I've spent a lot of this year dealing with the fallout of the death of a close friend. For whatever reason he picked as his executor a woman that none of the rest of his friends and family get along with. Actually, that's downplaying it. Most of them actively despise her.
There are good reasons for that. She is the kind of person who takes offense at anything, is extremely paranoid, and sees herself as the victim in any power dynamic. Despite dishing out the insults herself in a jarring and callous manner, if anyone says anything back to her she just goes nuts. Most of the time she takes offense at completely random things. A joke not even aimed at her. An insult meant for someone else. Something someone supposedly said, told to her third-hand, and obviously not true.
So the first (almost) half of the year has been somewhat trying as I, as one of the only people mentioned in the will that she will even communicate with in any form, have had to act as a middleman to get things sorted out.
One of the things that's kept me going is the thought that I could use some of this in a story. But I wonder just how believable would a character directly based on her be? Would readers see her as too over-the-top? Would I have to tone down some of her more paranoid behaviours to make her seem like an actual person? How can someone who alienates every single person they interact with, such as help-line people, lawyers, tradespeople, work colleagues, and people just offering to help in trying times, not understand that the only single common denominator in all of this is themselves? They are the problem, not, as she would have it, everyone else in the world. Is such a person a believable character in a story?
Could they be the main protagonist of a story? Would it be possible to write from their point of view. A world where they are the only clever person that exists. Everyone else is an idiot that just doesn't listen, doesn't understand, and doesn't do anything right. Would readers relate to such a main character?
I suppose it's done all the time. There are plenty of unsavoury or despicable main characters out there. Shakespeare's Richard III being the classic example. Stephen R. Donaldson's Thomas Covenant comes to mind, but I never really liked those books. Possibly because the main character was so unlikable. 
Gangster characters, like Ray Liotta's Henry Hill in Goodfellas is a nasty character, yet you understand his journey from his poor, violent upbringing, to loud, brash made man. He's scum, but he's relatable scum. Al Pacino's Michael Corleone also has a character arc that make you understand his journey, even sympathise. Should I develop a backstory for a fictional version of this person that offers a plausible path to their current state? Would that help mitigate my own feelings towards the real life version?
Christina Baker Kline, wrote an article entitled ‘What Does It Really Mean When People Say Your Character is Unsympathetic?’, which, it seems Google AI has totally ripped off for its AI Overview search result. The names Baker Kline mentions, such as Tony Soprano, Richard III, and Emma Bovary, are all cherry picked by the AI. Her conclusions is that "he central character is the reader’s guide, the prism: Everything is colored by her reactions. Ultimately an unsympathetic character at the center of a story is like a metastatic cancer: It infects the entire body. If the central character is unsympathetic the story cannot thrive." So maybe a secondary character?
Comedy shows often have really unsavoury characters. Take Gordon Brittas from The Brittas Empire, who is technically the main character, but is usually watered down in the show by the larger cast of somewhat sympathetic staff. Actor Chris Barrie also gave us another classic jerk in Rimmer from Red Dwarf, but somehow made him sympathetic. Animated comedy really goes for the throat with jerks. Peter Griffin, later Homer Simpson. Eric Cartman from South Park, and many, many more. So would making a story based on this real life person work better if it was a comedy? Would that risk making her somehow less annoying, or even sympathetic? Because I don't want that.
How do you deal with unsavoury characters in your own writing? And in real life?
— Gunwallace
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Writing unsavoury people
Gunwallace at 12:00AM, June 5, 2025
5 likes!
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Ozoneocean at 6:45PM, June 5, 2025
I felt the same about the Thomas Covenant books <3 !! Very unlikeable! I Love Britas and Rimmer and George Costanza though Haha! I usually like all those sorts of characters, even the real human being versions, in my life it's usually me that becomes their best friend... I've known many people like that who everyone else despises but I get along with well. Though often eventually I either also get pissed off by them or they get pissed off at me haha! It just takes much longer.
bravo1102 at 12:38PM, June 5, 2025
A thing about tragedy was/is that you can have an unsavory character as the lead because it's assumed that they will meet a horrible end and get their comeuppance.
