Are Crime Fiction Characters getting too Weird?

[A.J.]

Lisbeth Salander, Sherlock (UK TV version), DS Stone in Chasing Shadows - are fictional characters getting too extreme? Latest post:

http://awaines.blogspot.com/2014/09/a...
A J Waines: author of Girl on a Train and The Evil Beneath
http://www.amzn.to/14M9mSw


Both reached No 1 in 'Murder' and 'Psychological Thrillers' in UK Kindle charts.

[Shomeret]

A science fiction author once advised that since science fiction placed characters in strange circumstances, strange characters would be "one strange too many". I didn't agree with him at the time. I actually like Sherlock U.S. version a great deal and he's even stranger than the U.K. version. Strange characters attract my interest.

[Renee E]

As long as the writer makes them believable, no.

If they're not believable, then it doesn't matter how *normal* they are, they're still going to be strange.

And, speaking from years of paralegal work in the criminal defense arena, I've yet to run into any fictional characters any stranger than the real ones get — on both sides of the courtroom.

[A.J.]

Renee wrote: "As long as the writer makes them believable, no.

If they're not believable, then it doesn't matter how *normal* they are, they're still going to be strange.

And, speaking from years of paralegal..."

Thanks for your point, Renee - yeah, I think making them believable is the key - too cliche or too much of a caricature and it doesn't feel right.

[Angelo]

I agree that believability is probably the key consideration here.

I think a good author will be able to 'sell' any quirks or potentially unbelievable attributes of a character through their writing.

The danger I suppose is where writers use unbelievable characters as a kind of gimmick or hook, in order to make them memorable and as a substitute for strong writing.

In saying that, I think that due to the enormous amount of books available, characters probably do need to be more unusual in order to attract readers, or keep readers' interest – with regards a book series for instance. Although without strong writing underpinning it all, attracting people with a 'quirky' character will probably be a pretty self-defeating strategy in the long run..!

[Renee E]

[Ed]

Renee wrote: I've yet to run into any fictional characters any stranger than the real ones get..."

How true! You don't get much weirder than real people. All my characters are based on people I've known.

[Renee E]

There is a delightful gentleman in the writers' guild I belong to, a physicist who writes emotionally piercing poetry. He's a WONDERFUL human being; insightful, quirky humor, humane, ageless, a diminutive but rolly man who might be an other-creature sojourning in our reality . . . but oh, I so know that one day I'm going to use those traits as a jumping off point for a character, but he'll have to be carefully wrought or no one will ever buy it.

[Alice]

I do get tired of certain trends. Seems all the SyFy channel's B-movies must have divorced parents that have to work with their ex to save the world. And for awhile there was a plethora of TV shows with brilliant men that were so odd they needed female keepers, often FBI or some such.

A lot of characters have baggage, and that makes them sympathetic, but I think some writers have taken that as a given. So a lot of MCs now have parents/spouses/fiancés, etc. that were eaten/possessed/spontaneously combusted. And as that gets old, the baggage will get weirder as authors try to be fresh, when they should change it all together.