Is it possible to write the main character in a book as...

allagentshateme

allagentshateme

nasty and miserable and still have the reader interested?
My character has mental problems, and finds emotions hard to deal with, and to keep people at arm's length she's horrid to them.
How can I make the reader like her until the conclusion of the story when all is well and she sees the error of her ways?

Richie.S.

I think you might need to show snippets of her vulnerablity to help balance out her nastiness so that the reader can have hope that she will eventually redeem herself

Carol

Agree there have to be some features that make the reader think there may be some hope.
Perhaps some of that can also be accomplished by other characters, helping the reader put it together.

Carol

Perhaps that should have also said a reason/s why they are nasty.

Isabella King

Oh, bother! Should have checked who I was before I posted.

That was me, not Richie.

Jay Mandal

Language, Isabella!

allagentshateme

The only character I can think of is Scrooge! He was nasty, yet people read/watched him.
I'm trying to make her seem vulnerable through her mental illness, but even I want to slap her!
Thanks everyone, though.

TaffetaPunk

The book I'm reading at the moment is narrated in first person by a boy who was still suckling from his mother at age seven, and some things he says make him come across as a precocious little b***ard.  But the story is interesting, so I keep reading. 

allagentshateme

Seven!!!!!  Oh, yuk.

Lauren

I am writing a book from the perspective of a murderer [planning the death of his next victim. Although it doesn't initially sound like your typical choice for a main character I am hoping that the murderer's motives will illicit sympathy from the reader. As long as the reader can connect with and understand the character's motivations I don't think the hero always needs to be a hero.

TaffetaPunk

Poppy Z. Brite wrote a book called 'Exquisite Corpse', written from the point of view of a murderer.  As he was turned on by the men he murdered, it was as if it was a gentle release.  Some of it, however, made me laugh because it was so horrible!  I don't think that was the intention, but it was an excellent book, anyway.

allagentshateme

Ok, thanks. Interesting.

Dwight

Hi Allagents. If she is mentally ill she definitely has right - and perhaps even compassion - on her side. Is it possible to include an illustration of her justification for unpleasant behaviour, preferably in the first three pages.

dorothyd

interesting. We were discussing books last night, daughter and me, that is, which spilled over from crying at films, actually.  I said I had sold a copy of Sorrell & Son with the apology for not including the tissues with it ... she said she cried buckets over a book by RF Delderfield - even though the heroine was not very nice.  She wasn't. she was utterly selfish and difficult and contrary and tossed the poor guy's love aside as if it was nothing. In the end she carried the story through but it was him we cried for, not her.  Having said that, there was a high level of sympathy for her or the book would not have worked. So yes, it can be done.