Mad Scientist Wannabe
Ever read Of Mice And Men?
Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
Oh yeah, I remember that!
Hmm...I'm not going for that much realism, though. I mean...something less debilitating.
I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.
Mad Scientist Wannabe
Well, that's pretty much the limit of my knowledge of sympathetic manchildren.
Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great
You could also have him be quite naive about certain things (such as having unrealistic expectations of conflict resolution) Like a situation where he appears to be the Pollyanna when it's really just a coping mechanism from being a Broken Bird.
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
That makes me wonder:
Is it possible to be a manchild and cynical at the same time?
I'm only asking because, shit, I've seen some seriously jaded kids throughout my life. And I'm from a developed country and a fairly affluent neighborhoods.
I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.
Hilarious injoke
Read A Confederacy Of Dunces OP
Here's another manchild character from a story I wrote several years ago back in high school:
Great-grandson of Barnaby Dingwinger and current heir to the REDS, Birdy was a very fortunate individual. His last name alone could grant him access to the snootiest places in Argle Blarg. His ugly mug was one that would appear in all kinds of trashy tabloids. But Birdy wasn’t the type to visit high-brow establishments or get wrapped up in scandals with secretaries looking to score a talk show appearance or two. In fact, he rarely went out at all and women (real ones, anyway) had since fallen off his list of priorities after a certain incident that would break even my heart to retell. Instead, Birdy opted to spend his days sitting behind a computron trying his best to incite angry responses from people across the Argle Net (though he wasn’t very good at it). His main hobby involved anything water-burkies: collecting memorabilia, having fun with the ones he lived with, and not shutting up about them whenever another human being was present. He also had an interest in foreign cartoons particularly ones from a certain archipelago in the Far East. Yes, Birdy was one of those people.
Of course, this type of person is really not the ideal sort for running an enterprise like the REDS. It was for this reason that the rest of Birdy’s family viewed him as a curse. They feared -very rightfully so- that the moment Birdy was put in charge of the whole thing that the entire system would set itself ablaze in protest. They also knew that the chance of him producing any offspring that they could promote over him was basically nill. Not wanting to hand the REDS over to someone outside of their bloodline, the Dingwingers took it upon themselves to teach Birdy how to be the best business man he could possibly be. This stopped after Birdy’s father got sick of hearing about water-burkie mating rituals for the umpteenth time and forced Birdy to move into another home where he was given all the money he needed to survive on a monthly basis. Birdy usually just spent that on water-burkie merchandise.
Unbeknownst to his folks, Birdy also managed to hold down a job at the actual REDS headquarters because he knew the ins and outs of the entire network. He wasn’t interested in business, but the system his great grandfather had created intrigued him. It was a shame he hardly did anything useful with the knowledge. Most of the time he just reworked routes so whatever water-burkie based goods he had ordered would get there 5 minutes faster, oftentimes stalling infinitely more important dispatches. He did however tend to fix problems and tube stations that the workers loved to neglect. Speaking of the workers, they hated Birdy. You probably would too if you ever met him.
As one would expect, spending most his time lazing around his house lent greatly to Birdy’s immense weight. His wardrobe consisted of shirts all pertaining to a subject that I’m quite sure you can already guess, all full of holes with bits of food on them. His greasy hair was so long that he had to put it into a ponytail and his facial hair had not been shorn in quite some time. He gave off a peculiar stench that could be likened to rotting poultry or a homeless man that had a fatal mishap while trying to collect loot from a dumpster that was beyond his level requirement.
edited 22nd Sep '14 8:48:09 PM by Thelostcup
If you find the text above offensive, don't look at it.
Mad Scientist Wannabe
Your teenaged self's writing style reminds me of someone, but I can't quite place it.
Of course, don't you know anything about ALCHEMY?!- Twin clones of Ivan the Great
The Electric Eccentric
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
I want to say "yes", but I could be wrong. The way I see it, not every child is a big bundle of smiles and sunshine; maybe a cynical manchild could be the kind of person who's gloomy for no apparent reason. Maybe he thinks that his luck's always rotten, everyone's always picking on him, and he's got no shot of ever getting the stuff he wanted for his birthday. Or (if you want to give it a more serious spin), you could make him cynical, but his views come from a place of immaturity and ignorance. He's a kid who acts like he has all the answers, but in reality is the LAST person you'd go to for advice.
