Browsing the internet I was struck by a recent blog post by an author saying her MC was full of unintentioned anger:

http://writersplot.typepad.com/writersplot/2008/08/killing-the-bac.html

She traced it back to her own feelings of anger and frustration while enduring several bouts of illness over the course of her writing year. She's now rewritten the character's backstory to make her more lovable.

It got me thinking about my own characters and whether there were imbued with any of my own subconscious feelings, and I realised that many of my early stories shared an over-riding feeling of death. In fact, in the majority of them, I couldn't wait to kill off the MC or those closest to them.
These days I am far less blood thirsty, and seem to have reached the point where a lot of the backstories are pretty boring, so maybe homicidal feelings are better than nothing.



- NaomiM

Completely relate to this!

The vast majority of my stories involve death and/or mental illness. I alternate between suicidal ideation or a full blown psychotic episode, which is slightly worrying. I have never killed off the MC, I just force them to suffer endless years of torment.

Hey ho

Jo
x

I just force them to suffer endless years of torment.

I wish I could. These days I keep trying to save hem from all the awful things that are out in the big wide world. I think I've turned into on of those 'helicopter mothers', always hovering protectively over their children.
Shoot me now.



- NaomiM

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In fact I've just read back through one story and realized there's no antagonist in there at all; it's little more than a 'Teletubby world' of blooming flowers and fluffy bunnies.

I alternate between not being able to bring myself to do horrible things to my favourite characters, and rubbing my hands with devilish glee about the torments I'm about to inflict.

But just occasionally someone's pointed out something about my characters which has taken me aback. Particularly when several have the same thing in common, which I completely didn't know was in there, which has clearly come from the murk at the very bottom of my soul.

Emma

Oooh, 'murky soul', the mind boggles, Emma

I'm still dissecting the last, failed, project. At it's centre was a chapter I'd written a couple of years ago, where I was being particularly nasty to the MC, with the plan to build on it by sending him through several trials before he comes out battered and bruised but still alive, at the other end. But I can see now that the whole thing collapsed because I wimped out. I simply couldn't bear to see him to suffer any more.


- NaomiM

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If I were to psychoanalyze it, I'd put the sea change down to hearing that my ex-boss - who forced me out of the job I loved - has died. There is no-one to rage against, anymore.

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I suppose it is a little warped to be taking out one's frustrations by beating on the good guy, but that's writing for you.

I could do with more flowers and bunnies, I think.

When I was a child, all the stories I wrote were of whole villages of people killed off one by one, by some raging lunatic. Proper Hammer Horror stuff. Now I have moved on to the mentally tortured, as opposed to the physically tortured.

I always feel extremely benevolent when I allow one of my characters to live - and I thought it was only doctors who suffered from the Messiah Complex ...

Jo
x

It's interesting. Actually I don't see anything wrong with characters reflecting aspects of their creators, whether consciously or subconsciously. In fact, I can't think of any other way of doing it - but that's probably because of my own limitations! The characters we create have to come from within ourselves, I think. And they will, in some way, be players in our own dramas - the things that get to us will come out in them. It's just that we might be occasionally surprised to discover what preoccupies us!

Actually I don't see anything wrong with characters reflecting aspects of their creators

Yes, it's fine when it works to the character's advantage, Roger. The problem arises when the writer's weakenesses hamper the plot development.
I would love to be in Jo's mindset, where the plot comes first and I can merrily chuck everything at the MC without a conscience - ok, I might be stretching the point a bit, there; I'm sure Jo loves her MCs really
In the blog post, the author thought she was writing about a lovable MC, but it took her editor to point out the hidden anger in there which was spoiling the character development rather than enhancing it.


- NaomiM

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To illustrate the point, further, you wouldn't want you editor coming back to you about one of your psychotic murderers and saying they're coming across like a bunny loving wuss?

Crikey. Now I'm wondering why my heroes are always getting hurt and/or mistreated. I always just imagined it came from a surfeit of Georgette Heyer and Dick Francis as a child!



Tiger

I think it's more a case of life getting in the way of writing - like leaving the hero tied up in the cellar over Christmas or abandoning him in the middle of a messy torture scene to do the school run...

Yes, I see what you mean, Naomi! I think the original blogger was writing 'cozy' - a genre which it seems does not allow for angry heroines. Perhaps she's writing in the wrong genre?

Rather than suppressing the anger, I wonder what would happen if she explored it?

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Ha ha, Sarah! Yes, that does happen!

Lol! Sarah.

Yes, Roger, one should probably turn one's weakenesses into one's strengths. I should seriously consider switching to children's picture books.


- NaomiM

Heh heh! This has really set me chuckling! A great point for the forum! I had some recent editorial notes saying that all my characters were “a bit mean”! I think this definitely says more about me than anyone! For 'mean' I'd thought 'funny'! She did agree their comments had made her laugh, but still thought they were rather too sharp to be sympathetic...
I also want to kill off a main character but no-one who's read it will let me! (which raises the point – who's at the controls here?!)
This particular reader also shocked me by saying she thought in general “people get what they want.” I've thought about that every day since, because I'm sure it's not the case! Should characters in books get what they want? I think they should get just desserts! Yah boo and sucks! Jane x

As Miss Prism says of her lost novel, in The Importance of Being Earnest (at least I hope she does - I can't see my copy):

"The good ended happily and the bad unhappily. That is what fiction means."

Emma

Lol, Emma, yes, real life is never so tidy, and the bad guys alway seem to get the other person's cake and eat it.

I think it says a lot for how well written your MC is, Jane, that you reader doesn't want you to kill them off. - afterall, isn't the customer (reader) is always right?


- NaomiM