Villains

Working at Breaking Free has taught me the hideous and yet all too common story of a young girl (12 or 13 years old) who meets a boy and starts dating him.  He gives her all the attention and love she’s been missing, and then one day, he turns on her.  This can happen in a horrible sudden switch where he takes her somewhere and she’s gang raped by all of his friends.  Or it can be a slower and more insidious transformation, not unlike other kinds of abusive relationships, where his behavior slowly becomes less forgiving and more demanding until he’s beating the crap out of her, pimping her out to his “friends,” and she just feels grateful that he puts up with her.

Didn’t want to hear that?  Me either.

But I did hear about it, and now when I hear people talk about “willing prostitutes,” organizations clarify that they don’t want to help “common prostitutes,” or see “happy prostitutes” in media, I want to throw things.  Instead of destroying random property, I thought I’d write a story to explain how this happens and hopefully raise the level of compassion and understanding towards American prostitutes.

Unfortunately, in order to write that story and accomplish that fantastic feat, I have to write that pimp character.  And because I don’t want to write pedantic, stupid, dichotomous drivel, I have to find some way to understand and possibly even empathize with that character.  Which is how I find myself staring the first line of dialog I’ve given the guy for three days in a row.  I’ve worked out a little bit of what the guy’s motivation is, but I just can’t bring myself to write his physical description, can’t move my protagonist in his direction.

So here is creative compassion at its apex, trying to feel for the worst kind of villain, trying to imitate a life I wish had never existed.  Writers that I admire create villains that are so dynamic, so powerful, and so true to life.  They write villains that are fully evil and fully human.  God have mercy on me, and enable me to do the same.