How to write a story when you don't care about other people

[Ryu-Gi]

What the title says, anyone know how to do it?

[MaiMai]

To be honest this is way too vague to answer. Are you asking how to write when you lack empathy or lack of care for other people's opinions or character's opinions?

Minor Edit: and to give something of an answer, I'd just recommend reading books. What kind of books, well that depends on what you're interested in the first place and what subject and genre you're trying to touch upon.

[Ryu-Gi]

I mean I don't really like other people in general. It's easier when they're characters in a story, but even then I find I don't always understand why people will make certain choices.

In real life I typically see other people as a blur, they're meaningless blobs that I only interact with if I need something. I only managed to make real friends once I got into college, and even then, it was over a video game. Given, I still value their opinions, respect them as people, and are concerned for them reaching their goals, but I find myself dissapointing them a lot, especially in the past year or so, due to them giving me advice, and me thinking I've taken it and fixed everything, only to come back and find things are actually worse off. A lot of people have tried to help me, I've always ended up pissing them off due to my inability to change.

I got into a huge fight with my friend earlier today because I just finished reading "Kawawa Shojou", in the Hanako Arc. I understood that their relationship works because they're united in their suffering, but t be completley honest I think that Hisao is in no way on the same level as Hanako. In terms of disabilities, he's got it made. He can still function almost completely normally, for crap's sake. In the end I think he's lying to himself (Not on purpose mind you) that he and Hanako are in the same boat, because he's not.

That's basically what I'm dealing with here.

EDIT: I also want to mention I almost never get "warm fuzzy feels", so stories where characters are all happy and stuff upset me because I can't get into it. I prefer dark, Gothic, moody, violent, tragic stuff. That kind of thing typically gets me more emotionally involved. Oh, and I absolutely hate stories taking place in Japanese High Schools where everyone's wearing a uniform, they're so lazy and overdone.

[Applegate]

Consider writing about someone who doesn't care about other people, either as MC or as focal point of the story. Write what you know.

EDIT: To expand a bit, you could write about such a person being trapped in a world where humans have been replaced by robots. He's okay with this.

You can write a hundred stories where there need not ever be a human character besides the MC, and another hundred where the MC isn't even human. If you fear you can't write realistic humans because you don't understand them, and/or do not have the capacity to care to understand them, consider writing your own world. It's different from the norm, which makes it likeable by default. I recall reading a story from the point of view of an autistic kid, and it was incredibly refreshing and fun to read.

[dramspringfeald]

write a story about a person that doesn't care about other people. Explore the issue. Why does this character have this issue. Don't ask yourself, Ask the character. Look at it from the outside prescriptive.

How does THIS effect those around them? Is the character cynical? If so why? Is the character damaged? how?

You could do a whole series of characters working their way through their issues. It's kind of how many games are made.

[Auro-Cyanide]

Given that my opinion is that what makes a writer a good writer is their ability to empathise with their characters in a way that truly breathes life into them, I feel someone who lacks empathy might have... issues with fiction. You can most definitely have un-empathetic characters, but if the whole cast was like that it would be extremely off-putting. Empathy is one of the core reasons people read fiction in the first place after all. I read a book where just one character had zero empathy for anyone else and just lied and destroyed her way through the story and I hated her. Which is good, that was meant to be my reaction. But if that was everyone then I'm just going to rage quit that. Usually what makes characters with no empathy work is their contrast to characters with empathy. Or, contrast with the readers themselves. Characters with no empathy tend to be disliked because of that reason, since it's one of our core reactions as humans. Though one of the exceptions to that I can think of is when you create empathy for that character from the reader, for example an android not understanding what it did wrong.

Maybe you could consider writing something more non-fiction based perhaps? Alternately you could learn more about writing convincing characters and getting inside their heads, which in turn might help you learn more empathy. Getting into someone else's shoes is the key to empathy, which is key to writing characters. Knowing what they would do is understanding their past, present and future as well as they would. This is a lot easier if you can figure out how to feel as they would, instead of reacting as you would normally. A war survivor is going to react differently to a siren compared to a kid who grew up without knowledge of danger.

[SundownKid]

Generalizing like that is a bit sociopathic, most people care about SOME people or at least others as a whole, otherwise they wouldn't be writing stories in the first place. After all, a story's basic purpose is for others to read and obtain knowledge from it. Whether it's fiction or not, that's the same principle.

