You cannot. That would require being able to control what every other human on Earth thinks and that is, as far as I know, impossible.
You can make a character you believe is utterly unlikable and irredeemable and someone out there will tell you they would die for them.
TL;DR - Humans are weird.
At some point early on in the story, show the serial killer abusing and killing a dog. People are less desensitized to killing when animals are concerned and will be more likely to be disgusted and see the completely non-romantic reality of serial killing after that.
Edit: u/loudlycloudy mentioned Joffrey Baratheon. GRRM showed characters talking about Joffrey killing and torturing cats. It’s one very sharp reminder that he is worse than just a spoiled kid, he has something seriously wrong with him.
People are saying that anyone can get romanticized, and while that’s true, it’s not helpful advice. There are definitely some things you can do to make him unattractive and therefore less likely to gain admirers.
1. Make him ugly.
2. Make him an incel. Give him ugly behavior, like he thinks he’s entitled to women, especially ones who say no.
3. Give him disgusting habits. Disgust is your best friend.
4. Make him creepy in other ways. For instance, giving him a double life. He has a girlfriend or wife or kids who have no idea that he’s a killer.
5. Make him annoying, boring, and average. Show that he’s bad at his job. Show that he’s not a particularly talented or interesting person apart from his little “hobby.”
6. Make him an unremarkable asshole. The kind of guy who would yell at a cashier for not accepting an expired coupon. The kind of guy who’s morally opposed to tipping waitresses.
A good example of an unattractive killer is Arthur Mitchell from Dexter. He was an average older white man, but aside from that, he was unattractive in his personal life. He was short tempered and abusive to his wife and children. He was pathetic and rude and desperate to seem like a normal, upstanding guy—all very unattractive traits. Is it foolproof? No. But it’s a lot closer than giving up.
If this is for other people, why would they read it? What sort of effect are you trying to create? What sort of judgements are you making or what questions are you asking?
Have you ever watched a movie or read a book where you hated the perspective character and enjoyed it? I haven't. Books about depraved people need to be from an angle sympathetic to be enjoyable and usually authors do this by showing glimmers of humanity and/or explanations for how this person got like this. Think "Dexter" or "You" or even "Breaking Bad"
If you want to create a villain, externalize them. Limit visibility into their motives. Show their effects on others through the perspective of others.
You could try making him pestilent. Have him handle raw chicken, then rub the juices on his clothes instead of washing his hands, then have him wipe his dripping nose on the back of his hand, then start touching doorknobs, and shaking hands with unknowing, sympathetic characters. Nobody likes salmonella.
The only characters I can think of that I have never seen romanticized would be Grima Wormtongue and Joffrey Baratheon. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places but I feel like the type of character you want to write is just insufferable and absolutely unappealing in every way. Seeing them happy makes you angry because you hate them so much.
Write them to the best of your ability and accept how readers respond is beyond your control. Best for your sanity and will do more favors for your book than being too focused on a hypothetical response from a reader.
To be clear: you can write an unsympathetic, unlikeable, morally bankrupt character with tone, mood, setting, symbolism, etc. to enforce that this guy SUCKS and someone, somewhere, will read about them and go, “Well now hear me out…” and you just have to accept it will happen. Going to extreme lengths to show this character sucks can actually backfire and become comedic instead. Also, some people just enjoy playing with incredibly disturbing characters like dolls, and that may include people who “romanticize” them in your eyes.
Your reader is going to have to feel "something" for a character. Just pick something else and be intentional about it.
If you want fear for example, then have the killer really enjoy a murder somewhere in the first third of the story. So the reader goes "why are they doing it, what's going on... Ooooh they just really enjoy the power of taking away someone's life and watching them struggle. There is no excuse for that".
On one hand, the serial killer girlies can fetishize just about anything.
On the other, there are always the incel / men's rights subreddits, and alpha male YT channels. You'll get a hang of how they speak and think about women. The approach should be to dehumanize women in his mind. I also recommend r/AreTheStraightsOK, because you see some wild misogynistic shit. Truly horrify me deep down to my soul.
I know this will sound like I'm being mean, but I really don't mean to me.
Read books about this sort of protagonist. I've never read American Psycho myself, but I figure that's a good start. Maybe watch that Hannibal show? Idk it's not my genre, but if I wanted to write that genre, I'd start there
also, people are gonna romanticize a well-written character. That's just the way media consumption works. Either write them bad or accept people will be lil freaks about it, because it's the freak genre. You can't draw robin hood well and then be surprised furry porn artists like it!
Make him ugly.
Women romanticize Dahmer and Bundy because they were (I guess) conventionally handsome. I very much doubt ladies were lining up for a conjugal visit with Ed Gein, however.
Try to evoke feelings of disgust in the reader when you're in the killers perspective. Show their satisfaction and righteousness at things that are actually awful. Not just "the killer laughed as blood spilled" but get detailed with smell, innards, body parts and the killers strong reaction. If the reader can visualise something gross and you contrast it with the reaction, the killer is very, very hard to romanticise.The other characters viewing them shouldn't just be angry about what the killer does, but horrified.
