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Joined: 3/12/2011
Posts: 376
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"How do you deal with the conflict of 'role model' vs. 'realistic' in your characters?"
That question came up over in the Romance forum in the 'Unacceptable Character Flaws' discussion, and MB Mulhall said it ought be it's own topic, I'm putting this one here because it's a pretty general issue.
Our characters will, presumably, wind up as role models for someone. The problem is that perfect characters are, well, boring. Not to mention the potential 'Mary Sue' accusations. So, how do you deal with the conflicting goals of making a role model vs. making a character 'real'?
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Joined: 3/14/2011
Posts: 80
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It's hard because you want your characters to be realistic and real people are flawed. They're going to make bad decisions and do stupid things and hate people and act out, etc. While you can have your characters learn from their mistakes, the stories don't always work out that way and there's not always a happy ending.
This topic came up because I brought up how a certain very popular female character who befriends sparkly vamps and hairy weres is an awful role model for young girls since it's made out that she can't survive without a man. For her to go into such a depression and then use and toy with the emotions of a good friend just comes across as something not to teach impressionable teens.
That lead me to think, is it really the author's responsibility to teach people what's right and wrong and how to act in certain situations? No. I don't think so.
I was reading adult literature at a very young age. I read Gone with the Wind in the 6th grade. I read a lot of King as well. While I certainly learned things from reading (slang and curses, about sex, about different cultures, etc.) my folks made sure I knew the difference between fact and fiction. So I guess I merely took the stories I read as entertainment, not instructions on how to live my life.
I think it's the author's responsibility to make their stories entertaining, interesting and realistic enough to be believable (even if you have to stretch the imagination to believe animals can talk and people can control the elements). Everything else falls on the hands of the readers and their parents and teachers who educate them.
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Joined: 3/13/2011
Posts: 412
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If I were to become a famous well read author, and have a fan walk up to me, and tell me, X character is my role model, I want to be just like them, I think I would be appalled. That said, I've taken ELEMENTS of characters I love, and made those elements role models, but never the whole character.
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Joined: 3/17/2011
Posts: 88
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First of all I'd try not to make "making a role model" a goal. I'd make telling the truth a goal or finding out why my MC is the way she is a goal, but the whole role model thing smacks of manipulation to me; talking down to people. Children and young adults in particular don't need another adult doing that to them. Children want to know what's actually going on. They want insight, perspective. They want to know what it's like to be an adult, because like it or not, they're gonna be one some day. If I can give that to them? Bueno.
That said, I think it's entirely worthwhile to tell stories about decent people. I happen to know they exist and I don't find them boring in the least. It's harder to get at the conflict in a thoroughly compassionate person than in, say, a pimp, but it's no less real or compelling. All us humans struggle; all us humans are afraid of something. The most decent people I've known have tended to have particularly interesting lives on their way to becoming so decent and sometimes continue to embroil themselves in other people's difficulties. That's kind of what decent people do. I'd try not to model such a character on myself, but I'd absolutely base the character on someone I personally admire.
It's actually a little disturbing to me that "role model" and "realistic" are seen as incompatible in some way. What possible good is a role model to anyone if he or she is not realistic? I'd like to be a role model myself, and I want a story about a role model to be grounded in reality, to give me some indication of how to get from here to there, y'know what I mean?
-Kevin
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Joined: 3/16/2011
Posts: 214
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You can have a realistic character who’s not a role model – he or she could be an average Joe or Jane on the street. Nothing remarkable about them that stands out in any particular way. I don’t read romance novels for role models, for example; I realize that this is one area in which I just have to suspend my disbelief and assume that the characters are going to be a little more likeable than they are in real life. Sort of like a sit-com.
Creating a realistic character is far more different. Real people behave in very strange and unpredictable ways. For example, a good friend of mine was dating a man who, up until yesterday morning, wanted to marry her and spend the rest of his life with her. They went to a picnic; he saw his ex-wife there, and dumped my friend on the spot. Literally, he broke up with her then and there. She could not have seen this coming.
Most people would argue that this is illogical behavior. You couldn’t write this character into a book! No way! Who’d ever believe that someone would possibly do anything like this? And yet people act irrationally, unpredictably and “out of character,” all of the time. This is realistic. So, realistically, the sum of our actions, for the most part, level out, making us neither role model nor villain. In genre fiction, however, one must write a character to swing one direction or the other.
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