It's impossible to write a story if you truly don't care about anyone, because then writing a story would be pointless in the first place. An author must be able to empathize with the characters they are writing in order to "put themselves in their mind" and not just write about how THEY would respond in that situation. An author must be comfortable writing about a wide variety of people, including those who have a different outlook on the world, personalities, ages, etc.

Basically not caring about anyone defeats the point of writing a story. The fact that you are almost never happy when reading a story sounds a bit concerning to be honest, this coming from a person who is a bit of a shut in myself... Though, it's understandable if you don't like "cute" stories as I don't like saccharine-sweet things either and prefer more mature fare.

[arachni42]

I mean I don't really like other people in general. It's easier when they're characters in a story, but even then I find I don't always understand why people will make certain choices.

What is it that motivates you to write? Why do you want to write?

[Tempus]

I agree that empathy is needed to write convincing characters, but I don't think sympathy is. I think someone can still be a good, empathetic writer and not care about others. That being said, in my experience empathy tends to bring about sympathy a lot of the time. Empathy comes with experience - direct, as well as vicarious (e.g., such as via stories others tell, whether fictional or true). A lot of people I've known have worked in retail or fast food joints and though I haven't myself, I have experienced the stress of being understaffed and (unnecessarily) overworked before. The anecdotes I've heard as well as my own experiences allow me to guess at how the waiter at a really busy restaurant feels. This doesn't mean I have to give a damn about how they feel; but I at least understand it. (That being said, I always try to be polite and quick when being served!)

If you feel motivated to write, then write. You don't need to write for others. I write for myself because I have something I want to get out of me and articulate. I want to see it and read it back and have it concrete, rather than remain as ephemeral, disjointed thoughts floating around in my head. Edmund Snow Carpenter’s book, “They Became What They Beheld”, touches on this point. The book itself is out of print, but there’s a nice summary of it on YouTube by the user Vihart.

• “If you address yourself to an audience, you accept at the outset the basic premises that unite the audience. You put on the audience, repeating clichés familiar to it. But artists don’t address themselves to audiences; they create audiences. The artist talks to [themselves] out loud. If what [they] have to say is significant, others hear and are affected.” - Edmund Snow Carpenter

As for how to do it. Well, start by writing. You have to write stories to get good at them, just as you have to draw to get good at drawing. And work on empathy. Try to figure out why people behave the way they do. Listen to stories outside the scope of your usual haunts. Imagine yourself in other people's circumstances as you go to sleep at night. Also, write what you know.

[Auro-Cyanide]

@Tempus, I think you might have underestimated empathy. Empathy is seen as a deeper emotional connection than sympathy. Sympathy is the recognition of another's suffering (say, you feel sympathy when someone has a relative pass away). Empathy is the ability to feel that pain. If one can not feel sympathy, they are unlikely to experience empathy either. Understanding someone's experience is not empathy, you need to be able to feel that experience. That will define good writing, when the understanding turns into actual emotion, when our hearts hurt as badly as the characters, or when they are filled with joy, so do we. Understanding is only the first step, the next is to assimilate it with our own experiences.

Empathy is one of the defining traits of most communal animals, including humans, because it is crucial in order to keep groups together. For it to work, you need to do more than understand, that is too logical. Say if someone's baby dies, you need to do more than recognise their pain. You need to feel what it would be like to loose your own child, only then will you get close to seeing things from their point of view. A lack of empathy almost always leads to conflict.

Basically, it's the difference between saying you're sorry and actually apologising.

[OokamiKasumi]

How to write a story when you don't care about other people?

Short answer: Don't use Human characters.

I'm one of those people that doesn't like humanity in general. I have a handful of friends I do like, and care very deeply for, but I didn't meet any of those people until I was in my last year of high school.

Quite literally, the first people to betray me were my own parents. Both parents lied --all the time-- and when I caught them in their lies, either blew it off, or tried to convince me that it was My Fault that they lied, and used physical violence to make their point. School didn't not improve my opinion of people at all. In fact, it pretty much reinforced my belief that humanity in general was selfish, vindictive, and gleefully, self-destructive. After I threw my own father out of the house --physically-- it got better, but that didn't happen until my last year of high school.

Long story, short... I really didn't like people for a very long time. Kind of hard to trust anyone when your own family --the people that are supposed to love you-- aren't trustworthy.

So! If you don't like people, don't use People as characters. Use them as Villains. My first characters were Dogs and the story was a gory little ghost tale about Revenge against a human murderer. In fact, it was the first story I got published.

