Unsympathetic characters

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HollyB

What are all your feelings about having an unsympathetic protagonist?

I submitted a short story to a writing class I'm taking, and my main character is not a nice person, but by the end, redeems herself. The person teaching the class had this to say about it:

"Holly, wow, I’m a little speechless, thinking about your story. You certainly held my attention all the way through... Pamela is, of course, not a very sympathetic character, and so first of all, I’m wondering why you’ve chosen to portray her that way. It’s so much easier to engage the reader with a sympathetic character."

So, she said the story held her attention all the way through, but then said it's easier to engage the reader with a sympathetic character. Huh?

I wanted her to be unlikable. I hated her! But by the end of the story, she started to understand herself and made positive changes to be a better person.

Does this kind of story not work? Any thoughts?

(I think we've talked about this in Writing Novels, but I couldn't find the thread.)
 

arrowqueen

Hell, there's nothing like a good-going blackguard to get one's attention.

Cheers,
aq
 

Jamesaritchie

character

It's okay for the reader to dislike a protagonist. It's okay for a reader to hate a protagonist. But there still needs to be either sympathy or empathy or there's really no reason for anyone to read the story.
 

HollyB

Macalicious, thanks for the link.

I wouldn't want to spend a whole novel with an unsympathetic jerk of a protagonist. But I think this short story is a bit like driving by a car accident... you're mesmerized even though it's disgusting; you drive a bit better for a while afterwards.

I dunno what to do with the darn story. I can't make it into sweetness and light. I'd dump it entirely if I didn't feel there was something gripping about it.

Anyway, thanks for letting me vent. Perhaps I shall try Jamesaritchie's method of critiquing and send it to an editor and see what s/he thinks.
 

pdr

Go read the markets, Holly, and you will find some editors out there who relish nasty, stroppy or plain loopy characters. My favourite market for such stories is closed right now but have a look at some of the Canadian and British mag markets. They, more than the American markets, like difficult characters.
 

Jamesaritchie

I think the point is that no matter how nasty the protagonist, the reader must care what happens to him. When readers don't care what happens to a character, most will stop reading, whatever country the book is in.
 

Sunny7l

I've often disliked the lead but it's always nice if they some how redeem themselves or there's some change, even if that's a horrible death at the hands of the enemy. :rollin

Most times, I will just quit trying unless there are interesting supporting characters and/or the overall story is intriguing. Sometimes you just want to know what happens and if you can manage that with a wholly unlikable lead then I say you've done a really good job. :)
 

HollyB

James, I hear you.

The plot of my story is "the woman who learned better." To spare boring all of you with the details of my story, I'll bring up a story with the same basic plotline -- Dickens' A Christmas Carol.

At the beginning, Scrooge is entirely unsympathetic. Does the reader care about him? Or does the story work because we care about Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim?

If the latter is true, then do I need a sympathetic protag, other than my POV character?

Or -- as my instructor suggested -- make my POV character more sympathetic? (In my opinion, Dickens didn't go that route.)
 

macalicious731

Honestly, Holly, I'm not sure if you need a change.

She read it all the way to the end, didn't she?

Before you worry to much, have you given it to other people to read? See how they feel about the story the way it stands.

BTW - L'etranger by Camus alienated a lot of people because of the main character's outlook, but it's one of the most philosophical and representative novels ever to be published. (imo)
 

Jamesaritchie

The protagonist is the one who must be, or become, the character the reader cares about. A reader will stick with a story, even when the character the story is about is just plain nasty, but it's how you end the story, how the character grows and changes, that makes the difference. He or she can't be the same character at the end as at the begiing.

It's redemption, learning, changing, growing, becoming that the reader wants.

It also, of course, depends on genre. You can get by with some things it literary fiction that you can't get by with in genre fiction.

And you can have a truly nasty character with a truly nasty outlook and still make the reader care what happens to him. That's the real key. If the reader doesn't care what happens to the character, there's just no reason to read the story.

One of the most common rejection slips editors hand out is some variation of "I just didn't care what happened to the character(s)."
 

maestrowork

There must be something about your protag that reader would root for him/her to change... otherwise, if the readers ask, "Why should I care?" then you have a problem.

To use your example, even with Scrooge. He came off as an ass in the beginning, but because of the other characters who seem to either fear or respect him (for whatever reason), you're willing to give him a chance... then when the Marlin showed up, that's when you start to care about Scrooge... what is going to happen to him? Then when the ghosts take him through his past... that's when you realize the human side of Scrooge and what made him the way he is... that's when the readers would start to have sympathy for him and would root for him to change...

If your protag is rotten with no redeeming value through and through until near the end, you do risk alienating your readers unless you have something else to hold their interest -- other characters that they can root for, a plot that is SO exciting that they don't really care if the protag is a good or bad guy, etc. etc. But if your story is mainly a "coming of age -- life lesson" type of story, then yes, I'd say you need to have at least something for the readers to care about this character.

It's just a personal opinion. I've read stories and books when the main characters have absolutely no redeeming values at all -- it's very different for me to engage and enjoy the story or the ending would come somewhat too little too late for me to care.
 
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