I've written a lot of detestable characters in my stories, and in fact was told that one of them - Breanna from Trailer Trash Teen Hates Rules - was the most vile literary character ever created.
Sometimes I've written stories where none of the characters are likable or sympathetic, like 'Grumpy Humphrey's Easy Wife'. In this story set in 1960, the titular 'Grumpy Humphrey' is the high school teacher everyone had at least once and always despised - strict, authoritarian, writes copious amounts on the board for the class to copy, inflexible and unapproachable. His much younger mooch of a wife Lorraine is a floozy, having affairs all over town mainly with other married men and with a nasty streak to her, such as spitting in her husband's dinner. Five of Humphrey's students - all seniors and 18 - are three jocks and two girls with poor reputations and no morals, who play a mean-spirited Halloween prank on Humphrey then enjoy themselves with each other and their teacher's wife. We meet some other characters - one of Lorraine's sisters, the two guys from the gas station and Humphrey's boss the Principal - and they are all assholes too.
My most despicable first person characters would be Jeff, the husband narrator of 'Cheating on a Cheating Wife' and Harriet, the narrator of 'Spoiled Heiress Gets Kidnapped'. Jeff is stalker-level creepy, but the events in the story he describes are so outlandish and absurd that one has to wonder how much of his tale is truthful, and he is a definite unreliable narrator. As for Harriet, she is a spoiled rotten sociopath, who gives her kidnappers (who want a ransom from her rich Daddy) nothing but trouble. She is completely unlikable, but also hot and shows one difference between female and male characters I have found. It is very easy to write spoiled female characters and still make them desirable, but with spoiled male characters it isn't so easy. You could do it, but they would have to be an outright antagonist or a redeemer who sees the errors of their ways for it to work.
And talking about spoiled characters, in some stories readers pick the wrong character to dislike. In my experience, this story series was 'Spoiled Princess Hates Camping', and the main character is spoiled rich girl Madison from New York, who is miles out of her depth when her parents make her go camping with their relatives in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Madison - who struggles with things like campground showers and toilets, single-ply toilet paper, sleeping in a tent, doing chores and outdoor activities like horse riding and hiking - is written to be annoying and unlikeable, and I expected comments like 'What a spoiled brat', 'I thought my cousin was spoiled but now I owe her an apology' or 'She needs to have her panties taken down and her bare bottom spanked, but not in an erotic way'. But more than a decade later, I have not received one negative comment about this pampered princess, but plenty of negative feedback about Dave, a loud-mouthed and brash Australian who gets into Madison's pants and nails her and who was written for readers to like and find amusing.
Sometimes I've written stories where none of the characters are likable or sympathetic, like 'Grumpy Humphrey's Easy Wife'. In this story set in 1960, the titular 'Grumpy Humphrey' is the high school teacher everyone had at least once and always despised - strict, authoritarian, writes copious amounts on the board for the class to copy, inflexible and unapproachable. His much younger mooch of a wife Lorraine is a floozy, having affairs all over town mainly with other married men and with a nasty streak to her, such as spitting in her husband's dinner. Five of Humphrey's students - all seniors and 18 - are three jocks and two girls with poor reputations and no morals, who play a mean-spirited Halloween prank on Humphrey then enjoy themselves with each other and their teacher's wife. We meet some other characters - one of Lorraine's sisters, the two guys from the gas station and Humphrey's boss the Principal - and they are all assholes too.
My most despicable first person characters would be Jeff, the husband narrator of 'Cheating on a Cheating Wife' and Harriet, the narrator of 'Spoiled Heiress Gets Kidnapped'. Jeff is stalker-level creepy, but the events in the story he describes are so outlandish and absurd that one has to wonder how much of his tale is truthful, and he is a definite unreliable narrator. As for Harriet, she is a spoiled rotten sociopath, who gives her kidnappers (who want a ransom from her rich Daddy) nothing but trouble. She is completely unlikable, but also hot and shows one difference between female and male characters I have found. It is very easy to write spoiled female characters and still make them desirable, but with spoiled male characters it isn't so easy. You could do it, but they would have to be an outright antagonist or a redeemer who sees the errors of their ways for it to work.
And talking about spoiled characters, in some stories readers pick the wrong character to dislike. In my experience, this story series was 'Spoiled Princess Hates Camping', and the main character is spoiled rich girl Madison from New York, who is miles out of her depth when her parents make her go camping with their relatives in the New Jersey Pine Barrens. Madison - who struggles with things like campground showers and toilets, single-ply toilet paper, sleeping in a tent, doing chores and outdoor activities like horse riding and hiking - is written to be annoying and unlikeable, and I expected comments like 'What a spoiled brat', 'I thought my cousin was spoiled but now I owe her an apology' or 'She needs to have her panties taken down and her bare bottom spanked, but not in an erotic way'. But more than a decade later, I have not received one negative comment about this pampered princess, but plenty of negative feedback about Dave, a loud-mouthed and brash Australian who gets into Madison's pants and nails her and who was written for readers to like and find amusing.
Aerosmith had only one good song about fifty years ago.
