Writing Dislikeable Main Characters

Kayley · Oct 4, 2009

Hey everyone. It's been a while.

For my new novel, the protagonist is a very egotistical and self-centered person. Since the book is from her perspective (it's journal-format), I'm afraid that readers will get fed up with her attitude. Are there any techniques I can use to alleviate this issue (I.E. have other characters address the main's attitude and at least have it be acknowledged)?

EDIT: elaboration of story in post 20

panda · Oct 4, 2009

You want your MC to be sympathetic if they are unlikeable (ala Notes from Underground)
people will not want to read about a character they hate.

This is not to say MC can't do bad things and still be liked (ie Dexter)

You can be unlikeable but bottomline you have to be sympathetic. Sympathy has to do with motivation. Why is the protag a complete jerk? You need a really good reason for it.

That said there is also the Ebeneezer Scrooge in me that says bah humbug and I guess House is popular for a reason. But SCrooge was redeemed at the end. We all felt happy at the end, because we saw his life story (what made him such a curmudgeon, mean dad, dead sister, lost love etc)

It's a tricky MC to work with (or work against lol).

It' easily fixable though, ask yourself Why you like your MC, go back and add to the story where she can be more mature. Does she mature at the end? Is it work for the reader to reach the end? Giver her vulnerability, though saintly characters are one-sided, so can unlikeable characters be. Show growth and change, cut out unnecessary whiny bits that don't add to plot development and just make her more annoying. It comes down to IDENTIFYING with the MC if we can't do that, then you need to analyze very closely with each of her bratty issues/dialogue and question their importance to the story.

maestrowork · Oct 4, 2009

Unlikable first person narrator is a tough sell. It's the most intimate point of view and you want your readers to identify and empathize with the character. So if your narrator has very undesirable traits such as ego, attitude, etc. then you need to find other ways to make her identifiable and sympathetic. Perhaps she has doubts about things that the readers may also have (such as a yearning for someone, or fear of failure, etc. and she decides to tough it up and project this uber-bitch persona...) or show the vulnerable and softer, kinder side of her that other characters won't see.

Since it's in journal format, if she appears to be just as unlikeable and irritating while talking to herself, then you will have a problem.

Think on the best "unlikable" characters: even Hannibal Lecter gets our sympathy because he's locked up in a cage and the authorities are treating him badly. Plus his vulnerability. His sense of pride, and intelligence, etc. etc. -- all of that give him a more rounded personality and background for us to identify with him.

maestrowork · Oct 4, 2009

We cross posted...

That said there is also the Ebeneezer Scrooge in me that says bah humbug and I guess House is popular for a reason. But SCrooge was redeemed at the end. We all felt happy at the end, because we saw his life story (what made him such a curmudgeon, mean dad, dead sister, lost love etc)

But A Christmas Carol was written in omniscient, so the narrative is more distant and thus it's easier to "hate" Scrooge while still go along to see what happens to him, and like you said, at the end he redeems himself -- the whole story is about his growth and redemption, so it works. Plus Dickens was so skillful to introduce us to Scrooge's background via the Ghost of the Past: so we knew he had a mean dad, etc. so he gained our sympathy in the process.

But still, my point is that it's easier to do in 3rd person.

If it's a first person narrator, then it's a much tougher feat to pull off.

panda · Oct 4, 2009

maestrowork said:
We cross posted...

But A Christmas Carol was written in omniscient, so the narrative is more distant and thus it's easier to "hate" Scrooge while still go along to see what happens to him, and like you said, at the end he redeems himself -- the whole story is about his growth and redemption, so it works. Plus Dickens was so skillful to introduce us to Scrooge's background via the Ghost of the Past: so we knew he had a mean dad, etc. so he gained our sympathy in the process.

But still, my point is that it's easier to do in 3rd person.

If it's a first person narrator, then it's a much tougher feat to pull off.

I agree completely. But I think an unsympathetic in any POV is hard to do, especially in first though. It's too hard a feat for me lol.

OP, you want a rich character with a good side to complement the bad side, even Darth Vader sacrificed himself in the end for his son, you have to have something big in the redemption area to pull them back so we like them and you have to make them likeable enough that we reach the end to see that growth. Another ex, is Gone With Wind, Scarlett, not exactly a likeable character (but surviving in war torn South) makes her likeable and makes her the underdog again.

