Is it ok to write a story where the main character’s a jerk?

Thank you for making the forum topic. I do believe that a main character can be a jerk. I think that this concept is unique. It is unique like having the villains win sometimes, not just a battle but an entire season or two.

jerk protagonists are very interesting to read on (example off the top of my head: Jotaro from JJBA)
readers get invested in them to see if they eventually become a better person, learn their lesson or at least have any redeeming qualities (Jotaro is quite a jerk to his sweet mother but literally traveled the world and put his life on the line for her. values friendship. doesn't stand for injustice...etc. And it shows in his actions, not words.)

that being said...
it's really hard to get invested in or relate to a self-insert no matter how good they are.
it can come off as narcissism, especially to the degree you're describing here.

the character's constant mean actions will eventually get criticized by the readers, and when they're completely based off of yourself, you'll take it personally no matter how thick your skin is. then you'll probably wanna incorporate that situation into your story, and people get more angry with you. things get hairy and messy. and whatever story you had going is ruined.
rinse and repeat.

This may sound like a hypothetical situation, but it actually happened before with not only Chris-Chan
but also another quite notorious furry artist who is still at it, so to speak.

try not to over-indulge in a self-insert. nobody really likes that outside of funny gags.
and keep your personal feelings out of the story to the best of your abilities.

it may also help to summarize your thoughts and ideas before sharing them as well...
otherwise, good luck.

I agree with Joanne.

The way you describe this story is constantly "So my character is a little weird (just like me when I was hanging out with this group in 2002) and meets this other character (who is like my friend that I used to hang out with but that friend doesn't really talk to me anymore)" -- I think it would be good to try to stop doing those asides!

You can just say "My character is lonely and a little weird, and then he meets this other character" without explaining your life. It's very important for people to be able to understand the story without knowing anything about your life at all!

A lot of times I have issues with typing up too much and going on tangents, so I re-read them before I post them, and delete a lot of it. You can type up a whole bunch, then re-read what you've typed and look for anything that's an explanation of your life, and delete those parts. It takes practice! But I think it's worth learning to do!
If you're talking about your comic, then it makes sense to share feedback on your comic that you got from others. (example "The people on reddit said it didn't make sense") but things people said about other parts of your life (example: "people on the reddit said I should feel bad for complaining about my mom" or "my friend stopped talking to me because of what happened on these message boards" etc) is oversharing, and you can delete those parts before you post. You can't share that kinda stuff with strangers constantly -- and the folks in places like reddit and these forums are strangers to you.

Please do make your comics!! Sometimes just making art is a great outlet, even if there are people out there who don't care for it. But even though it's very tempting to explain, I don't think you should explain how every part of the story is like your life.

Hey! Don't think I'm hating on you Hamsterdude, I will just keep my comment simple. PLEASE KEEP THE CONTENT SAFE FOR ALL AUDIENCES. In other posts you have described very grotesque and inappropriate stories. So...if you are making a jerk character don't take things too far and listen if your audience tells you that you are being inappropriate because you seem to have trouble with boundaries. That is not hate, people want to help you. Good luck, I wish you are feeling better.

I kinda of disagree with keep it safe for all audiences. He should be aware of what audience he is trying to appeal to. If he is trying to appeal to people who like dark fiction disturbing content is a given (as long as it follows community guide lines). If its for people looking for a shonen action romp, content has to be turned down. He should figure out who his comic is trying to appeal to before he writes.

That's just my 2 cents.

Isn't he trying to make a comic about hamsters though? That might be easy for children to stumble upon who can't really judge such works well enough yet.

The more this goes on the more I wonder if this isn't just a huge troll trying to hype up your comic/novel at this point.

Each reply is more out there than the last.

It depends on who is defining what jerk means. People are different things to different people.

o you're from wattpad? o-o

Hold on...I'll let you know in just a bit.

Yea it's funny, I mean as you know, Wattpad hadn't always had the discourse. I used to be on here a lot more.

Anyway, as for the topic at hand, oui it depend on how you approach it. I'm in the middle of trying to draw my comic myself for the first time, and my character is basically a vampire.

What it depends on is how such jerkiness is handled.

A good writer/artist will make even a serial killer compelling, but it doesn't mean they'll make them likeable. Is this the question, as I'm understanding it?

a final word of advice...

all i'm getting out of your story is just you venting out your thoughts and feelings (which is fine)
while very closely following Real Life people who used to be your friends/best friends/enemies/etc

one scene they are supposedly even "celebrating" the death of the main character
making THEM look malicious, even if that wasn't your intention.

you keep repeating you're struggling a lot with friendship and heartbreak and confusion.
This story, the way it is now, is not gonna win you any more friends.
if anything, it'll only make the people you cared about even more upset.

