Before I comment on this, please note a change in my web address. My
page is now

http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics.html

It used to be reachable without the .html on the end, but now (for
reasons unknown to me) it isn't. If you're a visitor to my page, please
make note.

Now then:

peter@cujo2.icom.ca (Petes) wrote:

Maybe I'm digressing... but I'll make this point outright, when a char' is
made so encredibly annoying and hated, it's kinda obvious that the creator
wanted people to hate him.

Well... there's two different kinds of hate we might be talking about
here.

If your readers' reaction to your character is, "Wow, I never realized
someone could do things that wicked! I wonder what this character's
going to do next?" that's one thing. This is probably a kind of hate you
want to inspire for the villains in your story -- though IMO it's best
to do so in moderation and make sure that the character has believable
and understandable motivations for the things he/she does; otherwise the
readers might not buy into it.

Unfortunately, having the characters swear isn't going to do a thing to
evoke *this* kind of hate. What will is showing the character putting
banana peels in front of the old people's home, or scheming to destroy
the happiness of a purported friend. Better yet, use things that are
more subtle than these.

Another way in which readers may hate a character is, "What a lame
character! Why would I want to read about this person? I hope the author
gets rid of him/her!" I can't imagine why an author would want to
inspire *this* kind of hate for his/her characters. That's not to say
that excessive vulgarity will necessarily *do* this; look at Holden
Caufield from "Catcher in the Rye," for example. But if a large portion
of your readership complains, it might be that you have a problem.

Finally, I agree with what Lurker said. Spell-check your posts. It takes
only minutes to do, and people will take you much more seriously.


Gary Kleppe
http://www.execpc.com/~kleppe/comics.html