How do you "rough" up a character?

How do you "rough" up a character?

I need to make my MC a little less "nice" and more anti-hero (Not quite Riddick-style, but getting there).

I know I need to work on getting rid of the passive voice, and making him more aggressive (He moving the story, instead of the other way around). But the thing is, he's coming off as too nice!

A bit of background. He was yanked from his homeworld against his will, thrust into a situation he was unprepared for, and cannot go back. He was a nice guy. A farmer, who loved his wife and kids. Now, he's on Earth, and has spent the past 20 years here, fighting Demons. This is not going to make for a nice guy.

So, any suggestions that might help?

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

What does the character tell you?

I've found that you can't really "make" your character do anything. If you do, the character will come out fake and 2-D. You have to let your character come alive, so to speak, by being who they are. Otherwise, you have the wrong character. Switch.

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

Well said maestrowork.

One of my greatest joys in writing, and especially writing novels, is that I start a novel, sometimes, not knowing whom my main character is. The joy comes from knowing once I get into the act of writing, I will learn who and what my main character is all about.

Sometimes they surprise me, and do things I thought, when I had first started writing them, they would not.:\

I have found, drgnlvrljh, that a good thing to do when questioning your characters is to ask yourself, "Are they motivated by what I think, or what the character would be thinking?" For instance, I'm sure David Twohy didn't say, "What would I do?" He said, "What would Riddick do?" And what would Riddick do? Why he'd kick buttocks and take names… that's what.

Good luck and keep writing!

Kevin
www.kevacho.com

"Mmmm… coffeee…"

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

LOL! That's the thing, he's telling me alot. One thing is, he's not to happy with a couple of humiliating incidents that've happened to him. He's telling me that he's not as nice as I've written him, so far.

My problem is, I think I'm holding back. I've never written a "macho" male character before. The only male character that I've ever written in the lead was for a short story, and he wasn't in a situation to be all that rough.

I really want to do this well, because Gideon is a very intriguing character.

Sorry if this all sounds like I'm an incurable newbie, here. This is the first story I've written that I have -seriously- considered for publication. And I'm not sure I'm making clear what I'm looking for.

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

Random thoughts:

Some people try interviewing their characters, or writing letters in their voices, or writing their backstories, to get a feel for their characters.

Whose point of view are you using?

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

I think Gideon is telling you something, and he's probably right.

Don't ever hold your characters back. Let them do what they do. Your story will be so much better because of that.

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

I'm working on Gideon's POV, predominantly. But right now, the POV is all over the place. I can fix that in revision, though.

Here's the thing, When I worked out the idea of the story, he wasn't even a factor. There was no place for this character, and I hadn't even thought about him.

However, he showed up in the back of my head, and wanted a part. I figured he could be a minor character. But as I started working on who Gideon was, he became more, and more intriguing, and then the story changed focus. He's now the MC.

I like the idea of interviewing him, though. For some reason, I hadn't considered it all that much. I figured I was doing good when I took down notes about his background.

*ponders* Hmmmm. Maybe I just answered my own questions, here? :rollin

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

I happened to me when I was writing a serial some years ago. My original POV character turned out to be quite meek and reactive. He was a good observer, but not a good "hero." The other character turned out to be much stronger, more interesting and active. I kept the POV because I thought it would be interesting, but the story eventually became one about the stronger, non-POV character (so I guess I was doing the "Great Gatzby" thing).

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

Maestro, you have no idea how good that made me feel! I know I'm not alone, now (Goes to show you the fallacy of thinking all other writers are alike, and I'm just an oddball)

I have to run some errands today, but when I get home, I'm going to be asking Gideon alot of probing questions (and maybe watch the Chronicles of Riddick* again...but that's for another reason):lol







*Yeah, I know that the characters are terribly 2d, but it's good cheesy fun!

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

Two concepts.

One, for Gideon, go back and find incidents in his past that might influence his actions in specific instances. You say he had to leave his wife and children. This could lead a very mild mannered nice guy to act irrationally when faced with someone who abuses children, or make him overly protective of women raising children alone. In his inability to defend his own family he reacts by being over protective in some situations.


The other concept.

Write a few throwaway chapters about another character who is really truly nasty. Break the barrier of never having written about "bad guys" by writing one. As you know it will never be published you can go to extremes you would never allow in an ms you planned on submitting.

I find this type of doodling very helpful.

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

In your specific case, I'd recommend you think about other dispossessed people, especially refugees who arrive in a new country and have to make do.

Cut off from their culture they improvise artifical barriers against the different culture they're now immersed within.

So toss your protagonist into a ghetto, even if it's a ghetto of his own mind. His new surroundings may actually be quite civilized and friendly, but don't let that matter -- keep him on edge by letting his original cultural mindset rub up against his new surroundings.

A caution: Some fantasy or SF writers seem to think that because they're writing about non-real events, that they can depart from human emotions or motives. I'm assuming here that your characters are either human or analogous to humans.

Even an alien race will have psychological motives and even subconscious drives. Jungian archetypes would occur in ANY sentient race, although these archetypes might be different from ours.

Which brings to mind a VERY challenging SF-fantasy story: To write about us humans meeting an alien race that has a totally different psychological mindset due to their different evolution and different internal psychology.

