle with herself as the book progresses. The most important thing is the journey and that the character's choices make sense and flow with the journey. Don't just try and make her be a certain way because that's how you think people might want her to be. Follow the story journey of your character (internal as well as external).

That's my 2 cents