The Risk of Writing Ugly People Into Stories

Using the word ugly begins the risk process. Not just because it’s lazy writing, but today it’s considered offensive. Ugly gets the job done, but the modern reader needs to be eased into this descriptor with care, respect and dignity.

There are other things to consider when bringing such characters into the fore and having them take charge of part of a narrative.

Fiction often strives to elevate its characters—offering redemption arcs, emotional growth, or at the very least, some kind of sympathetic motivation. We love the flawed-but-fixable character, the tortured soul, the bruised heart. But what happens when a writer chooses not to lift someone up, but to drag them down, to reveal their most repulsive traits and leave them there, squirming?

It’s uncomfortable. Maybe that’s the point.

There’s a peculiar resistance to embracing repulsive characters—ugly in soul, mind, and body. Fiction that dares to dwell there can alienate readers, not because such characters don’t exist, but because we’re conditioned to want beauty, likability, or a clever justification. A character can kill—but only if they cry about it later.

The Gender Gap

And then there’s the great gender divide. Writers can paint male characters as monsters with disturbing ease. Hannibal Lecter. Patrick Bateman. Even Joe Goldberg from You has a fan base. But try that with a woman and see how quickly readers recoil. If she’s cold, violent, or manipulative without being conventionally hot or harbouring a tragic backstory, she’s deemed unrealistic, unlikable, or worse—badly written.

Is it truly harder to make readers stomach a repulsive female character?

Perhaps it’s because society expects women to be better. Softer. Redeemable. When they’re not, it disrupts an unspoken contract between reader and narrative—that women, even in fiction, must still be palatable. Pretty. At least pretty adjacent.

But why should fiction lie?

Not Everyone Deserves a Makeover

The world is filled with ugly people—inside and out—across all genders and age groups. Fiction has the power to explore this honestly. Not everyone gets better. Not everyone deserves a glow-up. Some people rot. Some characters do too. And maybe we need more of that. Maybe we must let go of the belief that every story must uplift us. Sometimes it should unsettle us.

Because if everyone must be at least a little pretty to earn a place in our stories… then maybe the characters are not the problem. Perhaps it’s us.

–Michael (Author of an unsettling, uncomfortable novel. SEETHINGS is downloadable and free for a limited time)