HOW TO WRITE AN ANTI-HERO

what's up my friend Abbi here and welcome back to writers life wednesdays today we are talking about anti-heroes aka the center of a story's universe the central character who has not really hero because he lacks all the heroic attributes that a hero usually possesses like courage and bravery and selflessness and heroism I've created quite a few of these bad boys for stories that I've written and stories that I haven't written yet and have been just plotting for years I'm looking at you sci-fi thriller trilogy series thing anyway I got a request for this video and because I really love anti-heroes I wanted to jump on this topic right away so today we're gonna dive into some tips and techniques that I use to craft seriously compelling anti-heroes characters that you really shouldn't like but you love I think the reason I love anti-heroes so much is because they're so realistic like yeah a lot of people have a heart of gold and just want to be good and courageous in the say of the day but a lot of people are too flawed and fearful for this which means with anti-heroes we have so many opportunities for that addictive internal conflict I always talk about hmm let's get into it okay so the first thing to remember when writing an antihero they are neither the hero nor the villain they're essentially going to be taking the place of the main character in the story but they are not necessarily the villain of the story in fact it is super satisfying to like meet a morally gray character and you think they're really bad because they kind of are compared to like you know the normal hero but then then you meet the real villain of the story which just makes your antihero look like an adorable jaded and jacked-up cinnamon roll at least this is my favorite kind of antihero you can obviously take this in a lot of different directions but as many of you know I like to write positive character arcs for my characters so that they arrive at the end of the story having had a realization or learned the truth about something a truth about real life by the way not just the truth about the fictional world that the character exists in if you want to hear all my thoughts on character arcs and I have a lot of thoughts on character arcs check out this video right here or check out a blog post that I wrote I'll leave the link in the description box below that blog post is like everything everything I love and and believe about character arcs and it's pretty darn good if I do say so myself okay so that being said today I'm gonna talk about the antihero who begins the story deeply conflicted and morally gray goes about getting what he wants and all the wrong selfish cowardly ways but ultimately learns the truth and has an aha moment it realizes that there is another path for him and hope for his morality and future not saying that he has to have some totally unrealistic 180 degree turn from the dark side to the land of heroism and courage because that would just be stupid but for me I'm looking for an aha moment where the antihero realizes that he has more of a conscience than he thought or the reader thought so that is what we're gonna be talking about and overanalyzing today four things number one nail your anti-heroes internal conflict as I said before this type of character is perfect ideal for creating that delicious addictive internal conflict and will constantly have your readers guessing and wondering what's gonna happen next to this character what's he going to choose he's so morally flexible that you really don't know but build the conflict just like any character you need to figure out your anti-heroes desire fear and misbelief desire is the thing they think will make them happy fear is the thing that's keeping them from going after their desire miss belief is the thing they mistakenly think is true about the world which is based off of a personal experience from their past and fueled by their fear basically you're going to build your character profile the same way you would build it for your hero but you're gonna leave out some of those necessary attributes that you would normally give a hero this is not a character just set up to make a bad decision okay this is a character who has been making lots and lots of bad decisions throughout his life based on his fear and miss fully and he is a good reason to be morally flexible why that's for you to answer and it leads us to step two give your antihero a good reason for being bad see when you start at this place of having a good reason for your character to be lacking heroism and courage and morality it makes it so much more realistic and even relatable because whether people are consciously asking this question or not they are definitely subconsciously asking it why why is this person the way he is why does he have a negative or pessimistic view of the world why is he okay with doing bad things to get what he wants what happened in his past to make him this way this sounds exactly like how I develop all of my characters and it is very similar but there's one big difference you make your reader look really hard to see anything good about this character see even if you have a seriously messed up protagonist we can usually tell after watching them for a few minutes that there's something good underneath all of this not so much with the antihero that you be able to see what happened in this character's past that seems to have stolen all of his good courageous heroic attributes and this isn't to say that you can't give him good attributes you absolutely can but it needs to be hidden like so much in the dirt of everything else he does through the fog of this moral gray mists you might see a flicker of hope that he actually has a heart but you have