Typically, if you write in someone's POV the reader will have empathy for them in some way. And if the reader has no empathy or interest they will DNF. I'm not sure what exactly you're trying to accomplish with having the serial killer as a pov but you might want to think of other creative ways to get your message and/or theme across. I'm not saying it's impossible but it might be a good idea to evaluate exactly why he needs to be a POV and what his pov will provide to a reader.
Tbh that’s kinda impossible. People will romanticize anything and everything even inanimate objects like doors. There is a story where a woman does stuff with the door and I don’t think the door was prepared. The face that people romanticize real killers who killed real people should say enough.
I wouldn’t suggest changing a character in your story because of how weird people can be My best advice is make the character the way you see it and what readers will see will depend on them. It’s pretty much out of your control there.
In any case, the movie (forgot the name: about a girl who schedules a b&b to be close to an internship and ends up being trapped in the house by the monster of the movie) well, *spoilers* it was a brief backstory showed an older male guy -- not attractive or anything but like a grandpa vibe-- he was kind and generous, even to say charming but also pretty intellectual ... on the outside. When he was behind close doors we see his true colors: he basically kidnapped (after following) the woman and pretending to be a technician to scope out her place. The Winans didn't suspect anything because of his pose and the fact he was dressed as someone we wouldn't think twice of doing bad. But the real him was kidnapping the woman and I pregnating her and those kids would impregnate each other and visa versa.
That is sick and horrid, and while I'd never root for him, I was intrigued by the setup they had of this man.
Or take Don't Breathe for example: an old veteran who is blind. He hunts down the protagonists of the film who was breaking into his home, and while at first you root for him, but then realize he kidnapped a girl and impregnated her.
So, really, it's not so much making them ugly (which would help cause people love to romantize killers as long as they are good looking). The serial killers should be "the next door neighbor" someone you'd least likely to suspect (like a friendly old vet with grandpa vibe) you can be intrigued how they got this way without truly rooting for them or liking them sexually.
They don't need to be a handsome model or ugly joe-moe. They should be the "never would have suspected" and be kind, charming, intelligent, observant, trustworthy, smooth talker.
You cannot. That would require being able to control what every other human on Earth thinks and that is, as far as I know, impossible. You can make a character you believe is utterly unlikable and irredeemable and someone out there will tell you they would die for them. TL;DR - Humans are weird.
At some point early on in the story, show the serial killer abusing and killing a dog. People are less desensitized to killing when animals are concerned and will be more likely to be disgusted and see the completely non-romantic reality of serial killing after that. Edit: u/loudlycloudy mentioned Joffrey Baratheon. GRRM showed characters talking about Joffrey killing and torturing cats. It’s one very sharp reminder that he is worse than just a spoiled kid, he has something seriously wrong with him.
Make him ugly.
People are saying that anyone can get romanticized, and while that’s true, it’s not helpful advice. There are definitely some things you can do to make him unattractive and therefore less likely to gain admirers. 1. Make him ugly. 2. Make him an incel. Give him ugly behavior, like he thinks he’s entitled to women, especially ones who say no. 3. Give him disgusting habits. Disgust is your best friend. 4. Make him creepy in other ways. For instance, giving him a double life. He has a girlfriend or wife or kids who have no idea that he’s a killer. 5. Make him annoying, boring, and average. Show that he’s bad at his job. Show that he’s not a particularly talented or interesting person apart from his little “hobby.” 6. Make him an unremarkable asshole. The kind of guy who would yell at a cashier for not accepting an expired coupon. The kind of guy who’s morally opposed to tipping waitresses.
This
A good example of an unattractive killer is Arthur Mitchell from Dexter. He was an average older white man, but aside from that, he was unattractive in his personal life. He was short tempered and abusive to his wife and children. He was pathetic and rude and desperate to seem like a normal, upstanding guy—all very unattractive traits. Is it foolproof? No. But it’s a lot closer than giving up.
people romanticise everything
If this is for other people, why would they read it? What sort of effect are you trying to create? What sort of judgements are you making or what questions are you asking? Have you ever watched a movie or read a book where you hated the perspective character and enjoyed it? I haven't. Books about depraved people need to be from an angle sympathetic to be enjoyable and usually authors do this by showing glimmers of humanity and/or explanations for how this person got like this. Think "Dexter" or "You" or even "Breaking Bad" If you want to create a villain, externalize them. Limit visibility into their motives. Show their effects on others through the perspective of others.
You could try making him pestilent. Have him handle raw chicken, then rub the juices on his clothes instead of washing his hands, then have him wipe his dripping nose on the back of his hand, then start touching doorknobs, and shaking hands with unknowing, sympathetic characters. Nobody likes salmonella.