A sympathetic character is an underdog in some way or form, we want them to get their happy ending. Bottomline. Give her great backstory. Give her some likeable traits.

maestrowork · Oct 4, 2009

Personally, I think if it's first person, it's better to do it the other way: let us think the narrator is a great person, a sweet girl, a lovely human being, and then let us see her do bad, bad things (Dexter is really a rather nice guy when he's not out there killing people). That's more interesting to me than dumping an unlikable bitch on my lap the first thing I open the book, and then expect me to like her in the process.

But that's just me.

(in TPB, the protagonist wasn't all that likable in the beginning, but I opened the book with him visiting his girlfriend, wanting a hug, etc. etc. Something horrible had happened to him -- I gave him his vulnerability right off the bat. He's flawed, but he's not some nasty piece of work. And I gave him a back story that the readers could relate to, sympathize with... But then at the beginning of the next chapter I have him do something not nice. That I showed him as a self-centered jerk. But by then, hopefully the readers have already invested in him to go along with the ride and see...)

panda · Oct 4, 2009

I don't know I think it can be done, it has been done. Unlikeable MCs are essentially Redemption stories (from bad to good). AS long as you give her some good traits to go with the bad and motivation for her badness, readers will still read and want to root for her. To keep with the Dexter example

He kills only the worst of the worst criminals (serial rapist/murderers etc) These are the people that are killed legally but he just quickens the justice process with his own warped view. It would be impossible to like Dexter if he started killing innocent people. This is where you have to be careful. If your mc crosses that so bad she can't cross back line, then you lose your readership. His choice of victim gives him more sympathy. He also had a crazy disturbed traumatic childhood and cop foster dad who tells him killing is therapeutic. We understand the why of his badness. And we also want him to stop killing and be the good guy he is in the rest of his life.

Oh just thought of another one, Atonement.

sydney · Oct 5, 2009

I think you just need to make sure the audience can sympathize with the character.
Which... is basically what maestro and panda said

I mean, if you have a dislikeable character who doesn't have any redeeming qualities... well who wants to read a bunch of bitching?

(that sounds bad but I don't mean it like that lol)

I agree that it is a good idea if you have others acknowledge that she's egotistical and self-centered.

DrZoidberg · Oct 5, 2009

I think you're worrying about nothing. I don't agree that she needs to be sympathetic. Literature is littered with unsympathetic main characters and we love to read about them. Tony Soprano was just such an idiot in every way right up until the end of the entire series. Darth Vader was unsympathetic up until the very end of the third film. Michael Corleone and Adolf Hitler are both great main characters who reek of unsympathy. Just make her honest, ie not evil for the sake of being evil, and it'll work, I'm sure.

But I do think you need to compensate by having them brilliant, witty, full of wisdom, powerful, cuttingly sharp, bitter from experience or something. It's all about entertainment, isn't it? I think our first instinct when encountering an unpleasant character is to try to avoid them mentally. You need to keep drawing the focus onto them or the reader will get bored.

My two cents

Parametric · Oct 5, 2009

panda said:
To keep with the Dexter example He kills only the worst of the worst criminals (serial rapist/murderers etc) These are the people that are killed legally but he just quickens the justice process with his own warped view. It would be impossible to like Dexter if he started killing innocent people. This is where you have to be careful. If your mc crosses that so bad she can't cross back line, then you lose your readership.

Aha, if you Kick The Dog you cross the Moral Event Horizon and become a Complete Monster. :tongue

bearilou · Oct 5, 2009

Parametric said:
Aha, if you Kick The Dog you cross the Moral Event Horizon and become a Complete Monster.

Noooooooo...TvTropes! Must...not...click...!

Roger J Carlson · Oct 5, 2009

People rarely think of themselves as evil or unlikeable. They usually have a pretty good justification for their actions.

If she writes: "I kicked the neighbor's dog today. It was delightful." The reader will think she's sociopathic.

If she writes: "That nasty dog next door attacked me today. I had to kick it to get away." The reader will be sympathetic -- and a little bored.

