3: Developing Character Likeability
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- 275657
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Image by Gino Crescoli from Pixabay
- Understand the importance of developing likable characters for readers to connect with.
- Create character likeability through three methods: admiration, sympathy, and empathy.
- Use a question-and-answer approach to map out how to make characters likable.
Readers Need to “Like” a Character
The reader must care about certain characters—especially the protagonist. If your protagonist is about to fight a legendary dragon to save his homeland, but a few paragraphs prior they kicked a puppy, would you want to see them succeed? Probably not. It’s important to develop reasons for a character to be liked or disliked. If the reader is supposed to like the character, show us why. If the character is supposed to be evil, there needs to be proof of their wickedness. If you do none of these things to a character, then the reader will feel indifferent about their outcome—making them boring. Most of the time, it’s good to practice character likeability:
Developing certain traits or actions in a character to make the reader develop an emotional attachment.
Likeability is crucial to whether most stories are interesting or not. If the reader does not care about the story’s characters, everything that happens in the story is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if the protagonist jumps out of an exploding building. If they are uninteresting and the reader doesn’t care about them, then all you are left with is a boring story with explosions. When a character is first introduced, especially the protagonist, we want to make them likeable as soon as possible. The longer we wait to make them interesting, the more likely the reader will be bored and stop reading. Make your characters likeable, so the reader will like your characters. It seems obvious, but it is harder than it looks.
Three Types of Likeability
Have you ever come across a character that you just love to hate? For example, this person might have just blown up a whole village, but since they are beaming with charisma, it is hard to stay mad at them. Oddly, you may want to read more about them, maybe even root for them. In this case, that character is still likeable. Likability is less about making a character a good person and more about developing character traits that the reader can emotionally connect with. Some of the best villains are likeable, and there are even protagonists who are not good people—yet we still have a connection to them. Just remember that likeability does not always equal to something of a positive role model.
Instead of focusing on making a “good” character, let’s focus on developing three types of likability: admiration, sympathy, and empathy.
Admiration
Perhaps the simplest way to develop character likeability is to make them cool. Maybe your character is the best martial artist—skilled with both a blade and in hand-to-hand combat. Or your character relies only on their intellect, and they outsmart their opponents like a chess master. They could also be extremely kind, charitable, and willing to do anything for their friends and family. However you design your character with cool characteristics, it ultimately leads to admiration from the reader.
Designing a character so their traits are looked up to by the reader
In order to generate admiration from the reader, it needs to be earned. That is, you can’t just say “Cynthia is the greatest swordsman around.” You need to prove it. Cynthia needs to demonstrate their skill, perhaps winning duel after duel without breaking a sweat. The reader needs to witness a character outsmarting their opponent instead of just hearing about it. Many beginner writers will simply mention what their character is like and assume the reader will naturally agree. Just like in real life, respect for a person does not come naturally. It is one thing to say that you are a kind person, but it is another thing to volunteer every week at a homeless shelter. It is important to prove to the reader that your character deserves their admiration. If that is established, then the reader will want to see what happens to them—good or bad.
Sympathy
Not all of your characters should be individuals with superhuman abilities. Instead, maybe your characters are normal and are not that particularly interesting. If that is the case, how do you make them likeable? Another method is to generate sympathy from the reader:
Designing a character so that their misgivings or hardships will develop compassion from the reader.
Imagine a character’s house was destroyed in a horrible fire. They are left with nothing, and their insurance will not cover any of the damage. Within a week, they are left in the street with only a few dollars to their name. Homeless, they wander the streets looking for work to no success—uncertain where their next meal will be. In this description, we know very little about the character itself. While we do know what happened to their house, their personality is a complete mystery. Yet, the hardships that have fallen on this character should create some pity in the reader. Generating sympathy like this is a great way to create likeability. The reader wants to know if the character will succeed or not in turning their life around. At the same time, it is not satisfying to see a character be miserable and stay miserable, so it is important not to overdo it. If too many horrible things happen to a character, it may become unbelievable.
Empathy
Similar to sympathy, empathy creates likeability by letting the reader truly understand how the character feels.
Designing a character so that the reader is able to understand how the character thinks and feels on a personal level.
