How to make the reader care for your characters?

I think the author first has to care about the character and then she will make the reader care.

janetbellinger said:

I think the author first has to care about the character and then she will make the reader care.

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I agree with Janet. You have to know your characters well, and care about them. They have to live.

Think about the characters in published novels that you've cared about. Why did you care? How did the author make you care? Dissect that and you might find more than one answer, but I think it always comes down to authors knowing their characters well.

Who is this guy and why should we care about what happens to him?

Ask yourself the same question about people you know and make a list.

Real, flawed, complex characters are always MORE interesting, and readers can identify with them more because we all are real, flawed, and complex.

What Ray said.

Readers have to be able to relate to the characters in some way, in that since we aren't perfect, we probably wont' be able to relate to a character that is. We want them to have their faults, their quirks, their problems, all the things that make them human and relatable. We may not always LIKE them, but we care what happens to them because we find them interesting.

Probably the best place to start is to avoid telling a story about your characters (a common mistake of inexperienced authors). Rather, tell the story through your characters. To do this, it's necessary to give them way more than hair and eye color and all of the other physical attributes that seem so commonly thrown about in the place of characterization. Give them stimuli and let them react so the reader can get to know them from the inside out, not from the outside in.

Adding to MW

Just knowing a character well will not make the character interesting or cause people to care for the character.

The trick is to make the reader believe the character is a real person. He has a life outside ofthe book. He lives in a house/trailer/mansion/apartment. He eats, sleeps, laughes cries, and performs mundane tasks all day long in search of his fifteen minutes of fame in the book.

I try to picture my charaters walking into the book, staying around for the story, and walking out to finish their life. What happens in the book is what they normally do.

The hard part for us is to capture that mundane world in such a way as to be interesting to the reader so that he will want to find out what happens to this person after the book reads, "The End." Do it for all the characters and you are on your way to a good book.


just my way.... others might have a better way.

allenparker said:

Just knowing a character well will not make the character interesting or cause people to care for the character.

The trick is to make the reader believe the character is a real person. He has a life outside ofthe book. He lives in a house/trailer/mansion/apartment. He eats, sleeps, laughes cries, and performs mundane tasks all day long in search of his fifteen minutes of fame in the book.

I try to picture my charaters walking into the book, staying around for the story, and walking out to finish their life. What happens in the book is what they normally do.

The hard part for us is to capture that mundane world in such a way as to be interesting to the reader so that he will want to find out what happens to this person after the book reads, "The End." Do it for all the characters and you are on your way to a good book.

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I think what we have here is a question of semantics. What you just described is exactly what I meant by "know your characters well". Know as much as you need to know, especially about MCs, like what they eat for breakfast or how they would react if someone tried to steal their briefcase.

People in your life that you care about are an excellent way to create characters, too.

I would suggest naming a character after your friends and family in the first draft, and "borrowing" a version of their flaws and strengths for the story. This is also a great way to figure out different voices in dialogue.

Everyone I know keeps asking me if I can write them into the next book. Little do they know, they're already in the books, and they don't even recognize themselves.

the character is a real person. He has a life outside of the book.

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Yes. Still, just because the character is real doesn't mean we would care about what happens to it. There must be something that the readers can root for. For example, my readers have told me that my protagonist is not particularly likable, but they care about what happens to him? Why? Because he shows certain potential for growth and certain sensitivity and vulnerability, and the readers want to see if he would "make it" at the end. There must be some quality of the character that either fascinates or draws sympathy, but also makes you go, "hum, I can relate to that!"

Take Hannibal Lecter for example. He is fascinating. But he's also vulnerable -- oh my, he is misunderstood and he, too, wants love! Not only are we repulsed by him, we're also fascinated and feel sorry for him... now there's one complex sonofabitch we could all care about.

janetbellinger said:

I think the author first has to care about the character and then she will make the reader care.

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Definitely. A great place to start is with you.
And it's good to keep in mind that no matter how interesting a character seems to one reader, that character may not interest another reader at all. Doesn't mean it's a bad story. It's just like with real people. I may find my neighbour fascinating; you may find him dull. You may love this book's character, I may find him dull.

allenparker said:

I try to picture my charaters walking into the book, staying around for the story, and walking out to finish their life. What happens in the book is what they normally do.

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I like that!

Cheryll

A great book I can recommend on the subject is Karl Iglesias's Writing For Emotional Impact. There are specific techniques you can use. Very quickly, here are a few.

