Character not acting like their age(older acting younger)

[LordInui]

In my current novel, I have a character who is already in his sixties. Despite this, he doesn't want to be treated that way; instead, he prefers to be casual with the main character, who is in his twenties. The reason for this is his past. He comes from a rich family and had to take on responsibility early in life. Now, years later, he has the opportunity to be a tester for a VRMMORPG. He’s tired of the formal attitudes from everyone, as he was once the president of a huge company.

Any tips to deepen his character a bit?

 

[beast_regards]

You don't have much of the choice,

One of the common complaints about the characters is that the author can't write to the people of the certain age. The older writers don't know how younger people act, and vice versa, and there is always a certain level of disconnect, making character weird and hard to believe. Better writers had to deal with this, and they couldn't. It's not quite expected from you either.

The best advice I could give you is: Avoid the jarring scenarios that would attract the attention of your readers.

 

[LordInui]

But this is only a problem if the author has no backstory, no reason for the character to act like this. In my case, it isn't true for all older people, but for this one in particular. And it isnt like he acts like a young man, but more like he pretends to be.

 

[beast_regards]

You have the combination of unbelievable circumstances and unlikely characters, which would only exacerbate the issue.

I assume you don't want the reader to call you on it.

 

[BearlyAlive]

In my current novel, I have a character who is already in his sixties. Despite this, he doesn't want to be treated that way; instead, he prefers to be casual with the main character, who is in his twenties. The reason for this is his past. He comes from a rich family and had to take on responsibility early in life. Now, years later, he has the opportunity to be a tester for a VRMMORPG. He’s tired of the formal attitudes from everyone, as he was once the president of a huge company.

Any tips to deepen his character a bit?

Show some shadows of his past, establish him as competent in certain areas, in this case business, planning, and leadership, but also show that he doesn't want to bother with those areas unless there's no other way. Maybe drop a few hints about his involvement in bigger things outside as a throwaway comment during dialogue. Then show him as slightly incompetent in areas young people tend to excel, to sell his age.

If you need a character arc the classics would be "being confronted by their haunted past", "missed opportunities", or just "escaping from the present".

 

[FlutterOfCrows]

It's definitely cliche, but you could also have him struggle with modern lingo, or have to ask specific questions about what does 'a' 'b' and 'c'term mean. and then once they answer, he give a comparison in turn, to show that it was the terminology that was the issue, than his intellect.

 

[Bobple]

Hmmm,
Easy one is just to give him a rich past, have them be able to reference events easily when he feels something similar has happened.

Maybe have the character keep up with events outside their interest, struggle with terminology, they can be slow with a few things they haven't interact with before. This doesn't mean they are always slow, just that they start slow.

If you know an older figures in real-life or media, you can reference them to see how such characters act. I know a few older relatives who were reserve and polite but also some that while in very old age (80+) was still active in sports and community planning and events who acted like a good friend to everyone.

While a character acts young, that doesn't mean necessarily they have young people values, they could have vastly different opinions on topics and etc.

These are some examples, you don't have to go with all or any of them. I wish you the best of luck!

 

[Hans.Trondheim]

In my current novel, I have a character who is already in his sixties. Despite this, he doesn't want to be treated that way; instead, he prefers to be casual with the main character, who is in his twenties. The reason for this is his past. He comes from a rich family and had to take on responsibility early in life. Now, years later, he has the opportunity to be a tester for a VRMMORPG. He’s tired of the formal attitudes from everyone, as he was once the president of a huge company.

Any tips to deepen his character a bit?

Have your character go a traumatic past, not necessarily about him though it should be at least people close to him. Also, make him search for meaning in his life, and that interacting with young peeps fulfills this particular need.

And voila! You get a character who doesn't act his age and disdains formalities.

I know because I am one. Lol

 

[BLIGHT_ZERO]

the 45-year-old milf when I take her on a date out on the town?

 

[Lysander_Works]

I will also add a suggestion for future reference, even though it doesn't entirely pertain to your point. Be very considerate of the age you choose a character to be. It's very difficult to change this setting later on once the story is fully developed. I generated characters that feel a little too unrealistically young to maturely handle some of the stuff they do, mainly because I was around the same age when I was writing the material and building that world. I "made it work" but it would have been a bit easier and more believable had I known this sooner. Didn't change it cause I wasn't going to rewrite a 19-book length story.