anti-hero

by

THE CATALYST: 20,000 Word Mark

I just reached the 20,000 word mark in THE CATALYST.

TB is breaking my heart. Anti-heroes can be traumatizing to write sometimes. But I wouldn’t have it any other way.
girl_from_above_book1
While you wait for those 100,000 or so remaining words, here’s another series with a great anti-hero with his own set of problems. He’s angsty, tormented, foul-mouthed, and also a heavy drinker just like someone I know. And the women around him are casting a floodlight on his problems. Making him own up. Maybe making him clean up, if my hopes for the series are fulfilled. I really hope there’s a happily ever after for Caleb, #1001, and Fran, too. They’ve stolen my hearts as much as my own characters live to do.

GIRL FROM ABOVE (The 1000 Revolution) by Pippa DaCosta
Amazon | Goodreads | Pippa DaCosta’s Website

Try it! The first one’s only $.99 on Kindle right now. It’s wonderfully devourable. Probably one of my favorite series of all time.

by

Anti-heroes, Torture

Two quick things.

First, I want to share something I read in Orson Scott Card’s Elements of Fiction Writing – Characters & Viewpoint. This goes back to my obsession with the anti-hero. Oh how I love the anti-hero.

Card has a very simple explanation for how to write an unlikable character who appeals to the reader and gains the reader’s sympathy. Give this character several unlikable traits. Keep those traits prominent from page one to the end. Now, along the way, weave in many other subtle traits and actions to create sympathy for this character. Keep these minor. Don’t play them up. The reader will focus on the obvious nasty behavior while slowly gaining sympathy due to the subtle goodness.

Second, Liz over in Purgatory linked to a site that sucked me in. I found this great quote about torturing your protagonist.

The writer is both a sadist and a masochist. We create people we love, and then we torture them. The more we love them, and the more cleverly we torture them along the lines of their greatest vulnerability and fear, the better the story. Sometimes we try to protect them from getting booboos that are too big. Don’t. This is your protagonist, not your kid.

–Janet Fitch

And for my third book, I am on it.

by

Is Your Hero Anti or Byronic?

I’ve done some research on the difference between the anti-hero and the Byronic hero. I couldn’t find a definitive article anywhere comparing the two directly, but from what I’ve read here’s my own conclusion.

A Byronic hero is a bad good guy. He does bad things, makes his own rules, operates outside of the law. But his goal is to do good. He’s tormented. He’s introspective. He hurts. He takes full responsibility. He’s Batman.

A Byronic hero will never find true success because he is so conflicted. He seems to be constantly putting out fires in his quest to do right, but due to his own sensitivity of the world he will never achieve his goal. He’s tragic. He’ll never be happy.

An anti-hero is unpredictable. He’s good when he wants to be. He’s bad when he wants to be. And sometimes he’s bad just to piss you off. Because he knows he can, and he doesn’t care. He doesn’t know the meaning of responsibility. He has no regard for right and wrong, he only knows what he wants to do in the moment. His actions will be completely different on another day.

An anti-hero finds success in everything he does. He is happy in his own world because it is all he sees.

In a nutshell, a Byronic hero does bad things for the greater good. An anti-hero does whatever the hell he wants.

by

“We secretly would like to kick ass like they do.”

I just came across a great article on Writer’s Digest: Defining and Developing Your Anti-Hero.

Although I didn’t purposely fashion one of my MCs into an anti-hero, I believe that’s what he is. He fits every one of these characteristics from the article.

Anti-heroes:

  • are not role models, although we secretly would like to kick ass like they do.
  • can be selfish and essentially bad people who occasionally are good.
  • are sometimes unglamorous and unattractive in character as well as in appearance.
  • can be motivated by self-interest and self-preservation, but there is usually a line anti-heroes won’t cross, which sets them apart from villains.
  • often have motives that are complicated and range from revenge to honor.
  • forced to choose between right and wrong, will sometimes choose wrong because it’s easier.
  • can play both sides with good guys and bad guys, profiting from both.
  • can sometimes be coerced to help underdogs, children, or weaker characters, and they sometimes do so voluntarily.
  • can embody unattractive traits and behaviors, such as sexist and racist attitudes, and violent reactions when wronged.
  • can show little or no remorse for bad behaviors.
  • are usually a mess of contradictions.

Since this wasn’t intentional, I remember feeling uneasy when writing some of his thoughts early on, before I knew him well. I wanted to like my MC. I don’t want him to have these thoughts. In my first edit, I paused on a particular sexist remark he makes about my heroine, and I almost cut it out. I didn’t want him to be a bad guy! But he is, and he’s so much better because of it.

Now I feel the need to make him even worse.

Another interesting concept is the Byronic hero. Characteristics of a Byronic hero (according to Wikipedia):

  • a strong sense of arrogance
  • high level of intelligence and perception
  • cunning and able to adapt
  • suffering from an unnamed crime
  • a troubled past
  • sophisticated and educated
  • self-critical and introspective
  • mysterious, magnetic and charismatic
  • struggling with integrity
  • power of seduction and sexual attraction
  • social and sexual dominance
  • emotional conflicts, bipolar tendencies, or moodiness
  • a distaste for social institutions and norms
  • being an exile, an outcast, or an outlaw
  • disrespect of rank and privilege
  • jaded, world-weary
  • cynicism
  • self-destructive behavior

My MC possesses most of these – he’s definitely not self-critical, introspective, or charismatic (the latter maybe to my heroine, but she has a good excuse).

So, what is the difference between an anti-hero and a Byronic hero?