Do you love/hate your characters (as people)?

[zetina]

Especially your story's main character.
I feel like it's probably not bad to have characters you make that you hate - it just goes to show you've written someone who, well, isn't you.
And being in love with a character means you might start showing obvious bias.
At the same time, it's much more fun to write a character you adore. But it also doesn't have to be mutually exclusive.

I was thinking about this today because I realized I don't really like my protagonist in Suck it!! that much. It's kind of strange to me :'D I don't hate her by any means and she's really easy for me to write for. It's not a matter of feeling like she's a terrible character either. Basically, I don't approve of some of her attitudes. It's honestly a pretty refreshing feeling. It'll be fun to have her grow and change over the course of the story; she's still just a kid after all.

What kind of feelings do you harbour for your characters? And how does it affect your writing, their screentime etc etc etc?

[YamamotoRyuunosuke]

In my main work right now Nana-Hon No ken Ken and in other stories that are projects for the future at the moment, I tend to make the main character(s) represent different aspects of my personality and my antagonist(s) as things I see wrong with the world or problems I had somewhen in my life.

This doesn't mean I love all my main characters and hate all my antagonists... I don't know how to explain it.

[Raven_C]

Hm, I try to write my protags in such a way that they're likeable. As for antagonists, I try to flesh them out and give them a good reason for why they are doing what they're doing, and not just because It's Evil™. Therefore, I want to make villains that I like, not because of their actions, but because they make a good villain if that makes sense. In other words, I don't hate any of my characters. I like them in different ways. There are definitely characters I am very biased towards. I just can't help but draw them a lot or think about their roles in the story more than other characters.

[Jabbage]

I think I'm unusual because I try to keep my comics into a managable -50 pages, so I haven't lived with the same cast of characters for years and years. They're still my creations though, and through writing them I feel a lot of affection towards them!

In my first comic The Art of Monsters, the main character makes a really terrible mistake that it would be easy to hate her for, and I was worried how people would react. Overwhelmingly, however, people's comments have been that they empathise with the character and understand her mistake, rather than turning on her. I think that is partially because I've depicted her with a certain amount of care, because I personally empathise with her and wanted people to approach her situation with a lot of patience. In my second comic Breaking the Lore, the main character also makes tough decisions, but she's a wise old lady and I thoroughly enjoy writing her.

In fact, that's a comment I've had a few times about my comics - although they go to dark places sometimes and have people doing morally grey things, they have a feel-good edge which wins out in the end. I think I can attribute that to the fact that there are no hated characters and everyone can ultimately be forgiven. I'm not saying all stories should be like that of course, but its apparently the way I've been going so far.

[heterodont]

I love all my characters - even the ones who's morals are extremely questionable. They all feel like my children and my affection for them ranks in the 'Dad who carries 40 pictures of their children in a foldout compartment in their wallet' level.

As for how it affects my writing and their screentime, it doesn't really. They all have their roles to play in the story and I'm not going to give preferential treatment to any even if I really like them! It'll just mess up the flow of the story if I do.

[zetina]

@YamamotoRyuunosuke That seems like a good approach. I mean, it's pretty much unavoidable - if one really sat down and looked at their work, they'd likely realize they've been doing the same thing. But if there are aspects of your personality you don't like all that much, I imagine those main characters are less liked by you? I said earlier that I don't like this one character of mine, right? And that is partly because she's a part of me I have somewhat grown out of; not to mention it's exaggerated in her. So I end up looking down on her as a dumb, silly kid :'D

@raintowns I'm not really talking about the characters being likeable or well-written. It would be more accurate to say "how do you feel about them as people".
BUTYEA I get you!
I really hate good vs evil stories since they're purely societal constructs, not universal law.
And I have this problem where I don't get as much development done for the rest of the casr cuz I just keep thinking about the same handful of chars \D;;

@helengreetham Yeee affection is the most common since they're your children ;v; Even if they're not great people - you just know them throughout!
Sounds like you've been doing a great job of showing why the characters made their choices. And overall have a "but what even is the right thing to do" theme in your stories. I gotta check 'em out :'D

@heterodont WELL I mean if you love ALL of them then ofc being biased to all of them cancels it out and everyone just does what they were meant to do B'D Is there any kid who's being naughty and disappointing dad

[shazzbaa]

I do love my characters!! But not in the way that Momma loves her babies or the way that I love my friends in real life; more in the way that like, God loves his creations. I do dearly love them, but I'm also their orchestrator.
Though, I definitely have favourites, and when my story's done you'll proooooobably be able to tell who they are. xD My favourites aren't necessarily the ones I'd get along with best or the ones I agree with (the opposite is often true), just the ones who are the most interesting to explore, to me, and so those characters do tend take bigger roles in the story.

I think it's cool to disagree with your characters, or to find that you wouldn't get along with them, like you described for yours! But I think it is bad to hate your characters. There's a really cool excerpt I recently grabbed from Slacktivist's Left Behind analysis that put it in a way that really clicked for me -- here's the most relevant piece:

To create is to love, but apparently not always. [The authors] do not love [this character]. They despise their creation. Their contempt for her and disgust with her is tangible in every scene she appears in.
I think the authors expect their readers to share in this contempt, but that's not how this works. When an artist creates a character that the artist does not love, readers or audience members don't come to dislike that character, they come to dislike the artist. It is the writer — or actor, or painter — who reveals himself as unlovely. The character just becomes an expression of that unloveliness.

"Love" here doesn't mean approval or agreement -- it's just, that you truly know and understand this character. In order to write a character well, I think you have to be able to empathise deeply even with a monster, even with a character you wouldn't "like" as a person, even with a character whose actions are despicable and inexcusable. You may not "love" them in the traditional sense, but.... if a creator hates their characters, I think it can hurt the honesty of their work.