Also, writing a nice little bloody tale about villains getting their rightfully earned punishment can be very satisfying.

...I just finished reading "Kawawa Shojou", in the Hanako Arc. I understood that their relationship works because they're united in their suffering, but to be completely honest I think that Hisao is in no way on the same level as Hanako. In terms of disabilities, he's got it made. He can still function almost completely normally, for crap's sake. In the end I think he's lying to himself (Not on purpose mind you) that he and Hanako are in the same boat, because he's not.

You're right, he's Not in the same boat physically, but he was Emotionally, and that was the story's point; Emotional Connection.

You're looking at the plot Logically, which Must be done to make a story's Plot water-tight. The plot for "Kawawa Shojou" is definitely Not water-tight. It has plot holes big enough to drive a truck through. However, the Emotional Arc was water-tight.

Just so you know, almost all stories written by Japanese authors, and the authors that emulate them, tend to have huge plot-holes. This is because they tend to focus on the Emotional Arc; the Emotional problem in the story, not the external problem; the Plot Arc. The reason for this is Cultural. If you delve into Japanese culture, especially on the roots of their culture, it becomes pretty clear why they focus so strongly on settling the internal Emotional problem, rather than Fix the external Plot problem.

For someone Not born and raised in Japan, this style of story feels Unfinished.

Follow your instincts.
-- If something doesn't feel right, it probably Isn't right.

[gekiganwing]

EDIT: I also want to mention I almost never get "warm fuzzy feels", so stories where characters are all happy and stuff upset me because I can't get into it. I prefer dark, Gothic, moody, violent, tragic stuff. That kind of thing typically gets me more emotionally involved.

In that case, don't try to write upbeat slice of life. Think about what you like in bleak stories. Consider creating something similar. If you're ready and willing to create a VN, think about writing two lists first: one for things you want to include, and one for things you want to exclude. (This idea is taken from the Nanowrimo founder's book No Plot? No Problem!)

[dramspringfeald]

Again. these people have no clue how much of an interesting character and story that would be.

OP obviously has suffered some sort of trauma. THIS would be an interesting dive into WHY or what it is. Not Caring is Apathy, Apathy is unprocessed issues on the mind and the heart. SO Have the Main character mirror yourself or your ideas about yourself and have the others emulate the conversations you have about your "Lack of Emotion" with other people.

Think of it as Therapy. Many writers and artists use this as a way to walk through their issues and or figure out what they are. That was the whole point of Neon Genisus Evangalion. He wrote it while dealing with home problems and maybe you should give it a try.

[arachni42]

OP obviously has suffered some sort of trauma.

It's likely enough, but not the only possibility. In any case, an exploration of that would make an interesting story, especially since the OP has reflected on these issues. That's why I'd be interested in knowing what purpose the OP is writing for (or, why they're concerned), or why they feel not caring about other people has been a roadblock to their writing.

There is definitely no obligation to write fuzzy-wuzzy stories, and if you aren't into it, it won't work very well anyway. Writing dark, moody stuff, writing about yourself, and writing about things other than people are all fine suggestions.

[Taleweaver]

This thread is not "Analyze the OP". Everybody, please hold your internal psychiatrist back. I know he's in every one of us, but this is not the time to let him out.

Aside from that, there are plenty of stories to be told where emotion and caring about other people is hardly important. Look at the classic Sherlock Holmes mysteries, for example. While a few of them have perpetrators with mostly emotional motives, Holmes himself is a character quite devoid of any personal emotion (aside from the thrill he gets from the hunt) who tries not to get involved with other people. In fact, any sort of whodunit would probably work well without that emotional part. Some work better if the "detective" is emotionally attached to the case, but that's not a prerequisite. And whodunits make good VN material.

Also, classic "societal SF" could work well. Read a few of Asimov's short stories where he describes a future where man pretty much doesn't need to work because there's an army of robotic slaves that does everything. Asimov's stories are about what happens in a society like that one. If the robots were actually sentient beings capable of at least simulating emotions, would there be "robots rights activists"? If one robot, because of a programming error, dared think that he didn't want to be a slave, how would that affect other robots, and what does that mean for man? Maybe free will itself is just a "programming error" in us men? SF is great for exploring philosophical questions. And philosophical questions make good VN material.

If you can only write rational stories, then use that to you advantage. Rationalize. Read up on a few of the great rational thinkers and get your ideas from there.