Confession: I have a weakness for anti-heroes.
Not in real life–in my books! (Okay, maybe in real life too. If you saw some of the men I’ve dated…)
I love complex characters. Give me the wise-cracking, cursing, rough-around-the-edges smart asses any day.
The problem is, not everyone loves anti-heroes the way I do.
My first agent kept one of my books in a state of eternal rewrite purgatory because the protagonist was an anti-hero with a complicated backstory that explained all of his flaws (or at least I thought it did). “He’s not good looking enough,” she said. Say what? The guy had survived things that would turn most people into quivering mush. Now he had to be blessed with cheekbones and six-pack abs as well?
I still didn’t learn. Jackson, the protagonist of my GhostWriters series, is a sarcastic, problematic, complicated soul who is rating the women on his tour group in his head when we first meet him. Some reviewers loved the book, but others thought he should have his head on a pike.
The whole point of the anti-hero is that they have room to grow–to learn and become better people. As hopefully we all do. Jackson is fundamentally changed by the things that happen to him over the course of the book (being haunted will do that to a guy), and over the series, even more so. If you start with perfection, where do you go from there?
To me, perfection is boring.
I finally struck gold with the anti-hero of Dragonfly Summer. This time, she was a woman. A sarcastic, embittered workaholic who’s deeply scarred from an abusive childhood. Not everyone liked her, and I got plenty of the “Couldn’t connect with the character” type of rejections. But she eventually found the right agent, and Dragonfly Summer ended up becoming an Audible Original and landing the biggest deal I’ve gotten for a book thus far.
I’ll always have a soft spot for anti-heroes. Give me your smart asses, your wounded birds, and your works in progress. Better between the pages of a book than on the dating apps.
How about you? Who are your favorite anti-heroes?
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Agents want characters that are prettier and uncomplicated? That seems counter-intuitive to a good and interesting story. But maybe you and I have the same taste, which is different than 99% of the population? Which seems unlikely… so maybe the agent was wrong?
(Shocking, I know) ;-P
Ha! Well, she did come from romance, and as far as I can tell, those are the only fiction books she’s been able to sell…if that tells you anything. They are anti-heroes in romance, but they all come with abs. 😉
I’ve read lots of books with an anti-hero so no idea why that was a problem. Even my first main character started off a bit of an anti-hero. (And yes, some readers thought he was a jerk.)
Yes, it’s not for every reader, that’s for sure.
An anti-hero who grows works for me.
Awesome!
I just read a Patterson book that was filled with anti-heroes. It was fascinating, and I’m not a Patterson fan. Part of the fascination was, of course, the characters, but the plotting kept me reading. What next? And what else will those characters do to shock me?
That’s a good point, Lee. I guess anti-heroes can also be more unpredictable. That’s why I liked writing horror too–a happy ending wasn’t guaranteed.
First, how did the agent know that he wasn’t good looking enough ? Except on covers and in graphics, books aren’t usually illustrated as in the 19th C.
Next – Is eleven too young to be any kind of hero ?
Deciding to rewrite, rather than merely revise a book, I made a second radical choice – giving the narrative to the then eleven year old who has two younger siblings. Explaining painful (criminal) truths about one of her parents, can she be strong enough ?
She knew because he was described as a bit of a geeky outsider who got picked on in high school. She wanted him to be more likeable, charismatic, and good looking.
And no, eleven isn’t too young to be a hero. That’s basically the premise of a lot of middle grade fiction.
I would accept an anti-hero as a protagonist, if it was a mask. If he didn’t have a choice but present himself as a scoundrel or a villain. But more often than not, the evil is not a camouflage but a deep-seated feature, and the person is truly bad. I dislike such characters, and I don’t read about them as protagonists. And I definitely don’t write about them.
Respectfully, I think you’re misunderstanding what I mean by anti-hero. An anti-hero is not evil, and not a villain. They’re not the antagonists. They’re just flawed people who end up having to be heroes.
I’m sorry those agents did not snap up that anti-hero! He sounds pretty perfect to me as I’m drawn into stories that show us how we can change and grow. So, now there’s another book on my to read list! Keep writing.