Originally published at: https://shanniiwrites.com/2019/04/16/how-to-make-your-bad-boys-good-characters/
As much as I’d love to say “throw them all out and have some more rounded characters”, I have to admit that bad boys have an appeal with readers that we just can’t ignore. Some people like mystery! And most bad boys, at the very least, pretend to be mysterious. They’re tough and broody, which…
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Bump?
I think we all have that one character that can be considered a “ bad boy “. Definitely useful 
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Bump ¿ 
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It’s okay for certain things, Not everyone has extroverted bubbly personalities and that’s not a bad thing. But the examples they give are horrid.
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Stop the constant smoking, Stop promoting smoking like its cool or it’ll make you appear more desirable because I cringe every time I see one smoke.
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I get it their typically Highschool boys, BUT THEY DONT HAVE TO BE H*RNY RABBITS AND SLEEP WITH THE ENTIRE SCHOOL- Before meeting you and suddenly your the magical Mc that will change his ways.
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Them having a bad past or trauma doesn’t give them the excuse to be a jerk, Nor abusive.
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Stop the Mc from being a mindless puppet and following everything he does despite him consistently abusing her
Ways to combat this:
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If you want them to have a smoking addiction, That’s fine! But don’t promote it like it’s a good thing. Perhaps the MC Could be a healthy outlet, If their growing a relationship and the MC hates smoking maybe the “bad boy” could switch from cigarettes to lollipops to showcase how close he’s taken the MC seriously and cares for her/him. Or you could even have them relapse, That’s realistic addictions aren’t cured in a few chapters I understand it’s fiction but at-least try to add some realism.
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If they have trauma have them get therapy, Or healthy outlets like working out, Meditating, or Yoga.
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If the bad boy is flat out abusive it’s a no no regardless of what they can do. He shouldn’t hit nor disrespect the MC.
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Give the MC some backbone! Couples aren’t perfect of course and it’s okay for them to have arguments but forcing the MC to agree with the bad boy in the end or have the bad boy go out and cheat is an excuse to build more unnecessary drama, Have them sit down and talk like mature people.
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Give the MC an interesting past, I notice in typical bad boy stories the MC is a nerdy quiet type with no friends, Why can’t she have an exciting life outside of the bad boy? She could even be the bad girl and the LI could help motivate her.
In conclusion the usual bad boy tropes are damaging and it isn’t “hot” it’s weird. It’s okay for the characters to have issues but it isn’t okay when you use it as an excuse for everything they do. 
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Bad boys are not really my cup of tea. Actually, I don’t enjoy stories with badboys, especially when they are not written well. But I have bumped into several stories, where the author actually shows that the badbiy is not just a badboy. He is a person. He has weaknesses, fears, he has feelings. And his weaknesses are not just a girl! They are other things! And these little things make the badboys way more realistic, and help flesh out the character. It doesn’t matter if they are badboys, have bad grades and smoke, they have a life too. Riding a motorcycle and banging girls is not all they do! They are humans, not bad boys. Many authors don’t realize that, and it shows. Their badboy characters are just the mc’s pawns, and they don’t have a personality. Most of them are really unoriginal and not well written. I don’t recommend having a badboy in your story as the LI, but if you really want to, Shani’s blog post explains really nicely how to flesh them out, to make them characters and not just bad boys.
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Just added tags
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Hey @Bloggers, even though the bad boy trope is cliché, there is something about them that keep the reader interested, don’t ya think?
Take a read of this and tell me what you think!
Remember that if you really enjoyed this blog, feel free to recommend it (it’s similar to liking it). This will help with it being higher in the results of search engines too.
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WAIT I WANTED TO WRITE ONE THIS IS PERFECT :DD
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You wanted to write a bad boy into a story? What story?
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It’s a story I’m just drafting XD but I wanted to try the bad boy trope but do it well ((:
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Oooh… that’s super exciting. Is it just for you or are you publishing it anywhere?
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Going to be publishing!! It’s a project of mine and if I can I’m going to hire a professional artist to do the manga version for me as well ((:
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Publishing online or as an actual book? … Oh, yeah, that’s a cool idea.
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It really depends to be honest, I’m not a fan of the downfalls with traditional publishing but self-publishing isn’t really the best route. The first draft will probably be online on something like wattpad and I’ll see if there’s a publishing house likes it ((:
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Oh, yeah, online first is best, just to build up the audience.
