TGIF, everyone! Sorry for another week of radio silence and erratic posting; deadlines for my portfolio and essay for grad school are coming up pretty quickly and it’s taking everything in me not to freak out. (Actually, I am freaking out, but that’s another story.) Anyway, this week is also my program’s discussion of Yiyun Li’s The Vagrants, and I think that one of the threads has brought up a very interesting topic: unlovable characters.
Unlovable characters are those whom you absolutely cannot love because they are despicable human beings. Most likely, they’re also mentally disturbed. Think pedophiles, psychopaths, and other deviants. These characters are perhaps the trickiest to write, especially if they aren’t clear-cut villains. To make them real people with real thoughts and emotions, someone with whom the reader can empathize a little without really loving or even liking them, takes a lot of imagination. As disturbing as it is, you have to put yourself in this character’s shoes and bring the good, the bad, and the ugly to your writing.
That’s why I want to focus on unlovable characters for this writing prompt.
Image retrieved from Pinterest
The prompt, as always, is straightforward. Write a scene for a short story or novel from the perspective of an unlovable character. The scene must be written in first person. It can be for an existing WIP, something entirely new that you will pursue, or just a scene to flex your writing muscles. It doesn’t matter so long as it is in first person from the unlovable character’s POV.
The goal is to write an unlovable character who is still relatable and believable as a human being. It must also be clear that they are deviant and what kind of deviant they are. You must get into this person’s head and entirely understand them before writing this scene. Then, while you’re writing the scene, you must be careful to show the humanity in your character while allowing the reader to still hate them for what they do (or have done).
I know this sounds easy. In fact, it sounds like how you should approach any character. However, most of you will find this task…uncomfortable. After all, you’ll be diving into the mind of a deviant, someone whom I assume is not like you, someone whose acts disturb you. I have a hard time with it and should probably do this prompt myself. Still, if you can successfully create a well-rounded unlovable character, you should have few problems with writing other characters realistically.
Did you find this exercise helpful? Do you think it’s possible to write unlovable characters that still seem human? Or do the writer’s morals and bias interfere too much? Leave your thoughts and experiences with this exercise in the comments below!
Designed by Stephanie Hoogstad circa 2011