Sourpuss...a depressing character in your story.

SpookyWriter · Jan 25, 2007

I met my new character (protagonist) for "The Ugly Truth About Uncle Bob." earlier this week. I needed to find someone who fit the description of my protagonist and there he was just sitting next to me. He had a sourpuss expression on his face while he tapped furiously away on the video game.

I sat across from him twice more and his expression never changed. I wondered what was going through his mind to make him so soured at life. He's a lonely guy, that much I know for sure, but why did he come into the bar every night and just sit there nursing a beer with the look of someone who just lost everything they owned in the world.

I've rarely met another person who could depress me so quickly until I met sourpuss. But he did give me a reason to write again today, so it couldn't be all that bad. Right?

Has anyone else ran across a character who is so depressing that you start getting depressed just looking at them?

vrabinec · Jan 25, 2007

SpookyWriter said:
Has anyone else ran across a character who is so depressing that you start getting depressed just looking at them?

My dad. I'm actually a little leary of putting any manic-depressive types in my WIP because I fear dad will think the character's based on him (and the character probably would be to a large extent). I hope the fact I made it a woman disguises it enough.

PeeDee · Jan 25, 2007

When I lived in Nevada, we would sometimes go into the town's biggest Casino (Elko Nevada, the Red Lion) and as we would head for the buffet (where the food was cheap, and, frankly, piss) I would look at the people sitting at the slot machines. Just shoveling money.

They never smiled. not even if they won. They didn't talk to each other. They grunted to the server girls for more drinks. They played, they smoked, and they sat, and....that was it.

They interested me at first, and then as I lived there longer and longer, they perplexed me, and then I grew to loathe them. I wanted to shake them and throw them outside and say "Look! A world full of damn people you can talk to, damn it!"

These days, I just feel sorry for them. What is your life like, that this is fun?

(in defense of casinos, I quite like the poker/card tables and their ilk, because at least you're thinking, you're playing a game, and you're with other people)

(and for the food being so lousy, I sure did eat there alot)

SpookyWriter · Jan 25, 2007

PeeDee said:
When I lived in Nevada, we would sometimes go into the town's biggest Casino (Elko Nevada, the Red Lion) and as we would head for the buffet (where the food was cheap, and, frankly, piss) I would look at the people sitting at the slot machines. Just shoveling money.

They never smiled. not even if they won. They didn't talk to each other. They grunted to the server girls for more drinks. They played, they smoked, and they sat, and....that was it.

They interested me at first, and then as I lived there longer and longer, they perplexed me, and then I grew to loathe them. I wanted to shake them and throw them outside and say "Look! A world full of damn people you can talk to, damn it!"

These days, I just feel sorry for them. What is your life like, that this is fun?

(in defense of casinos, I quite like the poker/card tables and their ilk, because at least you're thinking, you're playing a game, and you're with other people)

(and for the food being so lousy, I sure did eat there alot)

Yes Pete, I too infrequent the casinos for characters. I had actually pulled two or three characters from a couple casinos for my stories.

I agree that there is life outside the casinos, but some of these people don't have a life to begin with and they adopt a social (society) from who they meet regularly. Sadly, as the case, when I returned to Arizona after a four year absence I went to a casino near Chandler. I played Texas hold'em for most of the evening (on the casino's money) and as I was about to leave I recognized a guy I remembered from 2002 when I left America. He hadn't changed a bit.

There are good stories to write about the life of a lonely gambler, grandma on welfare hitting the slots, and the depressing regime of living life inside a casino.

Good thing you never got addicted to gambling.

PeeDee · Jan 25, 2007

I wouldnt' even mind if they talked to each other, but they don't. They just stare. They may as well be plugged in. I hadn't thought about 'em in years, and now it's niggling at me again. Maybe I'll call the Casino and yell at their customer base. That should go over well.

SpookyWriter · Jan 25, 2007

PeeDee said:
I wouldnt' even mind if they talked to each other, but they don't. They just stare. They may as well be plugged in. I hadn't thought about 'em in years, and now it's niggling at me again. Maybe I'll call the Casino and yell at their customer base. That should go over well.

Try a conference call with Carrie and Haggis. I'd love to read this dialogue. :roll:

PeeDee · Jan 25, 2007

It'd be good, no doubt, but I bet the courts wouldn't release it to the public.

MidnightMuse · Jan 25, 2007

I start to have the opposite feeling when I'm around someone being a big 'ol downer. Like right now, this guy who shares the office often has PMS (pissy-man syndrome) and this morning he's being a sourpuss. Instead of backing off and feeling depressed or uncomfortable, my own mood is getting lighter and happier to contrast his dark cloud.

Of course, it could just be my desire to see him die a slow, painful death, too.

PeeDee · Jan 25, 2007

MidnightMuse said:
I start to have the opposite feeling when I'm around someone being a big 'ol downer. Like right now, this guy who shares the office often has PMS (pissy-man syndrome) and this morning he's being a sourpuss. Instead of backing off and feeling depressed or uncomfortable, my own mood is getting lighter and happier to contrast his dark cloud.

Of course, it could just be my desire to see him die a slow, painful death, too.

I do that too. When I get grim customers into my bookstore, I get very bright and happy and chatty......and also move very, very....slowly.....

Mean people can be such fun.

Sourpuss...a depressing character in your story.

SpookyWriter

vrabinec

Dipwad

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

SpookyWriter

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

SpookyWriter

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?

MidnightMuse

Midnight Reading

PeeDee

Where's my tea, please...?