The Inner Monologue of Creating a Harsh Character

Dunno about you, but harsher characters tend to seep into my stories one way or another. I don't condone their actions and the unsavory attitudes they have on occasion, but they happen one way or another. And occasionally, such as during the preplanning for this last NaNoWriMo, I feel like I'm doing it wrong. 

Seriously, call me crazy, but sometimes when I really have the feel of the character together, I get their voice in my head. They're not always there, sometimes they won't talk to me at all, but on occasion, when I ask them a question, they'll answer me.

During the prewriting for this last NaNoWriMo, the character that was giving me grief was one of the boat crew. I think I forgot to tell you this before, but I had a crew of nine people total, Javi included, and I tried my hardest to make them all unique, memorable characters. I probably failed at it miserably, but c'est la vie. *shrug* The character I was having a hard time with was a really big, really scary white cat named Ales (pronounced like Alice, but more masculine). As it was, it took me almost all day just to get his name out of him. That conversation went as such:

Me: Um, maybe Kevin?

Him: No.

Me: Jared?

Him: Do I look like the boy from Spiderwick to you?

Me: Okay, fine. I'll try a different nationality. *I begin fishing through Czech names*

Me: How about. . . Ales?

Him: Hmmm. . . Wait, you're getting this from Madagascar 3, aren't you?

Me: Shut up.

Him: *makes an angry face, won't look at me*

Me: Fine, then do you have any better ideas?

Him: ... No.

Me (now worn out with his crap): Then will 'Ales' work?

Him: ... Fine. You can name me Ales.

Me: Thank you.

Worse yet was when I was trying to find his motivation. The entire time I was trying to work out his character, both he and I were trying to keep him from slipping into the abyss that is horrible flat mean characters. I didn't want him rampaging around the ship like an idiot, scaring Javi for no reason, and he didn't want to come off as a total jerk (which, by the way, he let me know on no uncertain terms). I'm not kidding, I've never had to fight a character more than I had to fight him. Does this happen to anyone else, or am I just slowly going insane??

Everything that I suggested as a motivation or even something he liked, he rejected. He would completely shut down any ideas I had. It was a terrible day of prewriting, just because I was trying to get him right before I moved on. The mental conversation of this bit went like so:

Me: So what do you want? What drives you in this story?

Him: *won't even manifest himself to me, refuses to talk*

Me: Ales, come on, talk to me. We both want to get this right. Work with me here.

Him: *pretends he doesn't know me*

Me: Why are you like this.

Me: *still sitting here, bangs head against desk* Please help me here. I'm ready to be done with writing for the day.

Him:

Me: Do me a favor here.

Him:

Me: Dude.

Him: *arms crossed, back facing me, finally looks over his shoulder with a bratty expression* You're writing me all wrong.

Me (starting off quietly): Well, maybe if you HELPED ME WITH SOMETHING

Him: You're making me too mean. I don't want to be this mean.

Me: I agree. But I really don't know what to do with you.

Him:

Me: So... are you going to help me out here? What do you want? In fact, you don't really seem to like anyone at the moment, so why did you help the others buy the skyboat in the first place?

Him:

Me:

Him(whispering): I wanted to join for the adventure.

Me, unable to handle how sweet that is coming from this character

And that is the sweet and tender story of how I worked out Ales's character. He was one of the hardest ones to write, and his specific motivation was never brought up in the novel, but every time he was in the scene, I had this little smile on the inside just thinking about that one cute little detail.

Just goes to show you that eventually, they'll talk to you. Just give them enough time.

Please tell me. Does this happen to you, or is it just me slowly spiraling into madness? What was that one detail that really made the character come alive for you? Please tell me in the comments!

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