to know why your antihero is the way he is he thinks will make him happy well he's afraid of what he thinks is true about the world which isn't actually true the misbelief he's going to realize isn't actually the truth come his aha moment step three let your antihero be his own worst enemy so I mentioned that there might be a true villain character in your story and if there is chances are the antihero isn't gonna be like out to destroy them but he's also not gonna be buddy-buddy with the hero right because he's totally okay with wrongdoings etc therefore I've found the best and most powerful enemy to give your antihero is himself ah yes see he's so so so conflicted like even more conflicted than your usual protagonist because at least most hero protagonists have this moral compass that they they want to save the day the only thing your antihero wants to save is his own ass that was good but your job as the writer is to make his internal conflict constantly get in the way of him achieving his goal making him his own worst enemy which means every time he thinks he's taking a step forward he's actually taking three steps back every time he thinks he's getting closer to what will make him happy he's actually shooting himself in the foot this just makes every story be even more delicious because you know what this character thinks will make him happy and you see him trying to accomplish this goal but because he's going about it in all the wrong ways he constantly keeps running into obstacles obstacles created by his own actions step 4 map your anti-heroes character arc like I mentioned at the beginning of this video I like to give all my main characters some sort of positive change so that I'm showing the reader not only why this story matters to that but why it matters to the world so how is your antihero going to transform as a result of his journey what is he going to realize that will totally shift his worldview and make him see that he's been wrong about everything this doesn't have to be a happy ending or a total transformation like I said before but if the reader doesn't see that flicker of hope grow into at least a small campfire by the end of the story they're gonna feel like you just wasted their time sad but true we care about stories because they matter they don't have to be happy endings but they have to matter so why does your story matter what is the truth that you're burying inside this story like it's heart what is the theme the message that reaches to every page every sentence every word that's what gives your story life that's what makes your story matter that's what makes your readers think that's what sucks them in like a magnet whether they realize it or not most people don't realize it because most people don't psychoanalyze everything like we do so figure out your anti-heroes character arc go read that blog post I mentioned it includes like a helpful printable PDF thing that I think you're gonna love but if you just want the quick and dirty tips for brainstorming I'm all about it antihero starts off super conflicted because of his fear misbelief sparked by past events now deeply rooted in his psyche and everything he does something pushes him outside his comfort zone and now he's forced to face his fear and do something or else worst consequence this happened makes fear-based decision keeps on making fear-based decisions and backing himself into a corner where he'll eventually have to face off with his worst fear of all conquer it and realize he has a heart little tiny one maybe but still got to make things right and because he can now see that his misbelief was dead wrong he transforms as a character in order to come back fighting for the final climax punches the villain in the face metaphorically or literally and wins and actually discovers the truth the heart beat of your story boom that's it that's how you write an irresistible antihero that your readers will feel kind of morally great for falling in love with comment below and tell me who is your favorite antihero in fiction poor fella I know I didn't use an example for today's video which is disappointing but I couldn't really think of any character who fit the bill except for Dimitri from Anastasia and Bryce Loski from flipped but those are like more my style I don't watch I don't watch thriller heist movies and that's where everybody says that the anti heroes live I don't have a lot of anti heroes in my life except for the ones that I've written but that just goes to prove anti-heroes can exist in contemporary they do smash that like button if you liked this video and be sure to subscribe to this channel if you haven't already because I post writing videos every single Wednesday and I would love to have you here in the community until next week my friend what's up my friend Abbi here and welcome back to writers life wednesdays what am I doing with my hands I don't know what's up my friend I'll be here welcome back to writers life wednesdays you should know that like every time I roll the intro I'm drinking tea like while you're watching the intro I'm just sitting here like this Reed you have to start your weed whacker right then right as I'm filming oh my gosh Abbi are you serious you're writing a sci-fi thriller trilogy series thing you write fluffy romantic contemporary I know this is why I'm still thinking about it I've been thinking about it for like seven years I'm scared [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Abbie Emmons

Views: 59,857

Keywords: anti hero, villain, morally grey, character, writing tips, advice, authortube, how to write an anti-hero, nanowrimo, character profile, abbie emmons, writerslife wednesdays

Id: V49gm45HH6M

Length: 11min 49sec (709 seconds)

Published: Wed May 29 2019