However, if she writes: "That nasty dog next door attacked me today. I had to kick it to get away. Tomorrow, I'm going to put out a dish of anti-freeze for it." Now the reader has a dilemma. We sympathize with her being attacked, but she's contemplating a very nasty death for the animal. That sort of tension makes the character more interesting.

Parametric · Oct 5, 2009

bearilou said:
Noooooooo...TvTropes! Must...not...click...!

Ahahaha you're doomed. :tongue

Red-Green · Oct 5, 2009

I'm a firm believer that your first person narrator doesn't have to be sympathetic, as long as he/she is compelling.

maestrowork · Oct 5, 2009

I have yet to read a first person narrator who is completely unsympathetic -- any examples? The above examples are 3rd person mostly -- which is much easier to pull off with an unsympathetic (but compelling) MC.

Dexter is written in 3rd person. Sure, the TV series has voice-over so that puts it in his perspective, but still, Dexter comes across as a good person when he's not killing, and when he is killing, he kills bad guys (his first kill of the pilot was a child rapist/killer -- so that immediately establishes the fact Dexter is to a good guy...)

The only one I can think of is American Psycho, but the book didn't begin with Bateman being completely psycho/unlikable. A bit shallow, perhaps. But he comes off as intelligent, sophisticated, metrosexual, popular, and thoughtful. That's what I mean by "turning a seemingly good person around and making him do bad, bad, thing." But the time we find out what Patrick Bateman is and does, we've already invested in this character and his voice, and we can no longer look away.

ishtar'sgate · Oct 5, 2009

panda said:
You want your MC to be sympathetic if they are unlikeable (ala Notes from Underground)
people will not want to read about a character they hate.

That said there is also the Ebeneezer Scrooge in me that says bah humbug and I guess House is popular for a reason.

Interesting you should mention House. I believe it was the season the writers were on strike, but one season they made him so totally unlikeable that I stopped watching the show. They've since improved the character. For me, there must be a reason for the nastiness that I can sympathize with or relate to in some way. Totally unredeemable MCs don't work for me. In a cast of characters they're just fine, like Darth Vader. He's not the main character. If I read a book about a nasty character with attitude I might read it if only to find out if they get theirs in the end.

Usually though, unless the story is really compelling, I won't read it through to the end. I'm a sucker for a hero or heroine that although flawed in numerous ways is still sympathetic and makes me root for him/her.

Lady Ice · Oct 5, 2009

The ultimate dislikeable character, who is also the narrator, is Humbert Humbert. He's a paedophile telling us about the girl (I mean 'girl') he loved and lost. It should be a horrible read but it's darkly engrossing and plays with the reader's sympathy (HH is middle class, European, white, widowed, poetic, very intelligent, nice-looking according to himself...).

Make the dislikeable character intelligent. Don't go overboard with the whole 'childhood trauma'- it looks like you're trying to moralize the character's actions.

panda · Oct 5, 2009

In first person there is Andrew Davidson, The Gargoyle, who is basically a soulless beautiful person who becomes a soul-filled burn victim.

First person might work for you (since oftentimes we don't realize we're as unlikeable as we are in real life lol) She may be delusional and think she is a nice person and then an event makes her see she is not.

For YA, Let's Get Lost, by Sarra Manning. That's in first pov as well, but she is coping with Dead Mom Syndrome which is so popular in Literature lol. Again, though she starts a really mean bully and generally a brat, but we know right off that part of this is due to her mom's death (which the way she died they keep secret til the end).

ETA: Yeah these were unlikeable characters but also were sympathetic---They did really bad things (but the author made them good in the end). I haven't read a book with a completely unsympathetic character (I wouldn't want too) Maybe American Psycho, as Maestrowork said, would be it (but I was rooting for him to die or get caught at the end, I suppose that's a sort of cheering lol)

Kitty Pryde · Oct 5, 2009

Have you read any of the Gossip Girl books? I read the first one. It's written in close third (head-hopping close third in fact!). All the characters are incredibly unlikable, miserable, spoiled, shallow, and self-centered. Most of the characters spend more time being evil to their friends than anything else. Somehow it works and the books are incredibly popular.