(From Iglesias's DVD Emotional Impact material)

1. We care about characters we feel sorry for
2. We like characters who have humanistic traits
3. We like characters who have traits we can admire

Things you can use in your writing to make the reader sympathize with your character:

1. Undeserved Mistreatment (Hannibal Lecter suffered this to a degree in SotL)
2. Undeserved Misfortune (bad luck)
3. Frustration
4. Humiliation
5. Abandonment
6. Betrayal
7. Life endangerment (a biggie!)

Humanistic Traits:
1. Character likes children
2. Likes animals (be careful with this, its become almost cliche')
3. Character change of heart
4. Character risks life for a friend

Admirable Traits:
1. Attractiveness
2. Courage
3. Charisma
4. Passionate
5. Underdog (another biggie)
Make your reader feel sorry for your character in some respect! These are just a few techniques, which of course, must be extrapolated to fit your own material

Hope it helps.

Make the lead character very, very pretty. Many authors nowadays use this technique to show the moral rectitude of their characters, because of course, only beautiful women are likeable.

Something I learned from a TV producer's essay on characters: Visualize each of your characters walking across a dark room and stubbing his/her toe. What's their reaction?

That's a starting point.

His other questions were on a line with "What does EACH character want? How far are they willing to go to achieve their goals? How will the other characters react to that?

Answer those three and you've likely got the start of some conflict. Conflict is gooooood!

Think of all your favorite characters from various books and films. Why did YOU like them? What was it in their personality that turned you on?

We love Sherlock Holmes (an ill-mannered drug addict!) 'cause he's the one with the answers--but he was also strangely vulnerable.

We love Monk because he's all about vulnerability!

We love Denny Crane because...well...he's Denny Crane!

I personally love Carl Kolchak because he's allowed to get scared.

And I totally agree with the point on tell the story through the characters. I find most plot-driven stories to be bloody boring, but a character-driven story I will remember for decades and recommend to everyone.

My own characters hardly ever have a physical description, but they are always giving their opinions on one thing or another. When they start disagreeing/arguing with me then I know I'm on to something!

Maybe I'm naive or just amateurish but I just can't see actually picking characteristics to make a person seem likeable or understandable. I just visualize a character perhaps give them characteristics I admire or dislike. But to me it seems manipulative to think: Will this trait gain sympathy from the reader? I till think the author should care about the character. If I made my character like animals, it wouldn't be so the readers would like him, it would be because I like animals or think there is something the character will gain from a relationship with an animal. I think anything else will stand out as manipulative or not authentic, but that's just me.

One useful trick is to give each character an aspect of yourself or someone you know and love. Just some tiny little thing that you'll have in common. Could be the shape of an eyebrow or a penchant for some odd food or birth order (you know, like oldest child, middle child, youngest child). Some trait that you really understand and empathize with. It makes the character feel more like a part of you, less of a stranger. Even if the character is a bad guy, he could still share your taste in sunglasses or hats or shoes or cars or collectibles or whatever, and you'll make him more well-rounded, less stereotypical, b/c you do share something with him, you do care about him to some degree, which is the first step toward portraying him in a way that will cause readers to care about him.

JD

The first introduction to the character in the story is key. If the character starts out in a very negative place, it will be very, very hard to get the reader to like the character. For example, in one story from my writers' group, the character the reader was introduced to in the opening chapter was deeply depressed. He sort of dragged himself through the story, while the writer focused on talking about how depressed this guy was and how many bad things happened to him--it was a lot of pages of "Woe is me." By the way, members who had been through depression agreed that it was a realistic portrayal of depression--but they still didn't like the character because of how negative it started.

The character's reactions to events around them have a lot to do with whether a reader will like them or not. Things that annoy you about people in real life will probably give you a good place to start. For example, a character who whines about everything throughout the story is not going to earn the care of the reader. Who wants to care about someone who whines and complains? The worst part is, in a lot of thrillers, the writer will create an unlikable character who is just plainly a jerk, do the scene from his POV, and the reader knows instantly this guy is going to be rewarded for being a jerk by being murdered. Ick.

I've also seen villains that were plain unlikable. The writer tried to make them evil and instead made them unlikable. Even a villain should be likable so that when the reader gets to sections with their POV, they're enjoying the read and hoping the hero survives, not going "Ick. Let me skip over this." In that case, what the writers do is simply give the villain a lot of bad traits and have him do evil things as if to show "He's bad, see?" You might want to compare books where you've seen a villain that you thought was wonderful but was glad got caught in the end versus books where you wished someone would just put the idiot out of his misery right now to see what is different.

