fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #5414 ]

[ SECRET POST #5414 ]

⌈ Secret Post #5414 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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One of the antagonists (not the villain) of my original fic is a raging asshole. I'm struggling with why he is though, that isn't just a shallow 2d backstory.

parents enabled them, used to be shy but figured out you can get more by being a dick, or just born that way baby

Okay, question number one: Why should the audience care about his motivations?

Are you trying to make him more relatable? Does someone figuring out what makes him tick affect the plot in some way? Is the goal to justify his assholishness or to make him less of an asshole at some point? Or do you just want there to be a reason why he's an asshole?

The answer to that question should shape your explanation. And if it's that last one and it's not important to the story why he's an asshole and only that he is one, just chalk it up to "He has his reasons" and move on.

He's part of the adventuring party per se. He's always going to be an asshole, but specifically towards one guy. With nobody else being a dick, it seems quite pasted on without a reason.

Okay, so “why is he a dick?” seems like a less important question than “why do the rest of them keep him around if he’s the only dick?”

Do they need him for something only he can do? Maybe he’s a dick because he feels that he’s being used or because he’s drunk on the power he has over the rest of the party.

Do the rest of them secretly wish they could be a dick to the one guy he’s got it out for? Maybe he’s just brutally honest with no social skills, or maybe he’s just a bully who knows he can get away with targeting the dude no one likes.

Is he traveling with the rest of the party against his will or because he’s got nowhere else to go? That might make him lash out.

Or he could just be a dick. There are a lot of people who are assholes just for fun. If the plot doesn’t call for him to be deep, then he doesn’t need to be, but you still need to explain why the rest of the party doesn’t send him out for supplies and then leave without him.

People are assholes for a lot of reasons. Sometimes it's background, and not being raised to do better. Sometimes they're upset or scared about something unrelated and it manifests in a weird way. Sometimes they're deeply unhappy and/or insecure about their own lives and "angry asshole" is how it comes out.

The most easy thing? Stress. Work stress, school stress, family stress, relationship stress, or maybe they're hiding some embarrassing secret and every day is added pressure. Someone can be lashing out all the time without needing to have some kind of deep-seated trauma or inherent evilness if everything else in their life is shitty and they're unable to change or solve anything through their own power. Since the assholery was a situational or circumstantial thing, said person can also easily have a good-guy turnaround later on once the stressors are removed and they admit they've been being a dick and try to make amends, if that's what you're after.

Unable to connect due to some dark shame, I’m ducking angry all the time because adults failed me early in life and I haven’t been able to move past it bc I’m always showing up for everyone so HOW AHARD IS IT

Thanks all :)

So who's doing nano this year?

Still thinking about it, lol. I have a couple of things where I just have basically only the first few paragraphs down that I could expand on but I don't have a conflict for a couple of them which is why they're only a couple of paragraphs lol.

1. Lesbian couple in a zombie apoc scenario.
2. Accountant/minor mage who accidentally summons a winter demon instead of making it snow indoors because fuck spells written in cursive.
3. Rival bakers at a farmer's market.

Oops, enter too soon lol:

4. Phasmophobia-esque ghost hunting type thing
5. People with really weird super powers (like talking to rocks).
6. Modern day mage and warrior who get accidentally married over a faerie circle because they were too busy arguing. >_>

All of these sound fun but zombie apocalypse lesbian couple and the faerie circle marriage seem especially so! :)

Could you combine two of these? Rival bakers at a medieval market where one buys a 'make it cold' spell from the local witch (for pastry making purposes). Then accidentally messes it up and summons a winter demon instead.

I am! I’m just gonna be working on a bunch of fics that I’ve been thinking about for the past few months.

I am! First time I've done it, but things lined up and I have a thing I actually wanna write :) So excited

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[ SECRET POST #5414 ]

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