Making a rude character likeable?

[Odyssey 5,717]

Lately, I've been developing on seven main characters I've been writing for an original story. I got a fair few of them done, but the one I've been working on the most is a character who works as an engineer. She takes her job seriously, she isn't afraid to be blunt and she loves a good challenge. But sometimes her attitude can rub others the wrong way, which causes her to get rather annoyed. She also likes to work alone, but she certainly doesn't hate anybody or isn't against the idea of teamwork. She just feels that she works best on her own.

 

Since this character lives in a world full of monsters, she is also very jittery about her friends' safety as well as her own. Part of the reason why she became an engineer is because she wanted to find a way to prevent more and more of these monsters to destroy everything wherever they go. Because of how frequent it truly is, she really hates taking breaks. She's also working on something that could help destroy a certain monster that could potentially destroy many countries, or even the world -- which coincidentally, her six friends also have goals to destroy the very same monster. Also, two little quirks that she has is that she isn't afraid to get herself filthy and is a fan of dry humour.

 

So I guess what I'm trying to get here is that I don't want for her to be too nice, but rather I want for her to have a bad attitude for a good reason. If any of you got some suggestions as to how I can make her likeable or believable, please let me know!

Edited February 7, 2016 by Pearl

[Ianpiersonjdavis 513]

Usually, the reason character who are rude or act like jerks become unlikable, if not outright hated are due to the lack of any redeeming traits.

 

If you can make it clear to the reader that she has this attributes, but isn't an apathetic or hateful person (keeping with showing through her actions and not telling through expository dialogue), then I think that should help a great deal with keeping her likable.

Edited February 7, 2016 by Ianpiersonjdavis

[Riganthor 484]

Make some scenes with her being nice to like small chidren or someone who needs help, that can help people to like her way more (sry if this sounds like a must it is your storry so do what you like.)

[Taialin 217]

@@Entropy

Whoo . . . that's a hard one, and something I haven't mastered yet, either.

 

First off, it might not be necessary to make your character likeable, and if she is as flawed as you present her to be, that may very well not be possible. What's more important is to make your character interesting. If not make them likeable, make it such that readers will care about them and want to read more about them.

 

The vibe I get from this character, more than others, is that she thinks she's misunderstood, even though this may very well not be the case. ("Why is it that all these people get annoyed by what I say?!" for instance.) That alone is an interesting facet to a character. If you can get that across through prose, readers will have incentive to learn more about them. That's an internal conflict that's begging a resolution. And if you can convince your readers that your character thinks she's misunderstood when she's really misunderstanding others, even better! That foreshadows a resolution. And even if people get hints of what is to come by this foreshadowing, it's kind of like The Titanic: people will watch and be engrossed in things they know the resolution to, so long as the journey there promises to be interesting. And if you can get these facets of your character across, I'd say you have a pretty good chance of doing just that.

 

Hope that helps!

[MDLineArt 93]

Rude characters are always fun to work with.

The first thing I would say is being rude is not a defining characteristic, merely one trait of many.  Well rounded characters with a bit of an edge can always play a mirror to the 'Goodie' characters, showcasing vastly differing points of view.  Since I don't know much more about the character you have in mind, let's just ask some basic questions.

 

 

How is being rude Helping your character (or how do they Believe it is helping them)?
Believe it or not, there may be several reasons.  Maybe they feel insulted by the tiniest of things, maybe it's a defense mechanisim to stop people from thinking of them as insecure, maybe it's because they KNOW they are right and better than the others, or maybe it's because they just assume that is how the world is and they are behaving accordingly.

 

What your character's reason is shows a bit about their world view.  We've all had those moments were we were rude, and sometimes it may not even be on purpose, but think back to why you did it.  You'd be surprized how little provocation it takes, and for some people even less.  Maybe if they are rude enough they will be left alone, maybe people wont notice that they are embarassed, maybe they dont want to be alone and it gains them attention.  Consider the reason for it.
 

What is their redeeming trait?

Generally, being rude is a character flaw, but that doesn't mean it is all you are.  The bully who protects his younger brother, the gossiper who spreads lies to make someone who's down feel better, the crooked cop who always drops by that one doughnut shop and asks the server how his kid is doing.  These are what we consider bad people but that's not all they are, there is something we can empathize with, and building that character so things arn't all black-and-white with the good-bad dynamic is part of making characters interesting.

 

Making a character who is rude, you may want to consider tying that into their virtue.  What makes him good could very well be the reason they are the way they are.  Heck, I was working on my OC concept last night (Shameless plug) that takes this approach, and I am sure it can work for you.

 

Are they clever?

Last tidbit.  Rude can mean many things, but something that almost everyone enjoys is a good zinger.  I am thinking primarily Dr.House (from the show House), who is rude consistantly, but always the smartest person in the room.  He tells the story of why he is the way he is, and it involved a chinese doctor who was far worse than him, but he was also always right.  The way Dr.House sees it from that point on, It doesn't matter how you treat people, they will tolerate it as long as you are always right. 

 

This is probably the best example of using flaws to create virtues and vice-versa.  Dr.House's pride pushes him onward to become very knowledgeable in his field, his brashness puts him in situations where he needs to be right, but he's not so arrogant as to think that he cant be wrong, so he needs to constantly check and re-check his findings, and because of these failings, he is the best doctor on staff, which then feeds into his ego.

 

Understanding how the character's world view is changed by them being rude, consider why, find some way to make it a benefit to the character (Nobody does anything if they see no benefit to it), and then lastly, as the story goes, help us as an audience understand why they are like this, who they are, and what they are all about!

 

Hope this helps!

Edited February 27, 2016 by MDLineArt