Do not get too attached or emotionally invested in fictional work.
You cannot truly move on with your life otherwise.

please sit down and reflect on this very personal story of yours.
what are you hoping to get out of this? entertainment? new friendships? or just sympathy?

perhaps it's best to keep this kind of work something private.
and think up something new, something that has nothing to do with people you knew or things you went through. and write it down instead.

Put adorable hamsters and make them interesting in their own right.

And please, for your own safety.
read over your post at least once before sharing.
People on the internet are quite mean and like @Jenny-Toons said, you're quite lucky the people over here are very kind and patient.

That is all
GOOD LUCK
AND TAKE IT EASY!!

I don't know if I should add to this, but this is more about the innicial post and I haven't seen it mentioned here before but I still consider it very important when dealing with a jerk MC.

1. When your MC is a jerk, give the audience at least one other character they can actually sympathise with and show that the jerkiness of MC actually has consequences that harm others and are not funny. Have people identify MC as a jerk and not as "uwu he is just one misunderstood creature" (which the "yay he's dead" scene makes it look like atm) - acknowledge him being a jerk because he harms sympathetic characters. Some people might thrive off simply of having a jerk as MC, but that usually is the minority. You need some sort of hook, and especially in a character driven story, you need a character that people actually like and want to get back to know more about them.

2. Let his character growth come from within. If his "I won't be a jerk anymore" just stems from "well, everybody hates me for my ~quirky~ behaviour so if I change that, they will actually like me" is just... cheap, in lack of a better word. It is just an external motivation and doesn't actually demonstrate any sort of growth because he doesn't become a better person, he just keeps his jerkiness bottled up without actually acknowledging that he is, in fact, a jerk. Let him realise that his behaviour actually hurts people and that that is inheritly a wrong thing to do. Make him genuinely care about how other people feel instead of what they think about him. He is not the victim. He is the bully, the oppressor, and THAT'S why people don't like him. Make him realise that. Make us believe that he actually wants to be a better person for the sake of others and not for the sake of himself being treated better.

3. About the blurriness of yourself and the character, one way to make the character less yourself, maybe add personality traits that you think you don't have, or not that prominently. If you don't know where to start because you really can't differenciate yet, give him hobbies that you don't have. Start to slowly extract him from yourself because to be frank, it will never end up good if it's a 100% self-insert (even in the form of a hamster.) Later exchange some personality traits that aren't inherently plot relevant and go from there. I wrote a fair share of self-inserts when I was younger, and editing myself out of them step-by-step helped me making them more their own character and even though I still identify with them, it's more on a meta level than right on "this is 100% me and my story."

I'm not sure you'll read this or acknowledge my advice but I hope you'll consider it at least in some way.

I think the problem here isn't that your MC is a jerk... it might be that you've been acting like a jerk yourself. Although, it's hard to tell which you're talking about most of the time. I have a protagonist who is a jerk but the difference is he's not a clear insert of myself. His experiences aren't creepy and invasive retellings of real people in my life who haven't consented to being written about.

I think you've got to rethink some of your approaches here. You might genuinely do some harm to yourself and others if you try to recreate your life through your fiction.

If your protagonist is a jerk who learns to be more humble, or more emotionally open, or more empathetic, that would be great. However if your whole character is cheaply hashed together out of how you perceive yourself with no real unique traits of his own then you're not going to be able to write him well. You need a protagonist you can use to drive a story, not a protagonist who exists so you can show other people who you think you are. You may find you'll lose the ability to tell a good story because you're too busy just retelling your own feelings and readers will not understand that. You have to step outside of your character. Let him be his own being.

Oh, I recognize you from Webtoon Amino.

Don’t worry guys, he’s a genuine poster. He’s not trying to troll anyone

This is gonna be a text wall to end all text walls… GET READY to not read everything and scroll down lol

Let’s tackle each subtopic one by one

First off, let’s go with your main question: Is it okay to write an MC as a jerk? The answer is yes… you can! HOWEVER, being a jerk doesn't excuse a main character from being charismatic. If your main character is not likable, people will be drawn away from your story, because nobody likes to follow someone dull or annoying. As long as your character is interesting and fun to read, you can write them as jerks and people will still enjoy the story.

