Bullies as Muse: A Case Study in Character Development
By Guest | October 3, 2023 |
Gary Braver is the award-winning, international bestselling author of nine critically acclaimed medical thrillers and mysteries including FLASHBACK, which received a starred review in Publishers Weekly. Three of his novels have been optioned for movies, including Elixir by director Ridley Scott.
Braver (Choose Me) skillfully alternates timelines in this unpredictable whodunit set in Cambridge, Mass. – Publishers Weekly
Under his real-life name, Gary Goshgarian, he is also an award-winning Professor Emeritus of English and fiction writing at Northeastern University, and has taught fiction-writing workshops throughout the United States and Europe.
With his 10th novel, RUMOR OF EVIL, releasing TODAY, October 3, it’s a pleasure to welcome Gary to WU!
In 2014, two 12-year-old girls from Wisconsin were arrested for the brutal knife attack of a 12-year old girlfriend. They told police that they stabbed their friend some twenty times because they wanted to appease Slender Man, a supernatural cartoon humanoid on the Internet, because they believed that the creature would kill their family. Luckily, their victim survived. And the two attackers remain in a psychiatric institution.
What drives kids to commit such senseless acts? Compelled by this question, I turned to research and uncovered insights about another, related scourge that threatens the emotional and physical health of school-age children: bullying.
There’s nothing inspiring about bullies. But the research I did to better understand them and their mindsets ultimately inspired my idea for the cold case at the center of my new thriller: adolescents committing a brutal crime.
From there, the character development process began. Here’s what my process looked like for Rumor of Evil:
Design a personality
According to studies, the most common characteristic of bullied victims is that they’re “different.” In appearances, they might be overweight, small, gangly, disfigured, or unattractive. Also their behavior is “odd”—they talk with a lisp or accent, they’re shy, insecure, and appear weak. Sometimes they’re from a different social, ethnic, religious or economic status; or as kids, they’re considered bad luck and friendless. In short, they’re outsiders to the accepted adolescent “norm.”
Although upsetting and disturbing, it is a sad reality that such stereotypes can hold and that they can permeate the minds of impressionable young people. So I designed my bully-victim to display characteristics that could have exactly that effect on young people: a 16-year-old Romany exchange student named Vadima Lupescu. Although she’s very attractive, she arrives in upscale Lexington, Massachusetts from a rural Slovakia in uncool outfits, speaking English with an accent. She also has strange customs, such as taking off her shoes when entering a home or standing up when the teacher enters a classroom.
Early on, her high school classmates have fun Americanizing Vadima—taking her to the mall to get her cool outfits, introducing her to hotdogs and backyard barbecues, and getting rid of those braids. They also treat her to a rock concert and give her a cool nickname, Lulu.
Examine stereotypes and their consequences
Given that this is a murder mystery, things needed to turn dark. I thought about how, often, the damning stereotypes people believe can lead to even more damning (and even lethal) behavior.
Back in the 2000s when this storyline was set, people were a lot less aware of sensitivities than they are today, and were more prone to glaringly mocking people different from themselves. Romany (also known as Roma) people — were often targets of this. Stereotypes about them included “being gypsises who put curses on people; in olden times they spread diseases like the Black Plague; they drink the blood of Christian babies; they worship Satan and are witches in disguise.”
Although upsetting and disturbing, it is a sad reality that such stereotypes can hold and that they can permeate the minds of impressionable young people — as was ultimately the case in Rumor of Evil.
Draw upon history
Yes, these are damning myths that go back centuries, but my intent was to reflect the superstitious adolescent mindset that triggered the 1692 Salem witch trials. Centuries later, the dangerous phenomenon of bullying and scapegoating persists today, especially in some attitudes regarding outsiders, particularly immigrants.
As for the actual crime, the history of witches during the Middle Ages had one universal punishment—burning at the stake. And therein lay the “cold case” that haunts the present-day murder investigation.
Understand the underlying motivations
Just as all writers need to understand their characters’ motivations, I also needed to understand what motivates young bullies to victimize others. What I garnered from various studies are some traits of adolescent bullies. They are kids who are driven to show they’re powerful and superior–kids who want to impress their friends; who are hot tempered; who may have family problems that make them jealous of their victims’ personality, appearance, skills, and stable family lives. And to get even, bullies convince others to dislike those victims, turning revenge into a complicitous activity effectively spreading the guilt.
With this detail in mind, the archetypal Bully became my muse.
Do your research.
Research pays off, in more ways than meets the eye. It can open the imagination and inspire new ideas as it did for me. And it can provide the granular detail needed to build characters, settings, timelines and rich detail.
As trite as it sounds, sometimes truth is stranger than fiction. Believe me, I could not have made up the Slender Man case. Nor could I have imagined being inspired by the very people — bullies — who have caused so much grief among both children and adults. But as I’ve discovered during my decades of writing, often society’s most disturbing trends, such as scapegoating and prejudice, can be excellent fodder for books — including bestsellers and blockbusters. This was certainly the case for Steven King. For crime and thriller writing in particular, designing characters and stories from some of the ugliest headlines lies at the heart of the craft.
