Making a troubled character likeable

I would say as long as you develop your character well, readers will like her. You should make sure to get inside her head and explain her reasons for staying with the guy. I think most readers probably will sympathise with her.
You could also give her a certain endearing quality - I don't know, maybe she's really sarcastic, or determined, or always optimistic. Good luck!

I wouldn't say she has to be "likeable" so much as "intriguing."

It's like a car wreck. Just because you can't look away doesn't mean you "like" that it happened. Plus, there are many people out there who have fallen victim to abusive relationships.

I would say: as long as you don't advertise it as "OMGlifeisperfectIwill<3him4ever!" then you should be completely safe. Write it as realistically as possible (including the inner turmoil that goes along with being in such a relationship), and I suspect it will be totally intriguing enough for people to move on.

Maybe give her a positive characteristic that makes her easier to empathise with? One suggestion I've come across is that readers tend to empathise with characters who are competent. Give her a gift/talent/skill that makes her special and important, so she doesn't come across as a total wet blanket?

Anne Lyle said:

Maybe give her a positive characteristic that makes her easier to empathise with? One suggestion I've come across is that readers tend to empathise with characters who are competent. Give her a gift/talent/skill that makes her special and important, so she doesn't come across as a total wet blanket?

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I think that's very important.

It's also worth thinking about why she's with him. Are kids involved? Does she think she's doing it for them? Does she financially think this is the right thing to do? (i.e. she's terrified of not being able to support herself) Does she think that he needs her? (Nancy from Oliver comes to mind.)

The better the reasons are expressed for her remaining in the relationship, I think the better readers will be able to understand and identify with her.

Liking the character isn't as important to me as it is to others. To me, being compelled by a character is so much more important (e.g. BREATHING UNDERWATER, LIVING DEAD GIRL etc.)

Also, the nature of an abusive relationship - the manipulation, terror and almost Stockholm syndrome (from what I've seen in fiction) - should compel the reader sufficiently.

Lpapercranes said:

A follow-up question:
I have given her a "positive characteristic" - but how soon does that need to show up? Right away? Does the reader need to see that *before* they see the abusive situation? Or is, say, the end of the first chapter acceptable?

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It depends. I'm going to throw in that I HATE it when you can almost see the writer's mechanic's at work. (i.e. this character needs two good traits, so here they are!) The positive traits should appear when it makes sense for them to appear...not before, not after.

For instance, if her positive trait is that she loves her kids, we should see this when she interacts with them or would logically be thinking of them. Anything else seems false.

Annmarie09 said:

I would say as long as you develop your character well, readers will like her. You should make sure to get inside her head and explain her reasons for staying with the guy. I think most readers probably will sympathise with her.
You could also give her a certain endearing quality - I don't know, maybe she's really sarcastic, or determined, or always optimistic. Good luck!

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Great advice here, IMHO.

You really can't lose if you develop them well, as long as they aren't totally psychotic (and even then, I can list a few examples where I actually *liked* well-developed raving psychotic main characters in either books or cinema. Silence of the Lambs, American Psycho and Devils Rejects to name a few).

As long as you do your job making them real, good boys/girls will be admired, bad boys/girls will be respected... as everyone loves to see bad boys/girls get potentially 'fixed' by a special someone.

Mutive said:

It depends. I'm going to throw in that I HATE it when you can almost see the writer's mechanic's at work. (i.e. this character needs two good traits, so here they are!) The positive traits should appear when it makes sense for them to appear...not before, not after.

For instance, if her positive trait is that she loves her kids, we should see this when she interacts with them or would logically be thinking of them. Anything else seems false.

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Also this. If your main character loves puppies, and she mentions them every other line... whether it's at funerals, at a NASCAR event or in the middle of a destroyed town during the zombie apocolypse... it doesn't work for me either.

It's good to have guidelines, things readers can relate to... just don't make them all the character is about. Not sure if that makes sense.

Sympathy.

I would try to make her relatable. Maybe open up the book with a good look at her (who she is, not just what her situtation has made her) make her opinionated, make her have passions, and then reveal that she's in this relationship. Like it could happen to anyone.

Ah, this is tricky. I'm one of those people who hates those broken bird types. I agree that it wold be unrealistic to give her characteristics that offset the abuse, since it's not likely that she's fiery and outspoken if she's an abuse victim. From what I understand, there's a certain group of women who will always hate this kind of protagonist, no matter how she's presented.

If you've seen "The House of Sand and Fog," Jennifer Connelly plays that kind of character, and although it's well done, the director commented that women almost always hated her in early screenings.

So I think it'll be tough and you'll definitely turn off some people just by going in that direction. But for people who would be interested in such a story line, I think it's important to really show how she grows, and the thought process that eventually leads her to leave the relationship. You'll have to empower her enough that the reader ends up liking her because of her strength.

It could also help to have other positive female characters.