Goodness of the heart does not come in absolutes and if your intention to start them off as jerks is to make them go through a character development arc that encompasses the story, maybe that's a great theme you can use to drive your story forward and keep your readers interested. Consequences for bad actions are a good way to drive a character arc forward, just don't make it too didactic or preachy, remember you want to entertain.

This is bridging between this first issue and the underlying issue you’re dealing with. You have made very clear that Abu is quite literally a projection of you and I’ll have to try to stop you there. I don’t think you should mix yourself with your character so seamlessly when your intention is to share your story to a general public that might or might not care about your issues… remember that first and foremost the intention of a comic is to entertain. It’s okay to draw from your personal experiences for writing your story, but it is not healthy to insert yourself like that, even if the name is different and it doesn’t look literally like you. Unless you want people to come for your personal experience the Nagata Kabi way and judge your personality through the character of Abu, I would not advise to go that route.

People have already mentioned Chris-chan before and I really do believe you need to check his work to learn what not to do when injecting personal experience into your creative work and online behavior in general. He actually published Sonichu for a while here in tapas so you might find it interesting as a quick crash course of comic making don'ts that's readily available. If it's a little harder to understand the guy from Down the Rabbit Hole dissected the comic in company of an actual comic artist: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kDdRDSP7ehA3

You want to write fiction, but you want to talk about things that happen just like in your real life through a Hamtaro-like aesthetic and that might put off a lot of readers. You’ll have to be ready for any sort of criticism and for people to be uncomfortable with your story. I’m not sure if you are emotionally ready to project yourself so literally in your story… have you considered writing a diary instead? It looks to me that criticism is the least thing you need at this moment in time and baring your heart just like that might make you more bad than good.

You have been asking for an artist for a good while and I just need to ask: if it's just hamsters, have you tried to draw them on your own? I'm sure that with practice you can become a good artist in no time, most of the good artists you see there have drawn their asses off for years and that's what got them to their skill level. I'm telling you this because I find it extremely unlikely that someone will want to work to draw your life story with no pay or reward involved, and I haven't seen you offer any kind of payment for the artist you seek. I know I would not want to draw someone's autobiography for free... your story seems self-serving so I think you should strive to make it on your own, artist or not. Like you said, start with a novelization.

From the mental health point of view, If you are able to put your concerns and experiences on paper on your own you might be able to understand your own feelings a little better so you can deal with them. All the more reason to just do it asap. But I want you to make it constructive. This is something you need to do in service of yourself. Instead of publishing it right away, try writing it first. Write something you would like to see... write something that brings you hope for your own future. Think about what you intend to get from this story, if this will help you gain the strength to come forward and become a better version of yourself or if you simply want people to feel sorry for you through your character… maybe try writing all of this so you can order your feelings. Why do you want this? What do you want from this?

Lastly, I urge you to seek help in the form of a therapist. I feel like you are desperate for help which none of us strangers on the internet can provide to you, but someone who is actually trained to do it could. I think you seriously need to consider something far less literal than you want to offer right now. Make your story an escape for yourself. You can use to to vent your feelings but you need to be smart about it. Do not divulge information that you have no business divulging, specially if it's not your personal information.

Remember that a reader is not interested in the author, the reader wants a compelling story, something that makes them feel something, but that doesn't overwhelm them with one feeling. Make a story of your own that is flavorful, with ups and downs, something to be excited for. And most importantly, understand that Abu is not you: the world of fiction is a wonderful thing, you don't need to strictly root yourself in reality to make something lovely. Think about making something lovely, work hard from it. Win or fail, you will have done nothing but your best, and that's something to look forward to and celebrate. Make something you want to be proud of. Instead of making Abu repeat your mistakes and your negative feelings, make him strive, make him powerful in his own way, make him make you proud. He is not you: he is your creation.

tl;dr: everyone likes likeable jerks, but I don't think what you need to write should be semi-autobiographic. Draw from your life experience yes, but don't beat your readers in the head with it, and do your best not to bare your embarrassing side on the internet this easy and literally: actually trolls thrive on picking on the vulnerable. Don't give them weapons. Instead write something that can give you hope.

One of my main characters is a jerk. A big one, he insults anything that breaths, wail also anything doesn't breath, lol.

I think it's ok to have jerk as the main character, but there are some rules o it and it's overall harder to pull off than having a nice protagonist.

You can see it here in my comic