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Which is the more interesting character /lit? The one who begins the story unwilling to help others but by the end finds himself becoming the hero he never thought he was? Or the one who begins the story thinking he is this way, but in reality he is too good of a person to not lend aid when it is needed?
For example: The character walks past a mugging. Is it more interesting for them to shrug it off as "just another mugging in X City", but eventually come around to helping out someone in a similar situation later? Or Is it more interesting for them to say "it's not my problem, I don't even know the guy, goddamnit I'm already heading back towards the alleyway, aren't I"?
Deciding on how I am gonna write my main character.
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The first one
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Is there a real distinction between the two?
Do people really even have natures?
Does he intervene because he was angry and subconsciously, maybe just spoiling for a fight?
Does he wonder if on a different day he might have had second thoughts?
I don't think a good book is one where an author directly tells the audience that "this is a good person" or "this guy is not a good person, but he's trying"
A good book has interpretive elements held together by a strong core theme that is demonstrated in the way characters act out their own internal conflicts.
Maybe the question you posit is a question he asks himself?
"Am I a bad person who's trying to be good, or a good person who doesn't know it yet?"
Self-doubt is a pretty key theme, especially if you're dealing with the struggle towards heroism.
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>>7834745
>Maybe the question you posit is a question he asks himself?
I do like this, actually. I see the character as being something like a rebel at heart. He lives in a pretty fucked authoritarian society, his family has suffered tremendously at the hands of the government, he himself is a criminal and a thief, etc. A reason for him intervening in a mugging would probably be a simple hatred of seeing someone weak getting screwed over by someone stronger.
How does that sound? The problem I am having is I am not sure if having his family deleted by the gov't would incline him towards helping others fight back or against what he might see as a hopeless cause.
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Bumpin. Actually, I have one draft of a character "profile" thing I wrote on the character a while back, Quite a bit is different about him now, but I can post the original.
http://pastebin.com/zP382Pjv
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>>7834693
Stop thinking in terms of hero's journey monomemes. You'll always be third rate if you get caught up in that shit.
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>>7834955
It's just a pic for the thread. But on that note: Hero's Journey isn't necessarily bad. It's been around so long because it resonates with people.
That being said, I am not deliberately doing the Hero's Journey shit.
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