{"id":106,"date":"2015-06-17T01:05:12","date_gmt":"2015-06-17T05:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/?p=106"},"modified":"2015-06-17T09:17:29","modified_gmt":"2015-06-17T13:17:29","slug":"the-good-the-ugly-and-the-bad-boy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kate-hill.com\/compellingbeastsblog\/2015\/06\/17\/the-good-the-ugly-and-the-bad-boy\/","title":{"rendered":"The Good, The Ugly and The Bad Boy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Everybody loves a bad boy. Even those who say they don\u2019t really do, deep down. Whether it\u2019s the classic Mr Darcy, the luminescent Edward Cullen or the indelible Christian Grey, the variety to suit every woman\u2019s tastes in boundless. Why do we love bad boys so much? Who\u2019s to say? As a writer, I can tell you why I love writing villainous characters and I suspect it is the same reason why readers enjoy them just as much.<\/p>\n

It is because villains, antiheroes, bad boys, antagonists, whatever label you want to give them, have depth. They have this because there has to be a reason for their \u201cbad boyness\u201d. They can\u2019t just be bad because they\u2019re bad. They must be a rebel with just cause.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s their arrogance of not caring what anyone thinks of them, not caring about being liked. That arrogance is just cloak and dagger for what readers see as confidence. And we all want a confident hero, don\u2019t we?<\/p>\n

The difference between villains and anti-heroes is that the former we love to hate \u2013 we don\u2019t expect them to change for the good by the end of the book. If they do have a \u201ccharacter\/story arc\u201d then it\u2019s usually from good to bad, or bad to worse. Anti-heroes, on the other hand, we hate to love. These fellas are the ones that get under our skin. They come across as selfish, arrogant, unfeeling shite stirrers, but every now and then we get a glimpse of a kinder, funnier, more tender soul. And it\u2019s just those little glimpses that steal our hearts. More so than if the hero was to be Kind, Funny and Compassionate all the time.<\/p>\n

How can that be though, my inner cynic says? Surely, the kind, funny and compassionate type is the one we all should want? To this I answer no<\/em>. Firstly, Mr KFC is perhaps what we all need<\/em>, but by no means is he necessarily what we want<\/em>. Come on, this is fiction! Who wants to fantasise about a boring doormat hero when you can have Bad Boy Brad to whet your appetite?<\/p>\n

Secondly, we have to look closer at why Bad Boy Brad is so much more alluring than Mr KFC when he doesn\u2019t do half as many charitable acts. We love to be surprised, especially when it\u2019s an unexpected act of kindness or compassion. It releases endorphins in us that make us warm to that character, and the more surprising the act, the bigger the chemical reaction and the closer we\u2019re drawn.<\/p>\n

How do writers make those acts more surprising? By using contrast. Sadness is always made more poignant when contrasted with happiness. It\u2019s been done throughout the arts, in books, in music, in paintings, and in films. Think how Handel\u2019s aria \u2018Lascia ch\u2019io piangia\u2019 sweeps sweetly through the opening scene of Antichrist<\/em>, contrasting with the brutality of the couple\u2019s sex while their son falls to his death out of the window. Classical music is full of contrast and counterpoints. In paintings, dark is used to accentuate light and vice versa with one ultimate goal: to create a visually satisfying experience. The same can be said for books and in our case antiheroes, that the more darkness we give them then the more startling and satisfying are their lighter moments.<\/p>\n

After writing a couple of books in which there were a clear distinction between the antagonist and the hero, I set myself the challenge of creating a hero who would be both. Someone with the charisma and magnetism that would make readers not just forgive him for being a complete bastard but actually fall in love with him<\/em>. Please step forward, Rhys \u201cBad Boy\u201d Bradford from Giving Chase<\/em>, one of my personal favourite heroes. His list of cons is about three times as long as his pros \u2013 arrogant, uncommunicative, obsessive, and pretty damn grumpy most of the time. So how does one make a hero so haunted by demons into someone the reader will love? I can give him lighter moments, sure, but for him to come across as plausible these contrasts still have to be in character. He\u2019s not going to be the life and soul of the party For One Night Only or sweep the heroine off on a spontaneous romantic cruise if he\u2019s a workaholic who has to plan everything at least a month in advance.<\/p>\n

Rhys achieved Loveable Rogue Status #1 with his small injections of humour, nothing over the top. His arrogance and introversion, when looked at from a different perspective, became self-preservation and shyness, qualities which are much more endearing. And, while yes, he must overcome some of his worst habits in order to deserve the heroine\u2019s heart, the effort for him to do this is so much greater than Mr KFC that it kinda makes the latter\u2019s efforts look sloppy. I don\u2019t know about you but I\u2019d rather have a good healthy chunk of game steak than a KFC any day.<\/p>\n

Who is your favourite bad boy and what is it about him that you find so alluring? Do leave a comment below and share the bad boy love!<\/p>\n

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