So I was reading a story here, on a lark, and I won't say which one, but as I started reading it, I got annoyed with the 'Best Friend' of the MC. As It went on I got increasingly pissed off, but then I realized something.
I thought it was intentional.
And with that mind set, I reframed everything I read as the Best Friend was clearly the villain in this story and suddenly, it was brilliant. An excellent character study in a sociopath. The Fresh Faced, beautiful monster who manipulates everyone around them, the guy who was very good at appearing like your best friend, but actually was just using you. And I pointed this out. How the MC would SAY that the Best Friend had his back. How the mc would SAY the Best friend was always there for him.
but the keyword here is "say".
Time and time again, there were situations where the classic tropes of the Best Friend had a chance to SHOW he was a best friend, but never quite doing it. The truth was, when you looked at it from a neutral perspective, the "best friend" was actually the BANE of the MC's life and the center of most of his suffering, but the MC would instead get gaslighted into thinking it was his fault. I mean, the Best Friend couldn't even say the words "Thank You". The Best Friend set up a group chat behind the MC's back to mock him, and time and time again demonstrated that the "Best Friend" didn't care about anyone else's feelings.
I pointed this out.
I mean, DAMN. It has been a long time since I saw a Well Made VILLAIN. Ugh! SO perfect! Chef's Kiss! I loved that villain. LOVED HIM. I actual took notes. I fully intend to use many of those same traits in a villain I have planned for another story. He was a very well made BAD GUY. Mmm! Except...
He wasn't supposed to be a bad guy.
Ouch.
Yeah... Well... In my defense, it's Show, Not Tell. If you, the author, NEVER give a SINGLE EXAMPLE of the Best Friend being... you know... a friend, what am I supposed to think? I mean, would it kill the Best Friend to say, "Sorry for making your life a living hell to the point you had to change schools"? Or "Thank you for helping me out, even when it destroys your chances for happiness"? The MC might SAY they are best friends, but I never saw a single example of them BEING best friends. Or friends. Or the "best Friend" so much as acknowledging the many things the MC did for him. Is saying "Thanks" such a hard thing to say?
But that all said...
I'm not blaming the author here, but it does bring up a topic of discussion. Specifically:
It doesn't matter what you say, but how you say it.
It doesn't matter what you meant, but what your readers read.
Hey, I've done it. I've written a character one way and unfortunately had the readers take it an entirely different way. Stories I am glad are gone and buried in the depths of time, I assure you. But it does bring up the subject of PROTECTING YOUR CHARACTERS.
When you create a character, and you want to have them "act". Those actions are what matters to the reader. What a character does carries far more weight than the words the character says. Someone can SAY all sorts of evil shit, but when push comes to shove, if he dives into a pit of lava and shadowy death to save a kitten, you will have a positive opinion of the character because we look at the kitten he saved and give that much more weight then all the sarcasm and insults he heaped on the MC.
Conversely, if you have someone who is the "good guy" and everyone says he is the good guy, and he says good guy things, but when nobody is looking, he commits dastardly deeds, the reader is going to think, "Asshole."
Now, don't get me wrong. A story NEEDS antagonists. A bad guy isn't a bad thing. In fact, the goal should be to have Bad Guys people love to hate. It's easy to make a bad guy who is cartoonishly evil, or a rapist or slaver, or any one of a hundred actions that are a 'Step Too Far'. But making a bad guy who is subtle... who has a sharp tongue hidden behind a smile... that's not easy. That's hard to do. I admire an author who can pull that off.
The problem is, we, as authors, can fall into the trap of writing a character, thinking he is 'good', but never showing the audience that he is 'good'. One dimensional characters only need a few lines for the reader to slot them into a pigeon hole, but a main character, or the secondary characters who orbit around him, will be judged on how they act. Simply telling the reader such a character is 'X', is not enough. You have to give at least one example of the Character being 'X', or the reader might not see them that way.
I am bringing this up, because I cannot help but notice that the popularity of said story seems to have declined over time, judging by the number of likes per chapter. I imagine that perhaps the readers might have been like me. Over time they started to get increasingly annoyed with the "Best Friend" and the way the MC and the "Best Friend" were interacting was... well... increasingly annoying. I would have quit reading entirely if I had not came to the conclusion that the "Best Friend" was a Beautiful Subversion of expectations.
An... ACTUAL... good subversion of expectations.
Not a subversion for subversions sake but one that looked like it was being set up from the very first chapter. I understand the author's intentions were different and that wasn't the case. However, I am the exception, not the rule. While I loved where the story was going, others actually accepted the author at face value and I suspect that might be why the number of likes was declining. If you accept the story at face value, then the Best Friend is just... an asshole and the MC is a doormat. He isn't a sociopath, he's just... a jerk. The MC is just too stupid to realize he's in a co-dependent relationship.
And watching someone getting abused... A situation where it is clear that this is never going to end... That isn't fun to read. Most readers won't bother telling you why they stopped reading, they'll just go away.
So what's my point?
Protect Your Characters.
If the Character is supposed to be evil, try to be evil in a 'cool' fashion. If he's supposed to be good, SHOW the reader he's good by DOING something good. Show him willing to sacrifice. This is where a second pair of eyes comes in. When you write something, if you feel that something might be taken one of two ways, assume it will be taken in the less than charitable fashion and make sure by asking someone to read it over. When someone comes to you with an interpertation you don't like, that's something you need to focus on.
You might think he's insane... but what if he's right? What if his opinion isn't the exception, but the rule?
For example,, when I wrote my first draft of HKN, I thought I did a good job of showing the MC a broken man who was at his lowest Ebb and just now starting to climb out of the pit he was in. In reality, I had put him in a pit so deep it was next to impossible for most people to read to the point where the story started to get good. I had quite a few readers who stuck it out, but I bet I lost 80% of my readers by chapter 20.
I did a bad job of protecting the Main Character.
So one one hand, you need to protect your character. It doesn't matter what the character says, or what others say about him, but what the character does. Make sure he doesn't do anything unforgivable. (Unless he's supposed to be hated and unforgivable, then go for it.)
But what if you have already 'done screwed up'?
Well, you have a few options. I have to take option 1: Take down the story and rewrite it so as to not make the MC so unlikable. I'm in the process of rewriting HKN as we speak.
Option 2 is to fix things going forward. In the above example of the "Best Friend" and MC Doormat, you could fix it with a Flashback, or put the MC in a bad situation and have the "Best Friend" swoop in and save the day. Suddenly we have a case of the Best friend being a best friend and we finally, as readers, know why these guys hang out with each other.
However, what if you have gone too far? What if something the "Best friend" has done is so terrible, the audience could never forgive him? Well, then you got Option 3: Embrace the Evil.
If the Character has gone too far, then just go with the flow. You accidentally wrote him as a bad guy, so embrace the bad guy. Then you have two more options, a redemption arc (and who doesn't love a redemption arc?), or the bad guy gets his comeuppance. It could be something like the best Friend gets burned alive, or something as simple as the MC saying, "You know what? You are toxic as fuck. I have done nothing but suffer since you entered my life. I would be so much better if we had never met." And walks away.
That would give the MC a chance to grow while letting the "best friend" experience what it was like to NOT have the MC in his corner. After all, you don't know what you had until it's gone. Great way to develop a character.
Anyways, Just something I wanted to bring up. A lesson I have learned the hard way that I wanted to share.
Good luck and good writing,
Bob
