Characters We Love to Hate

I don’t watch a lot of TV, but when I do have time, I’d mostly rather read or write. So when I decide to devote myself to a series, it has to be well written, dramatic, suspenseful, and there should be kissing involved. And a love story. Because I’m a sucker for that.

Okay, so I guess shows like Prison Break and 24 didn’t have a lot of kissing, but even so, there was always an undercurrent of romantic suspense built in somewhere. And I live for those storylines.

Take, for example, the new CW show REIGN.

As the writers probably designed, we all love Mary, Queen of Scots. She is a well-developed character who is benevolent, kind, and as good as she is beautiful. It’s no wonder she has two brothers fighting for her hand. (BTW, I am Team Francis, all the way!)

But then we get an evil, cunning antagonist in Queen Catherine. She’s spiteful and devious, and just when you start to think she can stoop no lower or go no farther to get what she wants, she finds a way. In fact, she is so complex that no one can trust her. Not Mary, the French court, King Henry, or even her own son Francis. And yet, because she is so complex, as we learn the reasons for each new deception, as viewers we still somehow manage to find sympathy for her. In Catherine’s darkest hour, I found myself hoping she’d find a way to avoid losing her head. Literally.

Catherine is the epitome of the best kind of antagonist in a movie or show. She is the character we love to hate, and yet also the character we hate to love. And we do both.

Now I’m trying to think of another character who is quite so well written as Catherine, and I’m drawing a blank. So help me out, if you will. Who is a character you both love and hate?

(Please specify a series, book, or movie so I can look them up.) 

Plot vs Character: Relatability

One of my primary goals as a writer is to create characters with whom readers can relate. And when I read a story, whether or not I am able to relate to the characters is one thing that will make or break that story for me.

To me, relatability is largely dependent on the reader’s understanding of the motivations behind the character’s actions. I think that as long as we understand why our favorite characters make whatever choices they do, we can forgive them for doing stupid or careless things.

But that motivation must be clear. Absolutely clear. Otherwise, we lose our ability to identify, and readers get frustrated with the characters they are supposed to love, because we don’t understand them.

I recently read such a book. It was a sequel to another book, which I very much enjoyed. Unfortunately, the story had changed so dramatically, and the main character’s motivation seemed to change in every chapter. In the end, I still didn’t understand why the main character had chosen a difficult path that could have been easily avoided with an honest conversation with another trustworthy character. Because of this, I became frustrated. I felt as if the author had forced the main character to make this decision just to make the climax more dramatic, when unfortunately, it had the opposite effect.

The good news is that there were some great scenes, some relatable, sob-worthy scenes, that made me care enough about the characters to want to see what happened at the end. The bad news is that I’m not sure I’ll be willing to see them through another book.

So here is my question for this week:

What is one important story element that makes or breaks a story for you?

(PS Please don’t ask about the book mentioned above—that’s not the point, and I’m not telling.)