(Personally, I read the book as a total take-down of the materialistic lifestyle: every character thinks material things make them happy, and they are all consequently fake and miserable and awful to each other. The only one who's even remotely happy with life is Chuck Bass, because he embraces his shallowness and nastiness and fake ways, unlike the others. But my sweetie says I'm reading too much into it, due to excessive college lit classes...)

virtue_summer · Oct 5, 2009

Kayley: It sounds fine to me the way you've described it. As a reader I'd make allowances first of all for a nonhuman character and since you've given her a position (Karma) that makes her one that carries out justice, you've right there helped to alleviate some of the issues. And if redemption or a change of mind or heart (even if not complete) is part of the story, then focusing on her feelings of superiority, etc, before that makes perfect sense.

Lost World · Oct 6, 2009

Frankly, I don't think it's a big deal. THink of all the TV characters over the years who were jerks, villains, etc...They're usually the biggest draw. I just finished revising a short story where both MC's protagonist and antagonist (it's just the two of them, no other characters) are complete assholes. I think that's the best thing about the story, not to blow my own horn, the fact that in the end when one of them gets the upper hand you don't know if he should or not. Throughout the whole story I don't even know who to root for, so the reader sure as hell won't.

I dunno, maybe I just like jerk MC's.

maestrowork · Oct 6, 2009

Lost World said:
Frankly, I don't think it's a big deal. THink of all the TV characters over the years who were jerks, villains, etc...They're usually the biggest draw. I just finished revising a short story where both MC's protagonist and antagonist (it's just the two of them, no other characters) are complete assholes. I think that's the best thing about the story, not to blow my own horn, the fact that in the end when one of them gets the upper hand you don't know if he should or not. Throughout the whole story I don't even know who to root for, so the reader sure as hell won't.

I dunno, maybe I just like jerk MC's.

But are they written in first person?

Ruv Draba · Oct 6, 2009

A likeable character is one who is pleasant, agreeable, who makes us comfortable and feel good about ourselves. It's fine to have a main character who's unpleasant, disagreeable and makes us uncomfortable.

A main character however, should still be capable (nobody wants to read about pathetic characters), pro-active (nobody wants to read about a dish-cloth) and sympathetic.

You can make your main character sympathetic by having it want the things that we want, or having it suffer, or both. A sympathetic, capable, pro-active character will generally be admirable even if it's disagreeable. That's how anti-heroes are made.

Audiences can enjoy a disagreeable character if the disagreeability is not directed at them. If a disagreeable character narrates directly to the audience then you're in a cleft stick: either risk offending the reader, or risk breaking character integrity.

Dexter is not a disagreeble character. He's a likeable character who buys donuts and plays well with children and is loyal to his sister and sometimes does atrocious acts. This makes him an ideal narrator for the story, since he can justify his atrocities and liking him, we'll quasi-forgive him.

Phillip Marlowe is a disagreeable character who narrates, but his disagreeability is based on bitterness about his own world. He's never disagreeable to the reader -- the reader doesn't live in his world. Marlowe's narrative creates a collusive space in which we're the good guys commenting on a bad world. If you can't play a trick like that my suggestion is not to narrate in first person but rather use limited third person. It produces a similar feel but spares the need for the character addressing the reader. Part of the narrator's job is to bridge to unlikeable characters.

Telstar · Oct 6, 2009

Kayley said:
Hey everyone. It's been a while.

For my new novel, the protagonist is a very egotistical and self-centered person. Since the book is from her perspective (it's journal-format), I'm afraid that readers will get fed up with her attitude. Are there any techniques I can use to alleviate this issue (I.E. have other characters address the main's attitude and at least have it be acknowledged)?

Yes, a few.
-give her virtues not only flaws
-make her sympatetic, i.e. put her in situations where the readers (some at least) will identify with
-others that i have forgotten

Samantha's_Song · Oct 6, 2009

For myself, not liking the main character doesn't, or wouldn't, stop me reading the novel about them. I'll read the novel for the actual story, and not liking the main character can be quite fun really - you can be gleeful when they get a good hiding or killed. lol.
For instance, I beta read a story about a private detective some while ago, and I disliked him from the very start. I never thought of giving up reading the story because of that, it was only the predictability that made me want to stop, but I didn't, I still plodded on. He never got killed in the end either. Sigh.

It's like watching someone in films that you don't like. I can't stand Tom Cruise, but he's always in good storied films.

Writing Dislikeable Main Characters

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