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

I've found that you can't really "make" your character do anything.

Click to expand...

Right!

When I first started writing serious fiction (my private detective series) I tried to make my characters perform like marionettes, myself as author pulling the strings.

A total failure.

It was only when I changed my methods that I began to write effective fiction.

I created a believable character (who would be as human as I could make him), and then I put him into a situation that would challenge his beliefs and test his personality. After that, I simply sat back and took dictation. Ha!

Amazing how the brain works. Of course, everything that I'm writing is coming from my mind and all the dialogue and action is formed there, but if I just "stay quiet" and develop a "hands off" attitude to micro-managing my characters, they do very nicely on their own, thank you. I'm only the court reporter, as it were.

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

Sorry if this all sounds like I'm an incurable newbie, here.

Click to expand...

Please, don't.

We're all newbies of one type or another.

I recommend that you do as has been suggest so very well by other posters here -- ask yourself "what would my character do?" and write what happens.

Imagine yourself as a reporter suspended on a cable above the fray, as it were. View these things as an impartial observer, and write down what happens.

To do so however, you must imbue your characters with humanity, and try to think of them as real people. And to do this, you should create a solid biography of these principal characters.

And most important, care about them!

A cherished letter was one I received from Thomas Harris (Silence of the Lambs, etc.). He told me that I must care about my characters, because if I didn't, how could I expect anyone else to do this? And that includes agents, editors, publishers, or readers.

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

I cherish my characters like delicate flowers, even though I toss them, thrash them, stomp on them, frost them, squish them...

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

drgnlvrljh,

You probably have, but just in case you have not, check out the movie "Pitch Black". It's an excellent example of an anti-hero, maybe even better than "Chronicles"; albeit I love them both. Diesel's fantastic, as is, Cole Hauser, and together they literally blister on screen.

Good luck...

Kevin
www.kevacho.com

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

Kevin, I -own- both movies (as well as "Dark Fury") Riddick is a facinating character, IMO. And while I don't think Gideon is going to be quite that extreme of the anti-hero (Nor should he be), I think he'll be a good one.

I've been taking notes on what makes a good anti-hero.

One thing I've noticed about Riddick, is the icy calm, and absolute confidence he has. Not arrogance, though. He doesn't brag that he's "Just passing through" in a triple security prison planet. It's a statement of fact, and the -only- time he ever raised his voice was not out of anger, but to motivate someone to move. When he tells you to do something, or not do something, there is no argument. He means it, and you get the feeling it's not a matter of control, but born from experience.

And he has a very strong sense of honor. Might not be your idea of honor, or mine, but it's honor, nonetheless. He might not be a nice guy, but he does what he has to do, and isn't hesitant, nor squeamish about it.

Can you tell I like this character? :rollin

Anyhow, I greatly appreciate all the advice, it gives me a direction to go, and helps me pinpoint where -my- problem is.

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

drgnlvrljh,

I completely concur. I think one of the most brilliant things about Twohy's script "Pitch Black" is that Riddick does not have to brag or be brash or arrogant, the auxiliary characters do that for him. All Riddick has to do is look mean and menacing, the other characters, all of which are fleshed-out and ambiguous, talk so much about him that after 20 minutes into the film you know he's a bad-tookus! Actually, I think that's the key with his character. You might think about doing that with Gideon.

Who knows… just follow your gut.

Twohy's also got a little-known film out there called "Below". If you like his work, I highly recommend it. Also, Michael Mann's most recent flick, "Collateral", is now out on DVD, and it also toys with the aspect of "what makes a man evil".

Again, good luck writing…

Kevin
www.kevacho.com

"Coffee good… "

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

I would recommend thinking about what makes your character nasty.


then, put him in a stressful situation. one that's annoying, urgent, or both.

have him encounter someone deserving a dose of nastiness. someone evil, incompetent, petty, obstuctionist, whatever.


see what your character does.

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

Great thread and great advice. I would only add that, since Gideon is starting out as a nice guy, that you make sure his transformation into this tougher character is believable, not just one day he wakes up and starts piling up bodies.

I do think you're on the right track -- heck anybody'd be pissed at being pulled off their world against their will and it sounds like a good character-change arc to work with, one that your readers should be able to latch onto and ride along with Gideon.

Just something to keep in the back of your mind as you go.

Re: How do you "rough" up a character?

Excellent advice, all! And many things to try to get Gideon where I think he needs to be (Or rather, where -he- thinks he needs to be).

ChunkyC, you brought up a good point about transitioning him. But here's the problem. The actual -story- takes place about 20 years after he's sucked through the portal. A prologue is not going to be a good idea. Too much of a time gap, and no one reads them anyway :lol . I don't want to litter the story with a butt-load of flash-backs. It's just too cheesy IMO (at least for this story...I did do a short that was mostly flashbacks, and it worked). I figured at some point, he'll mention where he's from, how he got here, and what he did in the past 20 years. It'll take maybe a paragraph.

My idea (and I'd love opinions on it), would be to use context, and action, of course. Hint at the past. But leave it open to do a "prequel". A novel that would be Gideon's story.

Whaddaya think?