People say that romance novel protagonists have to be handsome, so my muse gave me big, ugly Brute. And what about perky Nicky from Housekeeping or sweet Goran from Pilgrimage? It's hard not to like them.īut my muse is a difficult bitch. I mean, Colby in The Tin Box, he's capital-a Adorable. Doesn't that mean they should be lovable? By definition, my protagonists fall in love. I suppose that in many genres, protagonists who are less-than-endearing are not only acceptable, but even expected. The kind of guys our sweet boys should just kick to the curb. I mean the kind of guys who treat others badly, who make us want to punch them in the face. Han Solo is cocky and-at least initially-mercenary, but he's always likable. I mean when a main character-a protagonist-acts like an asshole. And I don't mean the villains or exes or minor players either. What I'm going to discuss today is writing about characters who are jerks. I'm sure some writers are, but most of the authors I know are creative, fascinating, lovely people. And let me be clear-I'm not going to talk about writers who are jerks. I was going to title this entry "Writing Assholes," but decided that could be taken entirely the wrong way.
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