EssayBee at 9:39AM, June 5, 2025
When dealing with anything unsavory, to make them palatable it's best to make their characterizations salty.
usedbooks at 7:01AM, June 5, 2025
My dog also helped with a racist elderly neighbor I had who always wanted to tell me the same racist stories over our fence line. My dog would bark loud enough that we couldn't hear each other while lunging at the fence. He's a good dog.
usedbooks at 6:58AM, June 5, 2025
In real life, I do my best to avoid any and all interactions with such people. Kinda sucks if they are family, neighbors, or coworkers. -_- I also to to commiserate with others who have to deal with the irritant. By sharing, we can turn them into comedic characters irl (which also usually annoys them, and that can be good or bad). I had an irritating coworker who I tried to be nice too even though she always wanted/needed something and spent every day complaining about work (we had a great job), the location (my favorite place on Earth), and lecturing me on how I needed her weird hippie lifestyle and shouldn't eat processed foods or whatever. She had no car, so she needed a ride to the city where I lived. She asked to come into my house to wait for an Uber. Inside, my dog, who is very friendly, kept his hackles up and glared and growled until she left to wait outside. She never entered my house again. So, I guess the best way to deal with an irritating person is with a dog.
usedbooks at 6:48AM, June 5, 2025
An unlikable protagonist works only/best in comedy. This is why I can't binge watch Frasier. It's funny but really irritating over long stretches. XD Frasier is an unlikable, pompous, egomaniac, but every episode, he gets comeuppance after his own personality gets him in trouble. It is fun to watch for a while but then you start to question it. Like, why can't he be better? Why can't he get a break? In the rare event that he does something good, he still ends up punished for it. So if you examine it with any ounce of sincerity/seriousness, it's just awful. If it wasn't a comedy, Frasier would be a cautionary tale and a tragic figure.
dragonsong12 at 6:03AM, June 5, 2025
It’s a great thing to explore and something I think about a lot as a character-first writer.I want every type of characterization to be available, which includes unpleasant and unsavory characters. It’s really hard these days though, because it often seems like even the mildest of flaws will get a ton of pushback. “Oh, you said something moderately irritable to the main character one time? Irredeemable villain!” But I want to write (and read!) people like people. Everyone sees themselves as the good guy and the human brain is shockingly good at justifying even the worst actions. So to answer your question of how I approach characters like that - that’s how. I view and write them from that perspective, that from their point of view they’re in the right. And I try to do so without judgement, leaving it to readers to decide on their own where the morality of it lies. How people act and interact is far more interesting to me than morality tales.
marcorossi at 4:27AM, June 5, 2025
When we tell a story, we tell it from a point of view, including an at least implicit judgement about charachters. Generally this author point of view is really close to the protagonist's point of view, so since no-one is unlikeable to him/herself, the protagonist has to be at least likeable. If you write a story with an unlikeable protagonist the author's point of view has to be very different from that of the protagonist, so as a consequence the story will either become a comedy (dark humour perhaps) or a really harsh tragedy/critical story, heavy to stomach. This movie is an example, it's good but very hard to stomach: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightcrawler_(film)
Genejoke at 1:28AM, June 5, 2025
Of course through the perspective of story telling, we often get to see who the characters really are, not just the veneer. Unsavoury characters are often fascinating as a lens to out darker sides. It's something I try to explore in my writing, but rarely achieve in a satisfactory manner.
Genejoke at 1:23AM, June 5, 2025
I guess there's a reason thoroughly unlikeable characters are usually antagonists or comic relief. Personally I'd like to think no-one is completely horrible and irredeemable, but being realistic, some people pretty much are. Another obvious example is the majority of the characters from game of thrones. Although George RR Martin shines at making horrible characters relatable in some way. As for real life experiences, far, far, far too many. But having said that I'm sure many have some good qualities that I do not see. Usually these horrible people have folks in their lives that see them in a completely different light, so maybe it's all just a matter of perspective.