I would love it if that wasn’t the case.
I mean, it’s either if your royal isn’t behaving like your typical royal, they are some weirdo or a non-royal.
Like it is really difficult to find a purely royal story set in a fantasy or science-fiction setting where they are not the same.
At that point your character might as well be, everyday people.
It’s good to explore all sorts of character types! I try to include a wide range of personalities and backgrounds in my writing. But it is important to make sure they are characters that interest you, so they have as much care and love put into them as all your other characters.
Yuppers!
Caring and loving those character is always important for sure.
Like in one of my stories set in Alagossia, I am focusing on a mentor type character who is chosen to become the mentor rather than the hero.
It is a weird thing. 
Ooh, the chosen mentor instead of the chosen hero, that’s an interesting twist!
Exactly!
Like a story from the mentors point of view where they are chosen for their role and have to find the chosen hero to save the day.
It focuses on their struggles, ups and downs, joys, and pain as the character tries to adapt with being the chosen mentor.
I honestly thought that a story like that wouldn’t do so hot.
It’s just a matter of writing it in a way that it can do greatly depending on me or some other writer.
Honestly, I don’t think I have ever heard of a “chosen mentor” story in the fantasy or science-fiction.
That’s why there’s a distinction on “the love of money”.
It’s why some poor will never be trustworthy in finances (they are willing to do any evil thing for money)! And why especially 2nd generations rich slips in to wrongdoing. Those who work too hard but know they can make do on less may be pursuing riches but more for the conveniences that it brings than out of a belief of full necessity in it.
But everyone is really individual.
Here is another thing I’ve realized too.
Going back to billionaire Joe living in suburbia, if Joe is famous, like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos.
It’s gotta be hard for him on a social level. Like the man is living in a suburb town where non-rich people reside to blend in, only to get found about who he is, which invites the paparazzi to annoy the hell out of him along with the neighbors.
Like he can live away from people or in an area where he won’t be bothered too much. Yet there is still something.
At that point, it starts leading to so many questions and other stuff that people feel the need to ask, that would probably get on Joe’s nerves or anybody who comes into vast wealth.
Maybe I am reading way too into it but that is just a thought.
I think it has potential. It does depend on how well it’s written, but any story does. It could still be a great idea though! It’s certainly more original than most of the typical stuff you see in fantasy and sci-fi.
Yup, yup!
Dolly Parton is not blonde. She takes off the blonde wigs and dresses more conservatively so she just looks like anyone else’s grandma in suburbia.
Oh wow.
Didn’t know that.
The author may only reflect on our world, so when it comes to the rich, they’re often doing the same things—in power (or leading something), ignorant (or not caring), and posh (or they get themselves comfortable so they can save more money).
But like anyone else, the environment for which you and your parents grew up in determines your behavior, personality, thought process, and others. You can, of course, be the opposite, but it usually comes down to psychology, and within psychology, there’s only so much that truly happens with a group of people.
If Daisy grew up in a rich family, but her parents grew up in poverty, she might be completely different to the Daisy that grew up in a rich family that had always been rich, or the Daisy that grew up in poverty and became rich later in life. The funny thing about stories is that you can create alternate universes where their environments enhance their decision making and behaviors.
Personally, I do this when it comes to my weight. I think that if I’d grown up skinny and in a skinny-looking family, I wouldn’t be as kind as I would to plus sized people because I would be ignorant on being overweight. Overweight me understands that it’s hard to lose weight, that being overweight doesn’t equal being unhealthy, that I am the last one picked or the less desirable one. If I was skinny my whole life, I wouldn’t have understood these things as easily. I might’ve been the kind of person who says, “Eat right and exercise” as if it actually meant something. I might’ve been the kind of person who was mean just because you weren’t my size. I don’t know if this type of Alicia would be present, real, but in an alternate universe, I don’t doubt it.
The same thing with income status. I grew up in poverty for a good majority of my life, and honestly, it helps me become compassionate for those with lesser than because I understand the struggle. But if always had money, if there were constant hand-outs and daddy’s money to save me, I probably wouldn’t be as compassionate. I probably wouldn’t be as understanding. And I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to hang out with people who weren’t part of my social circle.
