What's not to like?

The attraction of difficult characters

A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting down with the exceptional interviewing style of Ken Jones, where we chatted about Griftopia for his KBOO pod. Somehow we got into a discussion about Highlights Magazine and the Goofus & Gallant one-pagers—an attempt to channel moral values via print media.

As a doctor’s daughter (and granddaughter), I had plenty of access to the magazines piled on the waiting room coffee tables of my physician forebears. In the ladies’ magazines, I was drawn to the before-and-after success stories in those weight-reduction ads for a pre-GLP1 diet candy called AYDS (“Rebuff a creampuff!”).

I always loved the narratives of triumph, but I was also keen to know, “How did you get this way?” When it came to the Highlights periodicals, like the doom-scroller to be that I was, I would flip the pages to the Goofus & Gallant content. I wanted to know what naughty shit Goofus was up to now! Did he slip an unpaid-for pack of gum into his dungarees pocket? Did he cheat on his math test? As for his goody-two-shoes brother, I found him insufferable. And boring. Who wants to read about someone who obeys all the rules?

I prefer the 1970s version of G&G, to be honest. But good to see they’re still a “thing”

Of course, I was always unsatisfied with the lack of narrative backstory. And it’s no wonder in my own stories, I pepper my pages with rulebreakers and miscreants.

Nowhere is that more apparent than in my latest novels, The Bequest and Griftopia.

Beyond acts of Goofus-like insubordination—and in some cases, downright nastiness—of interest to me are the root causes of brokenness in a given character. That’s where backstory comes in! What was, as Tom Spanbauer would say, that moment that after, you were different? What event or series of events leads to brokenness? Tapping into the history of vulnerability of a given character provides context for their behaviors, and thus mitigates their “unlikeability.” Or at least that’s the way I see it. As a reader and a writer, I am drawn to complex, “difficult” characters—particularly those who create mayhem and obstacles that are the stepping stones of narrative aliveness. The action. The consequences. The transformations that readers crave.

I have more to say on this subject, and tomorrow, I’ll be in conversation with author Liz Prato, as we discuss character development as well as how our personal stories leak into our fiction, so if you’re in Portland, consider hopping on down to Broadway Books Tuesday for our 6:00 discussion!