Today I am pleased to have Teddy Wayne on the show.

Teddy  is the author of several books, most recently his novel Loner, which is out now. Teddy has won numerous writing awards, is regular contributor to several prestigious publications, and has taught at Columbia University in NYC and Washington University in St. Louis.

In this interview, we talk about Teddy’s newest book and the craft behind bringing an anti-hero to life on the page. During the episode, we geek out about anti-heroes, Hitchcock movies, and how trying to understand reprehensible characters can help expand our humanity. Listen below.

In this episode we discuss:

• What writers can learn about crafting an anti-hero from the TV show All in the Family, and how to create a character who is deeply flawed but also relatable.
• How much of an anti-hero’s character is shaped by internal qualities versus environmental or situational factors.
• How to avoid making an anti-hero seem over-simplified and make readers feel connected to an evil character.
• The difference between an extraordinary character’s slow descent into darkness, and a regular character making a terrible choice and having to “fix” the situation.
• The two components that writers can infuse into literary fiction to make it come to life and hook readers.

Plus, Teddy’s #1 tip for writers.

About the Teddy Wayne

Teddy Wayne is the author of the novels Loner, The Love Song of Jonny Valentine, and Kapitoil. He is the winner of a Whiting Writers’ Award and an NEA Creative Writing Fellowship as well as a finalist for the Young Lions Fiction Award, PEN/Bingham Prize, and Dayton Literary Peace Prize. A columnist for the New York Times, he is a regular contributor to The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, and McSweeney’s and has taught at Columbia University and Washington University in St. Louis. He lives in New York.

To learn more about Teddy and his books, visit his website at TeddyWayne.com.

About LONER

(As with most books we recommend on DIY MFA, the links below are Amazon affiliate links. This means if you choose to purchase via these links, DIY MFA gets a small commission at no cost to you. Thank you for supporting DIY MFA!)

With the same knack for voice and piercing social commentary Wayne gave readers in The Love Song of Jonny Valentine and Kapitoil, LONER is a riveting, frighteningly believable portrait of obsession on a college campus. Much like Claire Messud’s The Woman Upstairs, Herman Koch’s The Dinner, and Charlotte Rogan’s The Lifeboat—and, further back, The Talented Mr. Ripley, Lolita, and Notes from Underground—it is one of those rare novels where, as the pages fly by, readers feel everything from fear to rage to empathy for characters they might not like, but nevertheless find completely mesmerizing.

Wayne’s New York Times column the last couple of years, “Future Tense,” has demonstrated his critical talents for dissecting the alienating effects of contemporary culture, and LONER continues this with the misfit David Federman at the center of the novel. An academically gifted yet painfully forgettable member of his New Jersey high school class, the withdrawn, mild-mannered freshman arrives at Harvard fully expecting to be embraced by a new tribe of high-achieving peers. But, initially, his social prospects seem unlikely to change.

Then Veronica Morgan Wells enters his life. Immediately struck by her beauty, wit, and sophisticated Manhattan upbringing, David falls feverishly in love with the woman he sees as an embodiment of what he’s always wanted to be: popular, attractive, powerful. Determined to stop at nothing to win her attention and an invitation into her glamorous world, he begins compromising his moral standards. But both Veronica and David, it turns out, are not exactly as they seem.

Links & Resources

Link to Episode 117

(Right-click to download.)

Check out these previous podcast episodes talking about systematic and deliberate practice in writing. These interview share some great insights about how to practice as a writer.

• Episode 61: How to Write Spellbinding Sentences – Interview with Barbara Baig DIYMFA.com/061
• Episode 89: The Power of Deliberate Practice – Interview with Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool DIYMFA.com/089

If you want to go even further and learn more about focused practice, check out these two books:

• Spellbinding Sentences by Barbara Baig
• Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise by Anders Ericsson and Robert Pool

If you liked this episode…

Head over to iTunes, leave a review, and subscribe so you’ll be first to know when new episodes are available. Also, if you know anyone who might enjoy this podcast, please share!

Until next week, keep writing and keep being awesome!

The post Episode 117: The Slow Descent of the Anti-Hero — Interview with Teddy Wayne appeared first on DIY MFA.

In Destruction the protagonist is man who cheated on his wife. Considering the fact that most of my readers are married women, using a protagonist like this is almost stupid. But, in my opinion, it also makes it interesting. I actually originally intended to write the story from the wife’s perspective, but I am so glad I didn’t.

David, my main-character, isn’t the only anti-hero in the story. Most of my main characters are dark wizards, and although in my story good and evil are far from black and white, dark wizards generally aren’t likable people. The wife, Amanda, actually seems to anger people the most. She’s cold and sometimes selfish, and driven by fear.

I suppose it’s still up for debate as to whether or not I’ve successfully created likable anti-heroes, but most reviewers say things like, “I really wanted to hate David, but I just couldn’t.”

5 Elements of Likeable Anti-Heroes

He Loves Something

This is one of the most important elements in Destruction. My characters may not be the greatest people, but they know how to love. At the end of the day, most of their actions are driven by love. Although my readers may not identify with an adulterer, they do understand a man who loves his wife and kids more than anything. Imagine how different many antagonists would be if they loved. For example, in the Harry Potter series, love turned Severus Snape from a villain to a hero in a few lines.

He’s an Underdog

No one roots for a bully, and that’s because bullies prey on the weak. However, we love to see bullies get what they deserve. When your character is the underdog and they take down someone powerful, they can get away with almost anything and we’ll root for them.

He Uses Bad Means for Good Ends

I’m not going to say that the ends justify the means, but it certainly helps! One of the best and most ambitious anti-heroes of all time is Dexter Morgan from Dreaming Darkly Dexter and the Dexter T.V. series. Although Dexter has a lot of good anti-hero qualities, the most important key to his success as an anti-hero is that he only kills bad guys. Would the story have worked if Dexter killed innocents? Definitely not. Even if Dexter’s means are dark and sometimes repulsive, we agree with the result. Horrible people get what they deserve and justice is served for the victims.

He Acts Heroically

In a literary sense anyway, heroism is not about being a good person. A hero is an active character. It’s someone who actively changes their circumstances. Someone who believes in something. Someone who takes risks for what they believe in. Whether their intentions are good or evil, active characters are ALWAYS more likable than passive ones.

He’s Real

Everyone has some darkness in them, and few people are pure evil. Therefore, if you want an anti-hero, make them realistic. They are not the cartoon villains. They are real people just like you and me. This was another very important component to Destruction. I heard this a lot about Amanda–“I didn’t agree with what she did, but she was just so darned real.” I’m definitely not an adulterer, and I’m much more open-minded than Amanda, but when creating David and Amanda I still made them very much like me. I imagined what I would do or think if I was in their shoes. With this, I hope that readers will also see themselves in the characters, and people are much more likely to root for people who remind them of themselves.

Read about great anti-heroes in literature here.

…………………

Sharon Bayliss is the author of The December People Series and The Charge. When she’s not writing, she enjoys living happily-ever-after with her husband and two young sons. She can be found eating Tex-Mex on patios, wearing flip-flops, and playing in the mud (which she calls gardening). She only practices magic in emergencies.

The post #5OnFri: Five Ways to Create a Likeable Anti-Hero appeared first on DIY MFA.