Unloveable Characters

Do you have any characters that nobody likes? Is their twisted logic understandable, at least?
Do you like stories with unloveable characters or do you find them hard to read?

Um, yeah...

What do you think? [:

Unloveable characters are easy to read in my opinion
because most of them never change. The book Speak
has a good example of that.

Sometimes they can be hard to figure and truly understand as well.

I think unloveable characters can be better than the loveable ones, at times. Simply because, if a character is just really kind and nice to everyone throughout the story (to me, I guess that's what constitutes a loveable character) then that can get boring really fast. Unloveable charactes, on the other hand, are unlimited when it comes to entertainment, when reading their story. They could either have a totally warped thought process, that the reader has a hard time connecting with, but finds it amazingly interesting, nonetheless; they could have a really dark sense of humor that some readers might even find offensive (even though, I love morbid humor in a character's personality); or they could just do terrible things, like murder, one crime after another. But even if they commit awful sins, isn't that more interesting than a character who is just constantly doing the right thing?

Unloveable characters are just better, entertainment-wise, at least =]. Or maybe that's just me...:shifty

No, I agree with you. I understand what you're saying. Unloveable characters do make the story more interesting to read. And I like when we go into the mind of a disturbed character like that. Adrienne just worded it better. That's what I was thinkning, but couldn't say it right.

***

In my story Things Done In The Dark. I have a unloveable character who pretty much has no soul and is just pure evil.

There aren't many stories with unloveable characters if you think about it. There are characters not liked by the vast majority, but yes, there are still probably people who like them. Such as Rosalie Hale, from Twilight. Lots of people hate her, but personally, I'm not a big fan of Bella, who most people like. I do like Rosalie though, because she doesn't just blindly hate people, as you discover in Eclipse, and she does have some reasoning that makes sense and is sometimes... wise.

I think it's hard to make a completely unloveable character. There will usually be a part of the story, no matter how small, when you stop and think 'wow, they actually talk sense', or they do something you react to positively.

I personally can sometimes get annoyed when reading true unloveable characters in stories. It's just like. Stop being such an idiot all the god damn time. XD I suppose it can make for good reading though, because you always want something to go wrong for them...

I don't think I've got any myself, in my stories. All of mine that come close to it, seem to have some redeeming feature.

I'm writing a story with a pretty unlovable character. His name literally means "evil" in Latin, and he hates the whole world, basically. But, unlike some superhero movies/books, I'm trying to make him a character that you can sympathize with. He's evil, but still human, with emotions and thoughts and he's not your generic bad guy.

I dislike characters who always do the right thing. They just seem so...unrealistic. Haven't you ever messed up or done something bad? It just makes it seem more realistic...which is exactly why my new story that's not posted yet, Freekshow, constantly brings up the subject of good and evil, what the true definition of "good" is, and what the true definition of "evil" is, too.

I think I'm making Mikey a bit too unlovable in Kill Me Romantically. In the yet unposted chapters he's basically just a manipulative bastard. I wasn't really planning that. It just sort of happened.

I like to write characters that, while they're not totally unloveable, are complete assholes. I prefer to read those kinds of characters, usually, the snarky, bitchy and hilariously arrogant type, because people don't seem to be able to write the PUUUURE EVILLLL thing so well.

If someone does, hit me up. :cheese:

I'm pro-unloveable people.

Severus Snape anyone? Completely in love with his character

Is it me, or does it seem to be the unloveable characters are vastly more fascinating? They're never boring, in my opinion, and they is always more than what meets the eye.

Sometimes I prefer the bad guy over the good.

At least with them, you never know what they're gonna do next and everything they do makes no sense.

Walking Into A Dream:

There aren't many stories with unloveable characters if you think about it. There are characters not liked by the vast majority, but yes, there are still probably people who like them. Such as Rosalie Hale, from Twilight. Lots of people hate her, but personally, I'm not a big fan of Bella, who most people like. I do like Rosalie though, because she doesn't just blindly hate people, as you discover in Eclipse, and she does have some reasoning that makes sense and is sometimes... wise.

Actually, I can't stand Isabella Swan myself...maybe because she's the narrator and I'm annoyed with her. Just like HP, I easily got annoyed with Harry.

I think whenever a story is written in first person, or third person limited, I think it's normal to start to dislike that character because, like, aren't you sick of reading their same whiny thoughts? I like a change, please.
.

I'd say that Shannon in Holding His Hand Like a Brand New Kite is technically unloveable. But I love writing his character and I love him as a character.

It depends. Sometimes I like reading unloveable characters, sometimes I don't.
But I like writing them.

