: I feel like I am only going to be adding a footnote to some very well made points and suggestions but I feel you pain and would like to offer some constructive advice. As the author you

@Sent2472441

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I feel like I am only going to be adding a footnote to some very well made points and suggestions but I feel you pain and would like to offer some constructive advice.

As the author you clearly disapprove of the actions of one or more of your characters and that is probably a sign of good moral character. However if you drop out of the flow of events to lecture the readers both you and reader are going to loose interest.

I often say to other writers what I am about to say to you - show rather than tell. The character has done a bad thing. We the reader have been witness to the bad thing. This sets some expectations for us as the reader. We may want to see justice, retribution or just understand why they acted as they did.

However you as author wish to show that what happened was "bad". So explore why it is bad and wrong. Show the repercussions. I do not mean just that the man is likely to be arrested but the more subtle repercussions too. If he has children how do they react to him - the chances are that he has started down a path of alienating the children. If he has friends how do they react? If he has a sense of guilt how does he deal with what he has done?

Likewise the other half of this story is the result for the female in the situation. In your plot her provoking him is deliberate so he has fallen into a trap. This gives a great amount of momentum in terms of him trying to defend his actions and his feeling of entanglement and no one understanding before reaching a point past denial of accepting his flaws and failings as a human being.

The chances are that this is going to cost him his marriage, perhaps also his children and home (and perhaps mental health and job too).

This gives you a great way to show that not only was what he did bad but that there are better ways to deal with being provoked or getting cross. As part of his character development through the story it might be possible to show him having realised what a dick he has been to undergo change which can be shown by similar situation arising at the end wherein he reacts in far better way showing that he is no longer that sort of man.

If the story is more about her than him than perhaps she tries the selfsame thing on a different sort of person and is then confused when he defuses the situation and refuses to get angry.

Likewise if the story is about the man and him changing that much is beyond the story scope then showing a contrast argument between a friend and his wife where said friend is much better at dealing with what gets thrown at him can lead, at least, to him realising that he is going to have to should a lot of the blame and take responsibility for his own actions.

Or show what a fool he is by having him make excuses despite all of the chances to grow and learn and show him spiralling down into nothingness through his own refusal to become a better man. The readers will start to see through his lies and denial and loose any sympathy they might have had for him. Like any battered spouse that finally wakes up to the abuse and says "no more" they will be glad when he is finally shown the door (whatever form that actually takes for this character).

TL;DR: Show that what he has done is bad with consequences, growth (or lack thereof) and contrasting scenes with different outcomes.

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