Quite possibly the hardest technique to perform, empathy allows the reader a glimpse into their mind and their world. Suppose you are at a young girl’s birthday party. A birthday girl gingerly opens a gift from her uncle. This is the last gift to be opened. All the other gifts are a beautiful doll, a tea set, pink scarfs, and a doll house. Looking inside for a moment, she pulls out a set of car models. The other kids and parents are shocked and confused. Silent, the young girl stares at it intently. Then, the tears come. Her mother is right about to rescue the situation when the young girl breaks out into laughter. “Finally,” she smiles, “Oh, and it’s the BMW 3 series too!” The young girl wipes away her tears and frantically opens the package.
In this situation, the young girl doesn’t do anything cool nor does she have any hardship that falls on her. Instead, we’re able to somewhat understand her background. It appears that for a while, all that she has received are stereotypical girl gifts. Her uncle was the first to break the routine. The little girl really likes cars models, and this may be the first time that she actually gets to make one. Not everyone can relate to this young girl in terms of liking cars, but we can certainly relate to finally getting to do things we want. Building that connection between reader and character through shared emotions is what empathy does best. Sympathy is similar to empathy, and often the two terms overlap. However, building an emotional connection doesn’t need to involve massive degrees of sorrow. Instead, if you can convey a deep feeling through a character, the reader will feel that emotion and bond with them.
Creating Likeability
While not required, some of the best designed characters in literature are developed using both admiration, sympathy, and empathy. Obviously, this is incredibly difficult and shouldn’t be done with every character that you create. However, you can admire a character while also having sympathy for them. Or you can be sympathetic towards a character while also understanding their deep complexities empathetically. Whatever you choose, don’t feel like your character must fall into one of these three possibilities. They may be a combination of some, which is perfectly fine. The important thing is to create likeability, and however you successfully design it is all that matters.
In addition, it is important to create likeability as soon as possible when introducing characters. The faster the reader can connect to the character, the faster the reader will be interested in whatever happens. If your character isn’t likeable until halfway through the story, the audience might get bored because there is no connection. Never test the reader’s patience. If it takes chapters and chapters to develop likeability with the protagonist, the reader will probably never finish the story. While likeability doesn’t need to be reached within the first sentence, the sooner the better.
When designing a character, consider using a question-and-answer method to map out how to make them likable. Below is an example of three possibilities for three different characters:
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Admiration – Olivia |
Sympathy – Ethan |
Empathy – Sophia |
|---|---|---|
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Why should my character be admired? Olivia is the best wrestler on her team. |
Why should my character have sympathy? Ethan just lost the basketball tournament. |
What emotion does my character need to convey to the reader? Sophia is nervous about her exam. |
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Why is this trait admirable? It’s a physically demanding skill and she can perform some awesome techniques. |
Why does this moment deserve sympathy? Ethan and his team trained months for this moment. |
Why is this emotion so important for the reader to experience? So much is riding on Sophia to pass. |
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How can you prove to the reader that the character is admirable? Olivia managed to suplex another opponent who is significantly larger than her. |
How can you prove to the reader that the character needs sympathy? When the ther team wins, Ethan falls to the floor and starts crying. |
How can you show this emotion to the reader so they can experience this empathically? Sophia sweats profusely and is constantly tapping her foot. She is also breathing rapidly. |
Remember that even if you have developed a beautiful setting, an engaging plot, and an elegant type of writing, it means little if the reader hates your characters. Give reasons for the reader to be attached to these characters. Otherwise, the characters’ journeys, successes, and setbacks will fail to make a connection to the reader.
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Additional Resources
Character Likeability Question-And-Answer Blank Sheet
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Admiration – |
Sympathy – |
Empathy – |
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Why should my character be admired?
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Why should my character have sympathy?
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What emotion does my character need to convey to the reader?
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Why is this trait admirable?
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Why does this moment deserve sympathy?
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Why is this emotion so important for the reader to experience? |
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How can you prove to the reader that the character is admirable?
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How can you prove to the reader that the character needs sympathy?
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How can you show this emotion to the reader so they can experience this empathically?
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- 3.1: Reading Exercise - Bound
- This short story is a companion piece to the guide Developing Character Likeability.