What disturbing trends in society have inspired your stories and characters, and how have you incorporated these into your work? How did you research them in order to convey them authentically on the page? Did you find the projects difficult or engaging as an artist? The floor is yours.
Many thanks to today’s guest.
You can read more WU guest posts by visiting this link.
I’m confused. Is your character Romanian, I.e. from the country of Romania?, Or a Romani, person from an itinerant group , originally from Northern India, know colloquially as gypsies? Sometimes also known Roma?
Thank you for the question. Roberta. No, the character of Vadima Lupescu is not Romanian –a confusion that is often made–but is Roma, also called Romany, and wrongly called Gypsies because centuries ago they were thought to be from Egypt because of their dark complexions. In reality, Roma people are a distinct ethnic group of itinerants originated in northern India in the Middle Ages and now live worldwide including throughout Europe including Slovakia where she is from.
The storyline is set in the early 2000s, when people were a lot less aware of sensitivities around various ethnic and social groups, and the bullies in the story were all the more brutal because of that.
My hope is that RUMOR OF EVIL will dramatize how brutal (to the point of being lethal) it can be when stereotypes shape people’s thoughts and behavior.
What a fascinating subject! Thank you so much for sharing. Your article brought back a somewhat unpleasant memory for me about not being bullied, but being the bully. Actually, I hung out with a clique of popular girls who started the whole thing. There was a new girl in school (I went to parochial school where we had to wear a uniform) who was rather homely looking, over-weight, and had weird hair. She had a very large nose and to us, talked funny. She didn’t have a dad and had moved to our town (Hilo, Hawaii) from the mainland. So we “befriended” her. Took her shopping for more stylish clothes, went with her to get her hair done, invited her to parties, let her hang out with us at school. The thing is, I really liked her. I enjoyed being her friend. Then we suddenly dropped her, stopped inviting her places, pretty much ignored her. It really hurt her feelings. Her mother scolded us, and my friends just laughed it off; they thought it was funny. I wanted to continue my friendship with her, and when my friends found out, they started bullying me instead. So to get back in their good graces, I started being mean to my new friend. I feel guilty and ashamed about it to this day. It’s hard being a teenager. If I could go back in time and change anything, it would be to ignore what my friends wanted me to do and to continue being this poor girl’s friend.
I’ve never used this bully scenario in any of my books, but now you have me thinking about giving it a try.
You make a rare and brave confession that you were an actual bully in school rather than someone bullied. The victim you describe has some of the classic features—a girl who physically and behaviorally outside the “norm” of adolescent acceptance.
The fact that you first befriended her, making her feel like an “insider,” is what I did for a time with the characters in Rumor of Evil. And when things turned sour for some reason, you and your friends decided to drop her, to ostracize her which was no doubt painful for that girl. Interesting that to remain in good graces with your friends, you turned mean to that poor kid. That’s what bullies do: Turn others against their victim, convincing them that she or he is a “loser.” It’s what I dramatized in my book and with sad consequences.
That’s a familiar pattern, especially with adolescent girls for whom group acceptance is so important. And you’re right: Being a teenager is tough since kids are going through body changes, self-doubt, confusion, and the pressure to succeed academically and socially. As for the victim, those changes coupled with social rejection may explain why more girls attempt suicide than boys.
It’s too bad that teenagers don’t come to the same wisdom that you did as an adult. So, give it a try in your own books.
What a great topic! I cringed reading about the victim’s characteristics–that’d be me except I came from the old-old world. I had the gypsy-like qualities with the long hair, strange clothes, plus I did some fortune-telling to earn extra money and would shout nonsense Sanskrit or Hindi words when I was bullied. It scared them. How I wished I were a real witch. But I simply focused on being the best at whatever I did–kids hated me for that too. You just can win sometimes. I look forward to reading Rumor of Evil, and perhaps I will return to this time in my life–maybe take revenge like Stephen King’s Carrie :) or perhaps write a more grace-filled story of forgiveness. Redemption, anyone?
I was reading an interesting article a while back about how witch-burnings etc. went on the rise with the decline of exorcisms. There is a human need to have a scapegoat. Bp. Barron has a wonderful little video about it. Thank you for getting those writing gears turning… and happy book birthday!
Dear Vijaya,
Thank you for your comments. It sounds as if you would greatly identify with my character of Vadima Lupescu, the bullied victim in RUMOR OF EVIL. I did not make her a young woman with supernatural witch-like powers to get back as Stephen King did in CARRIE. But there is a brief, shining moment of forgiveness before all the bad stuff happens. And glad to hear that in a way you got back by being the best you could be. Their loss for not accepting you.
