Portrait Of A Fashionable Lady
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| Excuse me? Put out my cigarette? Pffft... |
My beloved MS, which I have been nursing for an eternity has thrown an ethical dilemma, not quite loose morals, maybe there's a whisper of gossip trailing the poor girl. You see, -I'm trying to decide on how bad my MC should be, she must have flaws, and she does, but how far shall I push it? I could let her have her social ciggies, or a stolen kiss with a stranger, she could lust over her best friends man, or spend her entire month's salary on a real lynx coat, -so the question is this - when you give your MC imperfections, how bad do you make them? On a scale of 1 to 5 Chillies, please tell me, -how many bad chillies would you give your MC. Remembering that she will have to redeem herself before the end of the story...
Photocredits purchased via shutterstock
A/N:
Lily isn't my real MC's name, I changed it to protect her identity. I can't vouch for the bad habits mentioned though, she may or may not have them. Happy Writing this weekend!
Comments
I think imperfections make the MC more real and relatable. Not necessarily bad. Everyone character needs a little bad ;)
Tobacco is a disgusting habit. It might be enough on its own. Hmmm...a really bad character...another bad habit and you might be redeemable. More than that? Well it is unlikely but I suppose you could try. :-)
Your post made me smile :)
It also made me think a lot about my own MC.
The conclusion I came to was that if you are going to redeem your MC, you need to make sure that the bad is something that needs redeeming. For instance - to redeem your MC from smoking or having a bit too much to drink on occasion, implies a censoring of this behaviour and thus alienating your readers who do indulge. Bad traits like being over-critical, being quick to run from conflict, procrastination, an inability to resist buying a pair of shoes every week would be universally accepted as being worthy of redemption (with the possible exception of the last one). Bad traits such as vindictiveness, sadism or miserliness, for example, run the risk of making your MC too unpleasant and therefore turning away your readers. (unless you are writing A Christmas Carol, in which case it's job well done)
It's a fine line.
:Dom
Cat, miaow miao mi.. oh, I can't speak cat! Don't feline creatures have any bad habits at all? *sniffs the air whilst slinking away*
Dom, hello! Well I do like your comments here, the bad traits definitely a no-no, essentially its not quite a Christmas Carol so I'm safe there. I think your universally accepted redeemable traits are very good, though I don't quite follow - who in the world would buy too many shoes? I mean seriously, thats a crime, ahem... *whistles nonchalantly, ... is that the time?*
Alas, it all depends on the characteristics of your character. If you're looking for something to give her an edgy feel, then do her justice girl! If you're just looking for something to make her seem more real, then a more toned-down version would suffice.
I guess my philosophy is, if you're going to make her flawed, then go for the gusto (without making her a sci-fi experiment)!
KarenG, thanks so much! 'Lily' has a few issues but deep down, she's a gem. And I agree, unlikeable flaws are a turn off. Good to see you dear! :-)
In my women's fiction trilogy, one of the main characters is a VERY BAD man. A gangster. But his bad qualities are off-set with a lot of redeeming traits that - I hope - make it hard to not like him. You don't approve of him or his lifestyle, but you care about him and should find yourself rooting for him to get away, even knowing he shouldn't.
Lily sounds like a deeply complex character, much like my Cal. As other's have said, I think the trick is to make her flawed, but off-set that with enough redeeming qualities that you forgive her. And a backstory that justifies her flaws.
I just love the picture.
Good luck writing her.
......dhole
In Veiled in shadows my central character loves two men and is in a sense unfaithful to both. She also lies and cheats to conceal a number of secrets.
But the plot largely justifies her actions, and in a way she pays for her crimes and is is 'redeemed.'
By the way she doesn't smoke and makes one of her lovers give up. Something he struggles with :-)
Still, if you make your MC too flawed, he/she may become unlikeable, so I think that is your yardstick to how bad. I had that prob in my last novel. I knew the MC was going to change, but I had to soften her ego and disdain for certain people groups (overweight people) in order not to turn readers off.
OK, I'll fess up on one of my MCs.
She's one of twins, identical twins, and she beds her sister's new man. That said, she's the sweet one, her sister slightly vile! But, there's a bit of a twist in the tale, because what with an agreed masquerade (impersonating her sister and on a blid date) how was she to know she'd fall for the hero and be tempted beyond restraint? ;)
best
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Elissa, totally hear you. I think believable flaws which can bee redeemed are probably the best option.
Cat, purrfect!
Pat, thanks! We do like our MCs to have human traits right, no one is flawless. ;)
Melissa G, absolutely. I suspect I'll be making a few tweaks too.
Donna, great advice, thank you! I think its interesting to hear about your character Cal. So often we come across MCs who may have a dark side and we shouldn't really like, but we do because we hope they have some redeeming act before the end of the story.
Al, thank you! Appreciate your comments, and your character in Veiled in Shadows sounds interesting too. have toyed with smoking in my WIP, because its set in an Eastern city where smoking is acceptable - it fits with my MC, however I know she'll give it up pretty quick smart too. I know in Western countries, its not the norm so much to smoke now though so I'm keeping this in the back of mind. How to be PC with writing these days. Should it matter or not? It seems not as much as I thought... ;)
Carol, I think 3 chillies sounds about right and totally agree the bad factor will be subjective. I'm glad to have the reminder that we shouldn't alienate our readers by making the flaws really unlikeable, the last thing I'd like to develop is a MC which the reader doesn't care about, after all we want them to keep reading.
Liza, totally agree, thats the last thing we want our readers to do. I'd like them to empathise and keep reading. ;)
Francine, I wonder if I've read that book? Have you published yet? You'll have to fess up the title because it does sound rather intriguing! And I love masquerade balls *deep sigh* ;)
Mya, I tihnk she has good qualities. Funny that human nature always makes us look the good in someone who could just be plain bad. We live in hope, which a good thing I think! ;)
Jemi, ha! Well she does need protecting at times but she's not a complete walkover. ;) I've culled back on some bad language, and handed over to my of her friends.
Talli, that's an interesting point, I like that! Will definitely keep that in mind with my rewrites - thank you!
xoxo, The BooKrushers.