[heterodont]

TRUE, I SUPPOSE IT DOES CANCEL IT OUT...

Disappointing? Not quite. It's usually more like, "Haha! You are such an awful character, you little rascal."

[joannekwan]

Putting my personal motherly feelings aside, I generally write characters that I could get along with in real life. If I'm not friends with them I could at least tolerate their company. Their morality is another issue, I'm just talking about personality for the most part.
I suppose if I'm writing and drawing them every week, why would I want to "hang out" with characters that annoy me?

[Raven_C]

@zetina ah, ok ok, i see. Now that I think about this, it changes some perspectives for me a bit. Like, there is definitely that one character (a main character) that I really love because he's entertaining and even somewhat endearing, but then his morals and actions can be questionable and even sometimes in the wrong. If I knew him as a person in real life, well dang, I probably wouldn't even be friends with him. He's frightening. But he's a good kid? Idk. I still love him because I created him, though. That's normal, I guess. lol

[Jabbage]

   @raintowns  I'm sensing a whole other thread coming on there - would you be FRIENDS with your characters. That's a very different question.

(Discounting the fact that my characters might just hate me for some of the things I've put them through - sorry guys!)

[Raven_C]

"Love" here doesn't mean approval or agreement -- it's just, that you truly know and understand this character. In order to write a character well, I think you have to be able to empathise deeply even with a monster, even with a character you wouldn't "like" as a person, even with a character whose actions are despicable and inexcusable. You may not "love" them in the traditional sense, but.... if a creator hates their characters, I think it can hurt the honesty of their work.

AH, THIS! Thank you for explaining it in a way that I couldn't! haha

[phen]

Oh, I definitely find a lot of interesting aspects to the way my characters are puppeted about but I'm not sure what the feeling toward them is. As with all creators, there's a protective kinda feeling, you know? The one that makes you puff up like a broody hen and side-eye anyone who might get too close. X]

BUT UH, love/hate... I really love the newest character I'm writing right now. He's A LOT of fun and turning out to be a cool guy with heaps of weird ticks (I like to pass down my awful habits, DNA through character design, heh). For the older characters, it's like... a reflection of me so I feel extremely familiar with them and very sorry for them, hahah! Their decisions and experiences are a culmination of my past so it's a little like, "Aa, you guys'll learn a lot from this. Please pay attention, you'll be better in the future!" If that makes any sense at all~

[Shanny8]

I love ALL of my characters...I just try to make them where some of them are not likeable by the readers(LOL).

[Choosybeggar]

I've come more and more to unequivocally, unconditionally, and impartially love all of my characters. I might like some more than others, but I love them all equally. As far as I can tell, there's just no such thing as a bad fictional character. Sure, they be canonically evil in a certain story, but what about for the character as a whole? They can exist outside of their main work and it's no less them! I've never met a character that hated me, and I choose to see them all in the same light.

[Miniaome]

The character I'm going to mention here doesn't belong to any comic I'm publishing or anything but I thought it would be fun to mention XD

He's name is Julen and he's a little kid, I tell that to myself, He's just a kid, but god! How annoying he is XD as you might see (in my super quick sketch) he is a cry baby and he cries all the time and is scared of everything. It's funny cuz even though I dislike him so much he is actually a very important character in my story. In the end he's the one that is going to grow the most as a character

[Kura]

At a creator's standpoint I love my characters despite their flaws, also as a creator though, I understand that a reader's view is subjective and I can't force them to like characters that I do. So I don't go out of my way to make characters 'likable' to the audience and focus more on making the character they character they are, their personal development, their views, their story. Weather or not this causes the the audience to hate or like them is not something I really have control over. It just like having friends in real life, you are not always going to like the same people as your friends do, and vice versa.

As for liking/hating them if they were people. Honestly, if I look bast the creator standpoint then no, I would not get along with all of my characters, and some I would be very standoffish toward if I did not know them, but would probably grow to get used to them or even like them if someone were to introduce me. It's not to say I hate them, just that there are several characters whose would be difficult for me personally to get along with.

[Robosaur]

Well even though i don't HATE my protagonist, i probably wouldn't be friends with him in real life ahah. But nonetheless, i love all my characters even when they can be lil shits because they're like my own children to me xD Funny thing tho , i actually like Kay's open personality!~ ^^

[SpavVy]

I love all my characters, I spent years on them but I have to look at this as though they were real people...that's a tough one.
My story is on a hiatus and I took the old pages down, it will be re-released in October.
Soul Ascendance

Let's see, Lucy and I like some of the same things but I can't picture us ever becoming friends. My story takes place in the afterlife which is where she and the other three are, but when she was alive she did things I do not approve of and I wouldn't be able to trust her.

Jack is quite the instigator and mocks his enemies in a vulgar fashion which could get us both into trouble so I'll have to pass on that one too...

I'd actually get along great with Trent xD We both tend to be the voice of reason.

And Mel... she'd drive me nuts >m< she has the mind of a child and children annoy me.

[epiale]

I adore my characters as parts of myself that have branched off and kind of developed a mind of their own. I love them all in some form or fashion.

As people, though, it varies a bit, haha. My two mains I actually do like. I like Raul because he's just genuinely a pretty nice person most of the time (when he's not dealing with idiots), he's interesting, and if we met I think while we may not be best friends we'd at least get along. Uni I admire as a person, but with his current personality in the comic I'd find him insufferable irl, haha. He's such a jerk it's awful. Similar to myself in all the worst ways lol.