I remember reading this one Buzzfeed post that highlighted a dozen “rich person realizations” where rich people commented the most insane things that they never knew until after getting out of their social circle and life. For example, one person had said they thought everyone had a wooden fridge. Another thought it was so cramped and weird to have a three bedroom house. Someone else had said they thought everyone had multiple cars, and I think another mentioned something about always going on grand vacations and having multiple houses. Like, if you literally grow up and never get out of your bubble enough to see how the other half lives, you’ll see just how crazy it is.
But just because you grow up rich doesn’t mean your life is perfect. One of my sister’s friend’s came from a rich family. Like, they had a mini mansion and multiple cars and always had or did the coolest things. But from what I’ve heard, her life was far from perfect. Her parents were massively strict, for one. Like, they bought her a hummer for her fifteenth birthday but she couldn’t drive it until a year or so later when she got her driver’s license. Okay, sounds decent enough, right? Well, even after she turned eighteen, she couldn’t keep the hummer at all unless she lived with them. I don’t remember the details, but they wouldn’t let her do anything unless they ruled over her life. Her mother was also an alcoholic, from what I heard, and her dad wasn’t very present in her life and when he was, I’ve heard the parents fought a lot.
She became very privileged, spoiled, and now in her 30s, a bitch. And it’s the same for some of the other friends my sister became friends with. Another friend grew up in wealth and has been described as “self-centered” and “never does anything nice for anyone.”
So, honestly, there is a type. And usually, these people are quite ignorant with the real world, or believe in certain things out of greed and distrust. Like, the first friend I mentioned doesn’t like homeless people and thinks they’re all drug addicts and alcoholics… when that is far from the truth. Are there drug addict and alcoholic homeless people? Of course, but not everyone.
This makes so much sense.
I mean we stereotype A LOT and that is just upsetting, because they are rich or royals who act like “everyday people”. Yet to a non-wealthy person they would be skeptical on why a rich person would act and/or live so humble, when they have it all to live lavishly.
And when billionaire Joe live the lavish lifestyle where he has expensive everything, those skeptical people would still bitch and moan at how he is living his life luxuriously now.
It is so annoying when you have people question your way of life when you are breaking free from a stereotype.
That fucking hurts, because humans don’t make sense in that regard.
So, billionaire Joe, can life an normal mundane life while having enough money to be never be financially struggling, or still never struggle, but live a lavish lifestyle.
All in all, Joe is going to go through times in his life when living in the suburbs and people saying things like this “you have such a fancy career where you can easily live a lavish lifestyle, why be a billionaire, if you can’t live the billionaire life?” or “why is a billionaire like you living like that?”
So, moving on, in the fiction world, people who come from vast money, but live or handle it in a way that shows non-rich people can’t understand why they aren’t “living it up”, much like the real world, they are either skeptical or simply don’t care.
The readers will probably say something along these lines “just make them non-rich instead, makes more sense that way.” So, it is a constant struggle when writing rich or royal characters in fiction who are trying to not be a stereotype.
Ugh! I really can’t stand this constant battle.
So, in the end, we stereotype because that is all humans know like nothing else matters.
Bumpy bump!
New people, new comments.
I’d like to wealthy enough for the price of where I want to live, or what I want to do, becomes irrelevant. Not having to worry about my future finances, and quality of life, would also be nice.
Exactly! Like I don’t want to be a freakin’ billionaire, but just wealthy enough to not go through life struggling finanically that much.
Like the type of wealthy that can come in handy, when in a pinch or something. I suppose a happy little medium.
Does that make sense?
I once read that the difference between rich and wealth is time. Rich is how much money you have now. Wealth is how long you can retain your current lifestyle if all forms of active income cease.
I’ve been thinking of a list of favourite or interesting rich characters in fiction…
More to be added later.
I wouldn’t mind being a billionaire (in US or UK currency), if I could be an unknown billionaire. And if I had the financial wisdom to protect and grow that wealth.
When you say it like that, I find myself wanting that too!
Anybody else???