What Happens When You Hate One of Your Own Characters

With the release of Stalked by Death this month, I feel like I need to talk about hating characters. When I read books, I love to hate characters because any emotion—good or bad—is good. It makes you connect to the characters and the story. But when I wrote Stalked by Death, I hated one of my characters in a way I've never hated a character before. It was odd for me because...well, I created him. 

I'm talking about Chase. Why am I dropping this bomb here when some of you haven't read the book yet and might want to? Simple. People read my blurb and assume there's a love triangle. In my mind, it's not a love triangle at all. Why? I HATE Chase. He's everything I despise in a human being. If you read the book, you'll see what I mean. I don't want to be too spoilery here.

So why did I create a character I absolutely can't stand? Mostly because people like Chase exist in the world. He's real. His motives are real. And the emotions he evokes are real too. I've had a few reviewers say they felt so many emotions while reading this book, and that's a huge compliment in my mind. I cried and got so creeped out while writing this story, and most of that was because of Chase. He made me tap into emotions I never wanted to visit again. And while I will continue to hate him, I'm thankful that I wrote him.

Have you ever hated a character you created? What made you write them that way?