Number of entries received for the 2007 InnermoonLit Award for Best Short-Short Story to date: 97
In How to Write Best Selling Fiction, Dean Koontz emphasizes the importance of a likeable main character. Then again, that advice was published twenty-five years ago…and besides, maybe your goal isn’t to write a bestseller. (Don’t laugh.)
If you decide to go the antihero route but still want to have broad appeal, I have two words for you: ironic distance. This is your subtle way of showing the reader that you are not your main character. You know she’s flawed and hateful, and you do not approve of her actions.
How does one establish ironic distance? You could go into another character’s POV and let him say what you really think about your antihero, or have someone tell off the jerk, or of course your could turn karma loose on her.
Reading about a sleaze who just keeps sleazing around damaging people with impunity may keep the pages turning, but it can leave your reader feeling depressed and dirty. Reading about a sleaze who gets a brilliant telling-off and/or a satisfying comeuppance can be cathartic and leave you reader cheering, “Thus be it ever to tyrants!”
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment