What makes a sympathetic hero

Otherwise your reader will just stop caring. Need help with your book? For my best advice, check out my guide to writing a novel and my guide to publishing a book.

And if you like this post: subscribe to my newsletter! I actually just wrote a blog post recently on "bad guys" and why everyone loves them. As you mentioned in this post, it comes down to redeemability. Hannibal Lector was one of the main characters I kept thinking of as I was writing the post. Substitute "who is a perpetual wiseass" for "who eats flesh" and "semi-literate" for "smart," and I think you've also hit on why the world puts up with those of us who are humor writers.

I agree with the idea of redeemability but also think there's a believability factor. Twice in the last month I've stopped reading a book because it started out playing by a certain set of rules, i. And then the book suddenly veered off course. The protagonist changed — and not in a slow-growing, detail-specific, "earned" sort of way.

But in a more "I've been told you have to keep a book uber exciting to hold a reader's interest so I'm going to all of a sudden throw in some dramatic crap" sort of way. I'm all about character change and a redemptive lift at the end. But not if these changes seem too abrupt or too falsely dramatic. The most interesting character in modern media to me is Dexter, the mild mannered serial killer who does so only to protect humanity.

Excellent character concept and developed. It is hard not to like him, even as he is cutting into his latest victim and chatting up in girlfriend. He makes me question my own morality as I find I am liking a serial murderer. The other characters that I thought of were Catherine and Heathclift. I never could warm up to them. I can't care about the two childish, petulant people.

I like the concept of redeemability, but there has to be some spark of genius to make me like them. I just read a book in which the main character is so unsympathetic that it ruins the whole book. I think the author believed him to be sympathetic, but he's so whiny and unwilling to take responsibility for his actions, he just comes off as a bratty teenager.

It's too bad, because some of the secondary characters, who weren't "good" people necessarily, were actually more sympathetic. I have a character that even I don't like for the first 5 chapters…but he has an addiction. I've had an agent request changes -my hero isn't hero-like enough in the beginning of the book.

This is a good post. It makes me feel good to see it validated that I did something right for a change. I have a series out and wrote one book with a mean, creepy character that readers seem to love. In fact, "they" were all worried the editors it might hurt the series. But it worked, thanks to redeemability. We must have some reason to like the character. We must be able to identify with him in some way so that we can excuse his behavior. If he is utterly reprehensible for five chapters, don't plan on anyone making it that far.

This isn't to say he has to be a saint, just that there has to bea reason to like him. He's somebody's son, somebody's brother, somebody's best friend. Make sure that shows.

Kim, You make an excellent point. Believability is important in any book. I love stories of the fantastic, but character's reactions and motivations, even in fantastic situations, have to be realistic. Also crucial is the flaws that you give to your character. Basil E. Frankweiler , the brother, Jamie, cheats at cards. Loved by someone else. Ever wonder why so many stories have sidekicks? If someone is loved by someone else, it establishes the character as someone worthy of love. Give them a pet.

Or add a weaker character who admires them. Tomorrow, Part II will talk about using these character traits in creative ways. Great post! Saving for reference. The more you humanize a character, the more the reader will feel a sense of connection to them. Show their wounds Even villains are products of their environments. Do you have any tips for inspiring a sense of sympathy for a character? Take to the comments!

Art: Martha and Mary Magdalene by Caravaggio. Comments Enjoyed these comments, Nathan, especially how to make villains more sympathetic by increasing understanding. I had a problem. To fix it, I thought about something my mentor, Dean Wesley Smith , is always driving home to me—there are readers on the other side of my words. I saw plenty of reasons to be curious about what she was doing, and that can take a reader part way.

This pulls the reader deep into the world of your story. Then, you need to make them care about what happens to your character. When you make your characters sympathetic, you give your reader compelling reasons to keep turning pages to find out what happens.

Despite certain repellent characteristics, your reader must form some kind of bond with them. This means readers will have something to admire or relate to in the character. Remember, fictional characters—like real people and onions—have layers.

If you can portray those layers well, your reader will find something to bond with. Crusty and mean to all outward appearances, his behavior reveals unsuspected depths of kindness or honor.

Specifically, I think there are ten techniques that best do this, each of which I explain in depth with examples below. As do moments of weakness, loneliness, or vulnerability. Another angle on this is having a character who made mistakes in the past and is regretting them now.

Maxim de Winter battles her own vulnerability and the ghost of her predecessor, garnering feelings of sympathy as well as loads of suspense. Now the moment was upon me I wished it delayed, I wanted to draw up at some wayside inn and stay there, in a coffee-room, by an impersonal fire. I wanted to be a traveller on the road, a bride in love with her husband. Not myself coming to Manderley for the first time, the wife of Maxim de Winter. Reading this, our hearts go out to the timid girl who must walk in the shadow of the glorious Rebecca.

We feel sympathy for the orphaned paid companion who finds herself suddenly cast as lady of the manor, a role for which she is ill prepared and which terrifies her. As the story unfolds, justifying her terror, our sympathy grows in proportion with the suspense, and we read on with increased concern and curiosity to see what happens.

We all have hidden wounds, whether scarred over or still healing, and reading about someone struggling with the same type of emotions resonates and makes us care about that character. When we see someone behaving with kindness and consideration, it generates similar feelings in ourselves. This is because in our culture:. Think of Dr. Malcolm Crowe in The Sixth Sense, and how he treats his child patient with respect and genuine concern.

Or how Dr. Alan Grant protects and looks after the two imperiled children in Jurassic Park. When your character authentically cares about children and treats them well, we authentically like and care about that character. In a similar vein, if your character pets the dog and the dog responds with affection, that goes down in our book as approval. Likewise, in a world where the elderly are so often marginalized and thought of as no longer capable of valuable contributions, a character who takes time to serve and uplift an older person will earn points in the compassionate column.

Think about the relationship that develops between Hoke and the elderly woman he serves in Driving Miss Daisy. Or how Dan Torrance, in his role as a hospice orderly, uses his shining to comfort his elderly, dying patients in Dr.