I have this very complex character in my story who I am very slowly starting to get to know. Now I have some things about which I'm not completely sure and perhaps some advice might come in hand. I see him as being insecure about himself, even though he is a well known musician and girls almost worship him so to say. The reason for being so insecure is that he always doubts if people like him for who he is or because he is well known. When he really gets to know people and get a bond with them, he tends to be selfish. As in he always wants them to spend time with him and he gets jealous when he isn't invite to a party or something. An example hereof is his sister with whom he has a very close bond. When he was younger, he would get very jealous when she had a boyfriend because it meant she would spend less time with him. I picture him, however, as someone who will do almost everything in his power to make his lover happy. He is very careful in relationships and doesn't open up easily because he is afraid to get his heart broken. He himself had never experienced a hard/horrible break-up, but his sister did. Now I was wondering if the latter doesn't contradict the selfishness and makes it less believable. Someone who can shed some light on this?
Perhaps he works so hard to make his lover happy becuase he feels that ensures that he or she will spend all of their time with him. If this is the case then it feeds in to his selfishness and works nicely.
That is so simple and that would indeed work very well... I cannot believe I haven't thought of that before!
Well, there's happy and there's happy. Is he truly trying to make his lover happy, or is he doing the things that "should" make her happy? For example, if she loves to go bowling and he thinks that women should love going to a fancy candlelit dinner, which one does he do? If she's a jeans-and-tee tomboy, does he buy her those great Egyptian cotton tees that she loves as a gift, or does he buy her silk blouses? Perhaps most importantly, if she need some time to herself to follow some pursuit, does he support her in that or does he whine at her? If he does things "to make her happy" that are really the things that he thinks should make her happy, whether they do or not, then that fits with the selfishness. In that scenario, he's just feeding his ego and his need to control others.
I haven't actually thought that far yet... and this is really helpful and while I was reading it, I was almost immediaetly sure that he does buy/do things for her that he thinks that would make her happy. This is some good thinking material! Thank you for the great insight!