I love characters that are hard to love. To me they just have more character. The more people hate them, the more I like them. Because that just means that the character's doing something bad, something evil, or something infinitely good that will have them recognized. I like unlovable characters. They make stories more colorful, more lively. More realistic.

I'm writing a story with what I think a general unlovable character is. Think Edward Cullen meets the Joker who used to love in something like Narnia except with a macabre hint of Sin City. That is my definition of unlovable character, and I'm loving him right now. So much.

I think that Dr P. in The Youth is probably my nastiest characters yet... but frankly, he wouldn't work without Christopher to offset him. I mean, you can't just have a nasty character and call it entertainment, you've got to have a nicer character to keep them running.

I actually don't like having characters that can be labelled as "nasty" and "nice" or "good and "bad". I think that's a clear sign of having one, unchanging character. They are human people, and human people only connect to characters that they can see themselves in. They can't do that if they don't have a little bit of a hazy area in their character.

I normally end up writing some background into a character, therefore giving readers a possible reason for their current characterization... but I suppose you could do it A Clockwork Orange style and give their actions no justification, no background, no reason. It tends to shock readers most... but it did get A Clockwork Orange banned for many years, for being too violent. Another way to do it is to give them one decision, or perhaps two, where they make the kindlier choice. Or perhaps they say something in a situation that they can't control which has a profound effect on the readers.

Then again, I don't like totally nice, understandable characters. I like to write them as people you think you know and understand. Readers start getting cocky and thinking "I know what they'll do". But they don't. Every character has one, colossal flaw, at least. Like... maybe they crack underpressure. Maybe they don't emphathize well with other people. Maybe they put people down too often.

My character Christopher isn't a totally perfect character at the moment anyway, but it's going to get worse in a way that can't be justified by what has happened to him in the past.

Anyway, don't worry about Dr. P. getting all mushy and understandable, there are worse characters yet to come in that story.

I suck at writing unloveable characters that are unloveable for me, because despite every flaw they may have, I end up becoming really attached to them and loving them to pieces. I think there are times when I've made characters act in a certain way, and I've become extremely "WTF IS WRONG WITH YOU?" with them, even though I'm controlling what they're doing... >_>

LostAllHope:

It really depends on how you define 'unloveable'... that is pretty vauge...

Unlovable seems to be the opposite of lovable. A character that you just can't love.
But it might not be the right definition.

I am just a foolish emotional reader, I hate bad guys -not adorable good bad guys that are not bad but damaged and they turn out to be sweet and not characters that are just destroyed, I'm not extremely fond of those either, but they're readable. If the bad guys are winning too much I'll just abandon the story. >_> I don't think there should be bad guys in a story to begin with.

LostAllHope:

Unloveable could mean, cold and uncaring, reserved, damaged, or just evil. It's perspective.

Well I'm almost sure that you're supposed to discuss on what you consider to be an unlovable character and be all subjective about it.
But I suppose there are characters you just can't love. The same way there are people you just can't love. I don't know, terrorists and serial criminals maybe.

Some characters are adorable, some are repulsive.
-shrug-

I think Cassie is pretty unloveable. Or rather, she gets to be later on in the story.

I don't love neither of the characters in 'Clarice.', because they seem completely heartless, even when they aren't,
plus they seem a little too real to me. They just frustrate me, I guess.

Gerard frustrates me in 'Headlights' by Carcinogenic.
But I don't think he's unlovable.
He just frustrates me, too. Because it's too close to a real human being, I guess.
Because you don't wanna get treated like that; if you were for instance in Franks' position.
But you would; because it's human and it's what people do to each other.
And that's frustrating.

I love all the characters I write, so they're never unloved.
No, scratch that. There's Irmgard, the character who I only added to shut my friend up.
I loath Irmgard.

But characters who, in the story, are unloved?
My favorite. They're the most interesting.
Why aren't they loved? What's the story behind them? There's so much you can work off from an "unloveable" character.

doll face.:

I like to write characters that, while they're not totally unloveable, are complete assholes. I prefer to read those kinds of characters, usually, the snarky, bitchy and hilariously arrogant type, because people don't seem to be able to write the PUUUURE EVILLLL thing so well.

If someone does, hit me up. :cheese:

saaaame.
I'm always more intrigued in unloveable characters, rather than the lovable, ones, tbh. They make for a more interesting storyline, and I dunno, I'm always interested in the dark crazy stuff anyways. ._. It's my personality; I'm still nice, sometimes. :roll:
But, I rather like any story that has unloveable characters. I think maybe I write stuff like that too often, though. >_>