October is Spooky Season in this part of the world as well as the beginning of the 4H year, but maybe I’ll hold off on Cozy Home and Hearth writing topics until November. This month I am going to cover some Spooky topics that I find interesting and how they might show up on your pages.
One look at the True Crime Media glut should tell us that people love a sociopath. Maybe love is a strong word; fascinated? Intrigued? How can someone set aside societal norms and values to live life on a moral road inconceivable to most of us. What drives them? Is there a fearsome hidden path that might lead us to an onramp for that road?
Human brains love a pattern, a recipe, a set of rules that lay out plausible outcomes. Two scientists in the early ’00’s came up with a recipe for “Problematic personalities” (my term not theirs). According to Wikipedia Delroy L. Paul’s and Kevin M. Williams published a psychological theory of personality called The Dark Triad. Very catchy.
Essentially, there are three personality traits that are obnoxious but not quite something that would give you a diagnosis from a professional, that when mixed together in one squishy brain tend to bake into someone who is more likely to commit crimes, make poor friends and partners, and take down the organizations and/or countries they are leading. The Dark Triad is also a great well of flaws for literary characters.
Briefly, the three traits are:
Narcissisim: obsessed with the self. Grandiosity, lack of empathy.
Psychopathy: anti-social behavior, no remorse, unemotional, etc.
Machiavellianism: long term calculating toward goals, manipulativeness, lack of morality
Now, there are brilliant people with fancy degrees who I would just be cliff noting on if I were to go into the specifics of The Dark Triad itself, so here is a link to an informative article on the topic with more links for rabbit holing.
And here is a link to a free test
I’m assuming you’re back now after a deep swan dive into the human psyche and ready to discuss how you can incorporate Dark Triad characters into your writing.
The most fascinating characters are those with whom the reader can identify. Most of us aren’t out there reading Dexter and thinking “yeah man, I get it, I also want to hunt down serial killers and torture them.” But we are more likely to look at a character —we’ll call him Mark—who is picked on at work and saves up pieces of info on the bullies then uses it to frame them for his white collar crimes as a possible protagonist.
Both Dexter and Mark are using similar tactics to enact vengeance, but the reader is more likely to identify with Mark, and therefor get more pleasure out of the result. Now some of us might look at Mark and point out that he could have gone through the proper HR channels to address the bullying and didn’t need to steal 20 million dollars from his company: and to be fair his organic deodorant made everyone near his desk miserable, but we are still likely to find him a compelling character.
One of the key components of a Dark Triad character is that they should be charming and charismatic. I met a charming fellow this summer: and after chatting with him for ten minutes, I realized that he has a definite future as a cult-leader. He was charming, overly interested in my thoughts and philosophies, had grandiose dreams for the future, and had a cadre of adoring young girls trailing him. At this stage in his life, his moral compass drives him toward benevolence but the possibility of future menace hovers just below the surface; I am 100% going to make him a character in a future book.
Of the three Dark Triad traits (Narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism), narcissism is probably the most difficult to write and keep your character likable. Now, mind you a character doesn’t have to be likable— they just need to be interesting— but enough of us have had dealings with narcissists to be completely turned off a book by reading about them. We spend enough time dodging them in real life, who wants to escape into a world where they are center stage?
So the trick of having a narcissistic protagonist is to either embrace the naughtiness and go all in on the adventure (Gaston, Harry Potter) and hope they are charming enough to get away with it. Or balance the narcissism with a soft underbelly: show why they are so self involved.
Narcissists are far more palatable when they are young characters and there is hope that they’ll “grow out of it”. Most kids are narcissists who learn to empathize and consider others as they turn into real humans. By the mid-twenties though (when that pre-frontal cortex is developed) it is unlikely that a narcissist is going to go through a rapid character change. Sorry A Christmas Carol, I don’t believe that Scrooge stayed benevolent after mid February.
A great way of masking narcissism is to mask it with a higher goal; Dexter uses taking out serial killers, Yellowstone uses saving the family legacy and many cult leaders use serving God. All of them are saying “look! I am doing bad things for a good reason!” Sometimes the character may actually believe in their higher goal, or sometimes they are just using it as an excuse and are highly self-aware. Sometimes the realization is a key point in the character development.
Psychopathy symptoms are low hanging fruit for character flaws—I mean that in a good way. Impulsivity, selfishness, lack of remorse etc. can lead to great plot arcs and narrative tension between allies. I always try and incorporate some of these into D&D characters just to spice things up. The handy thing about psychopathy is that with the right consequences, many symptoms can be overcome or trained out.
Everyone loves a bad boy that can be fixed. It’s why everyone gets a free pass on that first (or fourth) bad marriage. We seem to have less tolerance for the bad girl. Just like we judge women far more harshly for abandoning their children to go off adventuring— or worse, leaving and living an ordinary life—readers seem to like stories where the bad girl has some comeuppance. Be careful not to punish your female characters beyond natural consequences for their actions.
I’ve left Machiavellianism for last because it is my favorite to utilize. Unlike with Narcissism where the self is the center of any schemes and machinations, the Machiavellianistic character has vision. They have long-term goals and are willing to sacrifice their own comfort and happiness for the end result. These people are happy to be your friend as long as it suits them.
The fun of writing an M character is that you have to know what their goals are and write interactions with them in mind. As a writer you are going to know those characters better than any other in a fun way. M characters don’t become that way in a vacuum which means that they often have incredible backstories to mine from. They are calculating and rarely messy.
A protagonist with an M ally must become manipulative and cunning themselves, because that ally might become an antagonist if the protagonist gets in the way of their goals.
M characters make interesting romantic partners because of the choices you can make them face. I have one benevolent M character that has given up her soul mate numerous times over the past 350 years because it didn’t suit her long range plans. They are both seemingly content with the situation, until they aren’t anymore.
Traditionally we have seen many M-villains; the mustache twirling foe. I would caution you to make sure they are round characters with depth behind their motivations. World domination is fine, but why? Was their childhood filled with horrors brought on by the current rulers and your character feels that they could do better? Make the motivation something that they are willing to sacrifice love and community for. That is a start of a truly scary character.
***After writing all of this I realized that I hadn’t specifically linked The Dark Triad with writing craft as specifically as I probably should have so here you go: bonus content!
Use internal voice or hidden moments to show a discrepancy between true motivations and those implied by Dark Triad behaviors.
Toby helped his grandfather totter from the car toward the dilapidated condo. “You’re such a fine boy, Toby” Grandfather murmured, handing him a quarter and closing the door. Watching his grandson trot down the overgrown path the older man sneered. “That’s all the money you’ll get from me you no good louse. I wouldn’t even give you that if I didn’t need rides to the book store.”
As an exercise, play around with internal voice or hidden moments with Dark Triad characters. Layer the three characteristics or try them individually to see how one or more might influence behaviors.
Mamasquatch the Writer 
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