How the Pros Deepen Colourful Character Traits with Criminal Motivations in Fiction Writing
“Fiction allows us to do something that nothing else quite does. It allows us to enter fully into the lives of other human beings… The fake characters we read about will evaporate like the morning dew, but the real ones, the true ones, will haunt us for the rest of our days.”
― Katherine Patterson
“Look seeker, if you love a character, you give them pain, ruin their lives, make them suffer. Maybe even throw in a heroic death!”
― Varric Tethras
There’s nothing like a fictional story of suffering and unmet want. It makes us sit up all night long turning pages.
If a character immediately gets what they want, then that character is simple, lacks problems, and is probably one of these people who sees the world in black and white, right and wrong, good and bad terms.
It’s a boring character who has no dimensionality. We won’t stay up all night to find out how life is so sweet and simple for them.
We will keep turning pages for a character that is always on the edge of not-quite-winning, but could, if only …
We read fiction to discover that other people, albeit fictional people, are quite similar to ourselves — they are a jigsaw puzzle of problems and conflicts that causes them to shiver and shake, to cry, to want to give up and go home, but always and ever, there is something inside the character that makes them suddenly turn on a penny and face up to their weaknesses, their realities, and finally go headlong into the oppressive world of their lives — and often, win.
In tragic fiction, the protagonist will often realise that they are wrong. They will have to face up to the reality that they have been totally mistaken about the rights and wrongs of a situation. They are tragically flawed and irredeemable.
Breaking Bad character Walter White is a likeable character. We follow his path from chemistry professor to hard-core drug dealer who discovers his ability for big business management.
Then he reveals his psychopathic tendencies to protect his ever-growing drug empire; his inner character overwhelms his chemistry professor persona, who only wants students to understand the beauty and value of learning.
His drive increases, and so does his capability to do “evil”. He is careening towards breaking into the worst kind of badness a human being can do.
He discovers that he can justify every killing with his dollars to effort accountancy balances, and his powerful drive to protect his creation.
Walter White’s story begins after he discovers that he is dying of cancer. So, what does he have to lose?
I saw a trait of “who cares” pop up at the beginning. He made decisions that he felt he should’ve made long ago. To break the law, get something for himself. Stop being a law-abiding wuss, and to hell with the consequences.
Walter White, (Brian Cranston), began and continued into a new pathway of life by firstly throwing his fate to the winds. He didn’t care any more, so starting an illegal activity was no big deal.
This inevitably led him to forget that his family would be affected by his new, and emerging, persona. We see that he loves his wife, but it creates a strong conflict whenever she attempts to find out what’s going on in his life.
At first, we see selfishness emerge, then secrecy, then improvised lies to cover his activities. He is becoming a bad husband.
He is separating himself from those people who love him most, and who mean the most to him. He trades with checks and balances in the hope his new venture will pay off and pay out.
The hope that he’ll get his pay-out and walk away is never going to happen. He’s opened a vein of evil that he doesn’t control.
Everybody knows about Walter White and Breaking Bad. We will still be referencing his story in years to come — he is a tragic character, irredeemable, and terribly flawed. He had to live that life to find out what lay beneath the surface of an everyday chemistry professor.
Walter White has depth. That’s why we can immediately relate to his character, we want to know more about how deep it all goes. It makes us feel uncomfortable when we realise that it’s leading him into a place that is dark and irreversible. A place of evil. We continue to look into the dark glass alongside Walter White, and finally discover that we don’t, or should not, like this man. He is a tragic character who will only break bad, and end up in hell.
The characters that we think up have a choice. They can live fictional lives as cardboard cutouts, or they can have dimensions. Their outer and inner worlds will always differ and create a conflict that wasn’t at first apparent — it was hinted at, but as readers, we weren’t sure if they were up to the task.
Walter White’s sudden ‘don’t care-a-less’ attitude to life is the catalyst for much deeper darkness that his character didn’t know existed.
We sense, as we watch his progress, that he will go deeper into the abyss, and he will want it more. He has discovered that he has less of a conscience about other people’s lives than thought. He can be dangerous and do damage.
The gangsters and criminals of fiction offer us a look into a world that we know we should stay clear of — in reality, these people won’t last long. The dark green fields surrounding big bright cities are filled with the victims of crime. The chancers, the soldiers, the innocent, the big bosses who disappear forever, mostly lie six-feet under sodden earth on the outskirts of everyday life.
In fiction, we look for the human being. We accept that we are not perfect, so we want to see how these fictional characters deal with those imperfections. How it changes them, and the course of their lives.
A well written character can teach us many things about ourselves. Reading books about friendship, written by an author who has done their homework, can show us the beauty of love and friendship that blossoms.
They can also show us the flawed lovers who fall deeply for each other, then turn against each other in jealous rages. knives drawn, claws tearing where once gentle hands caressed — humans are complex.
Fiction gives us real life stories, Bonnie and Clyde, lovers who fell deeply for each other. They also discovered how their tragic flaws complimented each other and spurned them on to commit atrocities.
I think it’s because we see this happen, and accept its truth, that we can also accept that good people can have a deeply bad side that will do harm. We accept that somewhere, there is a frustrated gangster who wants to be loved.