Going back to the main topic, though: what's your manchild interested in? It's superficial stuff, I know, but it is important; if he's the sort who's memorized every episode of Dora the Explorer but can't name a single president, that's a detail worth keeping in mind. Same goes for things like appearance, speech patterns, and the like — surface-level details, but they do contribute.
If you're out to make him "vulnerable", then I don't think that's too much of a stretch. People may be able to count on him in a fight, but take him off the battlefield and what happens? How dependent is he on others? Do they have to constantly give him emotional support? (An "atta boy" here, a "don't touch the stove" there?) Do they have to make sure he eats properly? Is he a genuine ally, or just a liability — a weapon to get thrown into the fray when the fight starts?
I'd bet that if you could answer questions like those — if you could make the relationship between the manchild and his comrades clear — then you'll be in good shape.
My Wattpad — A haven for delightful degeneracy
Seconding the fact that not every child is going to be happy.
There's quiet children, shy/timid children (not the same as quiet, but they do often overlap), loud and angry children, intelligent-for-their-age children, dumb-as-a-post children, and just gloomy children. I was very shy and quiet as a kid, so I didn't roam around in perpetual cheer.
The Great One
As for avoiding making him unbearable, you'll need to have him pulling his share of the load with the group. What role does he fill? What does he do that nobody else on the team can do just as good if not better? Also if he constantly screws everything up and in general acts like a total dumbass all the time you can expect he'll start to wear pretty thin on your audience. They'll start wondering "Maybe the rest of the team would be more successful if they just plopped his ass down in front of the TV and let him watch cartoons to keep him distracted." You know you've got a bad character when the audience starts thinking "Why do his or her friends/family/coworkers/teammates put up with his or her shit?".
edited 28th Sep '14 1:58:30 AM by codytheheadlessboy
"If everybody is thinking alike, somebody isn't thinking"- George S. Patton
Professional Writer & Amateur Scholar
@Voltech, cody - Thanks for the detailed answers!
The character in question (he's named Cian, for anybody interested), he has very limited interest. Much of his trauma, vengefulness, and anger comes from being attacked by monstrous creatures. So ever since, all he was ever interested about was the monsters and how to fight them. Sometimes he plays video game with his siblings...but when he does, well, he's like those multiplayer gamers who scream profanities at others and merciless mock them, teabagging and such included.
As for why everyone's putting up with him, it's because he's a really good fighter. He is the fastest AND the hardest hitting member of the team. Where diplomacy or/and tactics don't work, they can always count on him being able to punch his way out of the trouble. What he can do, he can do better than anyone.
Outside of fighting or training, though, he's very dependent on others; people have to keep tell him to eat and rest properly, control his mood and behavior, and tell him that things are going to be okay whenever his traumatic memories kick in again.
I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.
One thing I'd suggest is establishing the Freudian Excuse as early and has emphatically as possible. If you show your audience the level of damage this guy is dealing with, they are more likely to excuse poor social behaviour.
I wish I could point you to a good example, but sadly the best manchildren I can think of in fiction are all villains. Two I'd suggest you check out regardless are Dickie and Coover Bennett from Justified. Coover's a five year old in the body of a man in his thirties, but is still useful if only because he's an absolutely brutal fighter. Dickie's a somewhat more unusual example in that he's trapped in his teens, or more accurately, at the exact moment when the protagonist crippled his leg in high school.
So, how do I write a manchild without being utterly unbearable?
In a story I'm writing right now (an OC fanfic), one of the character is a very big, strong, fast fighter...but because of a trauma in his life, is suffering from mental impairment, namely acting very childish at times. The point of his character is that despite his outward display of strength, he is a very traumatized and vulnerable person, and it's up to his friends to help him deal with that.
So, how should I go on about this?
Normally my questions would be more specific, but right now, I just have no idea at all. D:
I'm a (socialist) professional writer serializing a WWII alternate history webnovel.