I’ll give an example as well, using my character Angelina from Deadly Nightshade.
So Angelina is the MC in my story. And she’s not… really… the kind of protagonist you’d normally expect her to be. With her name, she’s not even the kind of person one would expect her to be. That’s why I named her Angelina- because it contrasts with her personality. The irony, irony… right?
Now, Angelina isn’t a good woman at all. That’s right, she’s the villain. And the MC. You can easily make your MC a villain (I may make a thread on this someday.) Angelina’s manipulative, sly, conniving, conceited, arrogant, very vain, and incredibly ambitious. On the flip side… think of your characters as coins. There are always 2 sides to a coin, yes? Heads and tails. Despite her being incredibly evil, she’s also charismatic, determined, clever, influential, and can pull through most situations (read: deals with things her way.)
To her, she’s doing what she thinks is good for her, what’ll benefit her rather than anyone else. Some people hate her, while others love her. Both sides are gonna get used anyway, once she needs them. So, you see, I’ve easily managed to create a character that you’ll either hate to love, or love to hate. Duality, huh?
Initially, I wanted to write her as someone who was gradually pushed towards evil throughout the story, rather than have evil/malice within her from events that happened in her life revealed quickly. But I decided to use the latter because I thought it’d make the storytelling better. And I guess it did, seeing the effects it had on other characters, like her friends, husband, father-in-law, and even total strangers.
Indirect characterization works way better when you’re creating characters like this. You can’t say “Angelina is evil” because that’s lazy writing. Instead, slowly expose her flaws and have others react to those flaws/traits while being affected by her “good side”. It creates confusion, shock, chaos, and total drama! Use the bewilderment and chaos to your advantage! It affects both the readers and the characters.
In conclusion, don’t make your characters too flawed or too perfect, even if they’re evil. Use good characterization to shape your characters and think of them as coins.
(At last, I finished this post. I’ve had it in my drafts for months now!)