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okay kdjbvdf
i don’t think i can write a lot today but… well being completely honest, i have come to love bad boys (yeah, no sh*t, Cam, your fave characters’ chapter in your fave game is called “Bad Boy Portrait”) so i wanna talk about this a lot
Shannii is right that the fix for most bad boys is just giving them some development and depth.
not to toot my own horn but those on the old OLD EF may remember SillyCupcake’s SG Road Trip, the character i wrote for that is a bad boy, but i genuinely worked so much on him and developed him so much that… well i broke google forms with his sign up lmao, that’s how much i wrote about him to give him depth. he’s one of my most developed characters to this day, too, as i continue thinking of him and his story even now.
now, as a fan of the trope, i wanna talk about the different types of bad boys:
first we have the classic lone wolf: aloof and probably broody, these types are the most common “bad boys” i’ve seen, even if they’re not necessarily “bad”
i think their popularity is because they’re the easiest to portray as “bad boy with a heart of gold”, something in their past branded them as an outsider, or maybe they have a 
reputation of being “bad” although no one has quite gotten to know them
as i said, these are probably the most popular, but that doesn’t mean they’re a bad type of character, there’s a reason the possible character gap appeals to a lot of people, the idea of someone who is usually closed off letting a select person in? it makes said person feel special, and to the reader, it may be like they’re witnessing a secret unfold
so to make these types interesting, the writer should set themself to explore what’s beneath this bad boy’s aloof first impression, and trying to make him into a well developed character through it
then we have the “has problems with authority” bad boys
these can range from detention in class or something minor to “has gotten in trouble with the law” or “an actual criminal” or “part of a criminal organisation”, so that alone gives the writer a lot of room to start making a character
these characters break the norms of their world, so it would be a disservice to make them fit into a mold, and i think that’s the most interesting thing about these
no matter the similarities they may have between one another, they’re all different, because their stories need them to be different
these characters are VERY multilayered, too, and that’s always a plus
my advice when creating these kind of characters would be to focus on WHY and HOW they got to where they are, why they do the things they do, to flesh out their backstory enough for them to feel human, otherwise, the character may feel like it has “holes” in them
- the punk is a sub category of this group, and this is personally where most of my fave bad boys fit (as i am a bit of a punk myself): a rebel with a cause, someone who has a bone to pick with the injustices in the world and who is willing to fight those
lastly, we have the plain ol’ (possibly abusive) assh*le
i don’t have much to say about these as i’m not very knowledgable in them, and tbh i’m just not as interested
i do see the appeal in them that Shannii mentioned, with them being changed and all that
but in my opinion, a chara doesn’t have to be an assh*le to be a bad boy, and more often than not, this behaviour is a lazy shortcut to show they’re “bad”, instead of trying to go on one of the other two routes (others’ opinions or giving them other “bad” things to do)
now, most bad boys i know are a mix of two of these or maybe the three, so use that to your advantage, try to make them as developed as possible
as long as it feels like a 3d character, it’s all good
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I don’t particularly get “bad boys” as a trope, but that’s more personal than for any reason.
Many people like them because many people have a ‘thing’ for aggressive, possessive and controlling love interests. Again, idk why. Those kinda ppl intimidate and often scare me so I tend to avoid them.
Anyway.
If you are gonna make a ‘bad boy’ as a love interest, here are a few of my own personal tips:
- Do not make them abusive.
Idc if the MC ‘heals’ him, actually that just makes the trope worse. Your MC should not be burdened with fixing their love interest, not in that way anyway. On top of that, as often as not, it romanticises abuse and sets a standard that that is what romance is supposed to be like 
This includes threatening the MC, verbally abusing them, manipulating them, gaslighting them, ect.
- Think about why they’ve been labelled a ‘bad boy’
Is it because of the way they dress? Are they punk/Goth/emo/some other subculture? Are they an introvert? Do they have the mysterious past™ that everyone seems to love? What are his morals? Values?
I don’t recommend having them be a bad boy just because they’ve never hound love before. That doesn’t make him ‘bad’. That just makes him an average teenager. Same with being an introvert.
- What makes him good? Not just the MC.
I do not recommend making the MC’s impact on your bad boy’s life his only redeeming moments. Give him soft spots, vulnerabilities ect. This does not mean he needs to be soft. It just means that he isn’t so tough the first real conflict would break him like brittle glass. Does he have fears? Who are his friends? Once again, don’t try the ‘he has no friends’ route - not unless your willing to accept the emotional consequences to that. Loneliness has a huge impact on ppl’s health, and is not something to just be brushed off
These are some really good tips!