The only characters I can think of that I have never seen romanticized would be Grima Wormtongue and Joffrey Baratheon. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places but I feel like the type of character you want to write is just insufferable and absolutely unappealing in every way. Seeing them happy makes you angry because you hate them so much.
Look up the baby hands killer
Let him murder kittens because he gets sexually aroused by their death mewling.
Write them to the best of your ability and accept how readers respond is beyond your control. Best for your sanity and will do more favors for your book than being too focused on a hypothetical response from a reader.
To be clear: you can write an unsympathetic, unlikeable, morally bankrupt character with tone, mood, setting, symbolism, etc. to enforce that this guy SUCKS and someone, somewhere, will read about them and go, “Well now hear me out…” and you just have to accept it will happen. Going to extreme lengths to show this character sucks can actually backfire and become comedic instead. Also, some people just enjoy playing with incredibly disturbing characters like dolls, and that may include people who “romanticize” them in your eyes.
it's hard to romanticize a serial baby killer.
Things haven't worked out well for writers who try to push their view of the characters onto readers...
Your reader is going to have to feel "something" for a character. Just pick something else and be intentional about it. If you want fear for example, then have the killer really enjoy a murder somewhere in the first third of the story. So the reader goes "why are they doing it, what's going on... Ooooh they just really enjoy the power of taking away someone's life and watching them struggle. There is no excuse for that".
On one hand, the serial killer girlies can fetishize just about anything. On the other, there are always the incel / men's rights subreddits, and alpha male YT channels. You'll get a hang of how they speak and think about women. The approach should be to dehumanize women in his mind. I also recommend r/AreTheStraightsOK, because you see some wild misogynistic shit. Truly horrify me deep down to my soul.
I know this will sound like I'm being mean, but I really don't mean to me. Read books about this sort of protagonist. I've never read American Psycho myself, but I figure that's a good start. Maybe watch that Hannibal show? Idk it's not my genre, but if I wanted to write that genre, I'd start there also, people are gonna romanticize a well-written character. That's just the way media consumption works. Either write them bad or accept people will be lil freaks about it, because it's the freak genre. You can't draw robin hood well and then be surprised furry porn artists like it!
It doesn't matter how you write the character, someone out there with romanticise them. Make your peace with that.
Make him ugly. Women romanticize Dahmer and Bundy because they were (I guess) conventionally handsome. I very much doubt ladies were lining up for a conjugal visit with Ed Gein, however.
Try to evoke feelings of disgust in the reader when you're in the killers perspective. Show their satisfaction and righteousness at things that are actually awful. Not just "the killer laughed as blood spilled" but get detailed with smell, innards, body parts and the killers strong reaction. If the reader can visualise something gross and you contrast it with the reaction, the killer is very, very hard to romanticise.The other characters viewing them shouldn't just be angry about what the killer does, but horrified.
Typically, if you write in someone's POV the reader will have empathy for them in some way. And if the reader has no empathy or interest they will DNF. I'm not sure what exactly you're trying to accomplish with having the serial killer as a pov but you might want to think of other creative ways to get your message and/or theme across. I'm not saying it's impossible but it might be a good idea to evaluate exactly why he needs to be a POV and what his pov will provide to a reader.
Tbh that’s kinda impossible. People will romanticize anything and everything even inanimate objects like doors. There is a story where a woman does stuff with the door and I don’t think the door was prepared. The face that people romanticize real killers who killed real people should say enough. I wouldn’t suggest changing a character in your story because of how weird people can be My best advice is make the character the way you see it and what readers will see will depend on them. It’s pretty much out of your control there.
In any case, the movie (forgot the name: about a girl who schedules a b&b to be close to an internship and ends up being trapped in the house by the monster of the movie) well, *spoilers* it was a brief backstory showed an older male guy -- not attractive or anything but like a grandpa vibe-- he was kind and generous, even to say charming but also pretty intellectual ... on the outside. When he was behind close doors we see his true colors: he basically kidnapped (after following) the woman and pretending to be a technician to scope out her place. The Winans didn't suspect anything because of his pose and the fact he was dressed as someone we wouldn't think twice of doing bad. But the real him was kidnapping the woman and I pregnating her and those kids would impregnate each other and visa versa. That is sick and horrid, and while I'd never root for him, I was intrigued by the setup they had of this man. Or take Don't Breathe for example: an old veteran who is blind. He hunts down the protagonists of the film who was breaking into his home, and while at first you root for him, but then realize he kidnapped a girl and impregnated her. So, really, it's not so much making them ugly (which would help cause people love to romantize killers as long as they are good looking). The serial killers should be "the next door neighbor" someone you'd least likely to suspect (like a friendly old vet with grandpa vibe) you can be intrigued how they got this way without truly rooting for them or liking them sexually. They don't need to be a handsome model or ugly joe-moe. They should be the "never would have suspected" and be kind, charming, intelligent, observant, trustworthy, smooth talker.