thoughts, words, deeds

changing minds

Prompt: If you have ever met a highly manipulative person, what are the characteristics, actions, or feelings of such a person? Or if you haven’t met one, can you imagine what they’d be like, and could you use such a character in your fiction? Can you make him or her the protagonist, antagonist, or a secondary character?

Yes, I’ve met highly manipulative people. In fact, in some ways, my grandmother and mother fall into that category. The thing is, it’s possible to manipulative and not mean with it—it frustrates me sometimes, the way my mother is, but she doesn’t do it maliciously. She does it because that was what she was taught. And her mother—well, Grandma was a difficult woman who led a difficult life. It’s too easy to assume that someone who is manipulative does it for their own gain—some people do it because they want what’s best for other people and think they know how to get there. Frustrating. But not hurtful.

So, the important thing to remember in fiction is that a character needs more dimensions than just the one. Sure, a person moves behind the scenes to make sure things work out the way she thinks best, but what are the motivations. What’s the end goal? Is it selfish or is it selfless or somewhere in between? Does the character take into account people who are harder to manipulate, and how does he or she deal with them? Is he or she able to work things around so that what she wants them to do is something they come up with on their own, given minimal prodding?

We all manipulate or situations and the people around us when work to make things go the way we want them to. Arguments, discussions, conversations—at the core, we are talking to express our world view and perhaps, seeing the world through the other person in the conversation’s eyes. And if we change or if someone else is changed in the process . . . well, that’s living in a world where we are not alone.

So, given that, I think that I have and would use a manipulative character in fiction as any one of the kinds of characters, depending on the story.