Recently, USA Today did an article on the waiter factor. It had to do with how CEO's hired people. When they went to lunch with a potential recruit, they watched how the person reacted to the wait staff. Sometimes people can have very different personalities around different types of people. The sum of the article was how people treat waiters is what kind of person they actually are.

Make all your characters puppies.

Readers love puppies.

One of my absolutely favorite characters is Diana Gabaldon's Capt. Randall. If your'e familiar with the Outlander series, he's thoroughly despicable. He kills for pleasure, uses sex as a weapon -- against both men and women -- and is a completely reprehensible excuse for a human being. And yet, I'm completely fascinated by him. In addition to all his horrific vices, he also has moments where he seems almost pitiable -- and looking for those spots are what makes him so appealing. You never know when he's going to do something that's NOT evil, but when it does happen, it's a delight.

***Spoiler alert ****

I was really quite sad when she finally killed him off.

Characters

Readers do not have to like your characters. Not even your protagonist. Readers simply have to find them interesting enough to wonder what happens to them next, or to wonder what in the world this guy will do next.

Quite often, the protagonist is highly unlikeable. I love the Sherlock Holmes stories, but I don't find much to like about Holmes. Not in the sense that I'd want him as a close friend. There are many times when Watson should makes Holmes eat his magnifying glass. But Holmes is extremely interesting.

I do think the reader should empathize with the protagonist's nastiness. Not sympathize, empathize. A read should be able to say, "If I were in his place, if I'd lived the same kind of life he has, if the same things happened to me that have happened to him, then I'd be a nasty bastard, too."

But likeable? No.

characters

scarletpeaches said:

Make the lead character very, very pretty. Many authors nowadays use this technique to show the moral rectitude of their characters, because of course, only beautiful women are likeable.

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Well, really, what man would risk his life for a fat, ugly woman?

Wesley Smith said:

Make all your characters puppies.

Readers love puppies.

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Nice blog, Wes. I'll be stopping in on a regular basis.

LJ

Gosh--I love reading all the different things other writers are doing in regard to character!

I've another trick of the trade I picked up from an actor who's played a lot of villains. He said they're easy to do, kick a dog and everyone hates you, right? (S. King went into "overkill" on this when he introduced his baddie in one book kicking the dog to death. At that point I simply stopped reading, so careful on too much of a bad thing until you're a multi-mega-seller. And even then. I stopped reading King altogether! )

It's easy to make a baddie, said my friend, but making him likeable? Find something about him you like. He discovered that one really awful big bad he played had a really silly giggle for a laugh.

As for your good guy--find something about him that you just hate. (Or it at least makes you wince.) They all need a weakness, they all need a strength.

As before, we all love Sherlock Holmes, but he could have been an excellent bad guy. Can you imagine trying to be his roommate? Watson should have gotten a medal. Brilliant as Holmes was he had a coke habit, did stinky chemical experiments, kept strange hours, smoked like a truck, played his violin whenever he pleased, and was an utter slob. Come to think of it he reminds me a lot of a roomie I once had! (I kicked him out.) His saving grace was his brain (and paying his share of the rent--my roomie did not).

Can you imagine sharing a house with any of your characters? What would it be like with any one of them? Do they live in a crappy studio apartment or a Lex Luthor-style mansion? What kind of upbringing did they have? Who are their relatives? Who phones them? A meddling mom or bill collectors? Pets? Allergies?

Not all of this goes into your story. Many writers do a Tom Clancy data dump on page one--which is a major turn off for me as a reader. No one cares for a whacko stranger coming up and delivering his life story in a nutshell at a party--same deal goes for introducing your character to the reader.

Try going through a rack of books at the store, one after another down the line in the genre you want to write in and just read the first sentence of each book. The first and no more. Make note of which ones make you want to read further. Those writers are on to something, and chances are it's to do with their characters grabbing your interest.

The next book you read, pay attention to the lead character. At what point do you, as a reader, start to care? What happened up until then?

Do this for the next several books. Movies, too. What different techniques are used? Is the character an expert? Is the character a regular schmoe who has the world dumped on their head? Is the character self-sacraficing? An ambitious dreamer? A person determined to do right, no matter what? A troubled person struggling to put their life together?

Your bookshelves are crammed with research material.