You’re right, about the human need for scapegoats–such a fundamental instinct, where outsiders are considered inferior and dangerous. During the Middle Ages some estimated 50,000 people (mostly female) were burned at the stake. And as you know, in 1692 eighteen people were hanged in Salem and Boston and one man was pressed to death with rocks, refusing to confess that he was a witch. I used the Salem Witch Trials in an earlier novel called THE STONE CIRCLE. One of the most startling lines from one of the accused (I believe Goodwife Biddle) was something like this: “Sir, I don’t know what a witch is.” All too often accusers were claiming so-and-so was a witch for mindless reasons, like her cow broke my fence and was eating my grass. Or political and religious ones.
I hope if you do read RUMOR OF EVIL it does not bring back sad memories but a few hours of reading pleasure.
Thank you for this. Bullies spreading the guilt explains something I’ve been struggling with, because I’ve experienced this in adults as well as children. I’m exploring the reasons why someone would agree with and support a bully.
Hi, Dawn Byrne4,
Thank you for your comment.
The research I did on bullying created a profile of the bully as kids (male of female) who are the so-called “alpha” teens, who are driven to show that they are powerful and superior–kids who want to impress their friends. They’re often aggressive and hot tempered; they may have family problems that make them jealous of their victim’s stable family life as well as their personality, appearance, and skills. So to get even, bullies convince others to dislike those victims, turning revenge into a complicitous activity effectively diluting the guilt while making victims feel rejected and of low-esteem.
So, those who would support the bully are people–young and old–who want to appease those “powerful” and “superior” individuals who turn others against their victims. Thus, as not to lose the bully’s approval, others go along with the scapegoating. Such behavior patterns are what guided me in writing RUMOR OF EVIL.
If you get a copy of Rumor of Evil, I hope the book successfully dramatizes such behavior for you while filling a few hours of reading enjoyment.
Good post, Gary. I would add that, in creating the character of the bully, the writer needs to avoid the literary evil of stereotyping. Like any antagonist, the bully needs to be well-developed to be credible.
Hi Christine,
You’re absolutely. And I did my best to avoid stereotypes by fleshing out the bullies, giving them credible reasons why the scapegoated their victim.
I don’t think real bullies, especially adolescent ones, look in the mirror and say, “That’s the face of a bully.” They come up with sweet-smelling reasons why they antagonize another person. In RUMOR OF EVIL, I worked hard to give each of the bullying characters a legitimate justification for their actions. And I’m gratified by the pre-publication reviews.
From “Publishers Weekly”:
“Braver interweaves a convincing police procedural and a character-driven high
school drama, bringing both threads to a surprising and satisfying resolution.”
From “Booklist”:
“Suspenseful and fast paced, with unexpected and shocking twists, this dark story is filled with flawed, all-too-
human characters, tense family relationships, and a haunting conclusion. Highly recommended.”
If you get a copy, I hope you agree.
Gary, thanks for an interesting explanation of how a real-life horror and the psychology behind it led to your story. It’s a great example of creativity in action — your use of divergent thinking, plasticity, and convergent thinking. Congrats on the new book and happy launch day!
Dear Leslie,
Thank you for your kind words and wishes. I hope if you pick up acopy of the book that it lives up to expectations, and keeps you up guessing.
Best,
Gary
Hi Gary – I enjoyed reading about your process. It’s especially interesting to learn how your yreaction to one event (the Slender Man tragedy) led you to research bullying and then …. the Salem Witch trials. It just goes to show: nothing is ever linear when we’re writing!
Looking forward to grabbing a copy of Rumor of Evil and seeing how this all comes together on the page.
Hi Sharon,
Thank you for comments, and I’m glad you sensed how research into the Slender Man case led to deeper explorations including the Salem witch trials which led me to reading the transcript of the actual trials–so startling to see the ignorance, prejudice and brutality of the so-called high-pious judges.
I hope you enjoy the book.
Gary
Just to point out that burning wasn’t a universal punishment for witchcraft. Burning was a catholic punishhment in Europe. Protestants preferred hanging for the most part, and this included most of the vivtims of the Salem Witch Trials. But none of them were burned at the stake.
Hello, Harris,
Thank you for your comment.
Yes, you’re right, and I should have qualified the term “universal”. Catholics burned and Protestants hanged their victims. Whatever, such barbarity in the name of God and political subtexts.
In 1692, 19 people executed for witchcraft following the infamous Salem Witch Trials–eighteen were hanged, and one man was pressed to death with rocks, told he would be allowed to live were he to confess to being a witch. As with several other victims of those outrageous kangaroo court proceedings, the accused did not know what a witch was.
In a previous novel, THE STONE CIRCLE, I included a few flashback scenes on a fictitious Boston Harbor island where an archaeological team unearthed a buried stone circle—a la Stonehenge. In one flashback to the late 17th century, a woman is executed by fire for witchcraft. And I put in her mouth to the accusers what one actual victim—I believe “Goodwife Biddle”—exclaimed in the transcripts of those trials: “Sir, I do not know what a witch is.”
A few years later, the presiding judge, Samuel Sewell, apologized as did the other judges, jurors and accusers, but that was no consolation to the families.