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Dangerous characters . . .

 

  Captain_Jack_Sparrow___Tribute_by_marAttacks

I know. You probably just thought of a dashing hero or a horrific villain. But those aren't the dangerous characters I mean. Nope. The dangerous characters I'm referring to are those about whom we could care less.

Characters who drag us through their stories without inspiring any engagement with their personalities, their dilemmas, their quirks, or anything else about them are the most dangerous characters we can create because they can kill readers' attention like nothing else. If one or two of these characters pop up within the story, okay, but if we make our protagonist(s) someone who doesn't incur our emotional investment, we've defeated our purpose in centering our attention on him or her.

The reason I mention this is because I've had to force feed myself a couple of novels in recent times with main characters who I don't like. Not even a little. Of course some people might like them, but I'm a fairly forgiving reader. I give authors a wide berth with their novels. However, if I can't muster even a minor interest in their protagonist, why do I care what happens to them, around them, or with them? I don't.

One of my film favorites is illustrated above.

Can you identify what makes you not care about a character?

 

Father, you care about all of us characters. Hard to imagine, but you do. Thank you for that. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.

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5 responses to “Dangerous characters . . .”

  1. Barb Riley Avatar
    Barb Riley

    If they have no faults or no realistic weakness is revealed. Oh, and also, if the author doesn’t provide a glimpse into the character’s motivation. I like to walk in the shoes of imperfect people who are trying hard to do the right thing, but make mistakes along the way. It’s where I feel most comfortable.

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  2. BK Jackson Avatar
    BK Jackson

    What I have noticed is that sometimes authors tend to fail at walking the fine line between having a lead character who is focused on their problem/goal and one who is self-absorbed.
    That’s not a surprising problem to have since in this day and age we are able to function fairly independently and ourselves struggle with this problem.

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  3. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Brenda and Barb, you make good points. “No realistic weakness” and “self-absorbed” are great examples.
    Weaknesses are funny things – we all have them. However, if a character acts, as I believe Brenda has said in the past, too-stupid-to-live, I want them to disappear.
    The character I don’t care about comes in all kinds of different “suits”. He or she is too structured or too angry because of life events (even if they’re tragic) or too aloof. And if you don’t give me one trait to produce empathy in me for that character, I could care less if you kill them off or heap more problems upon them. Not a good place to be – for either of us. 😉

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  4. Brenda Anderson Avatar
    Brenda Anderson

    The too-perfect character drives me nuts, or the character constantly immersed in pity-parties. I’ll give any character a chance, though, as long as I see growth throughout the novel. It bothers me when I don’t witness any change.

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  5. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Oh yeah: the pity-partiers. I understand this to a degree, but in order to keep me sympathetic, you have to balance it out with other good traits and I have to feel real pain instead of pity. And too-perfect? Whoever is?! No thanks.
    Like you, Bren, I give characters a chance, but if the author dilly-dallies with their growth, as New Yorkers might say: fugetta about it. 😉

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