National Novel Writing Month is going disturbing well so far. Even after missing Day 1, I'm at 11K+ vs the 10K target. And I managed to have my obnoxious protagonist actually draw an assault from someone who really should be the protagonist of her own story. (But, then, isn't every good character the protagonist of their own story?)
Since a big part of the plot is the redemption arc of the protagonist (going from an egotistic and boorish asshole to … well, spoilers, sweetie), my biggest challenge is writing that asshole. Having the PoV character do and say mean and petty things is … difficult. It feels over the top, and that makes gauging what's actually reasonable to have him do is a bit dodgy.
Next up: Infodump Time, as Our Hero learns (and, in fact, has his nose rubbed into it) how badly he has misinterpreted the situation. The trick is how to have a big expository section about key, plot-affecting technology not turn into something boring and … well, infodumpy.
And now, a cat working on his word count.
I probably wouldn't get very far into your book. I have real trouble reading about protagonists I can't respect. I can't stand them long enough to get to the point where they redeem themselves.
The only book I ever hurled across the room in disgust was that first book in the Chronicles of Thomas Covenant series. I certainly won't be picking up any other books by Donaldson.
That said, I'm sure it's a great book. Well, not sure, you understand, but I expect there's a reasonably good chance that it might be a perfectly good book. For other people.
(Well, there's another friendship ruined. Drat.)
I don't believe I authorized a biography about myself.
"Having the PoV character do and say mean and petty things is … difficult. It feels over the top, and that makes gauging what's actually reasonable to have him do is a bit dodgy."
We've talked about this in the wood chipper before, and I'm sure you know it, but I'm going to mention it anyway because sometimes I forget things when in the middle of writing a draft. The thing to remember with any protagonist, and the thing the Donaldson screws up rather badly in his covenant series, is everybody thinks they're a goodguy. They all have motivations that justify what they're doing. So he may be a jerk, and he may do things that seem petty to the outside observer, but if we know enough about him, we should be able to see why he would do that, based on his point of view. It is, after all, why we make him the point of view character. 🙂
Play it right, and you can have someone go all the way through a story with a POV character who ends up saving a single person and dooming the rest of the human race, and you still think of them as the hero; someone you probably would have agreed with in the same situation. (what happened with me in Last of Us.)
+Scott Randel Well, that certainly is a trap, because (a) I despised the Thomas Covenant books, (b) I don't want to write a story about how the jerk was the hero; there's nothing wrong with that story, as +Doyce Testerman cogently notes, but it's not the story I want to tell (more "how the jerk stopped being a jerk" as a redemption arc).
But, then, my protag isn't the SOB that Covenant is. He's simply someone who people tell stories about what an asshole he is. "Did you ever hear about the time he …?" "Jeez, what a jerk. Someday someone's going to paste one on him."
That's not a unique story arc by any means (are there any?). There is another book series which I won't name — good, well-received, best-selling — that does something very similar (in fact, I can see my own story drifting toward it in additional plot elements, which is a problem in and of itself).
Anyway, Doyce's comments are correct, and I am trying to make his being a jerk "organic" i a way that, from inside his head, it seems like a natural thing do to. Since the first chapter will be my November writing group submission in a few weeks, we'll see how successful I was.
(P.S. +Les Jenkins, you are already my hero. 😉 )