One of the pitfalls of seat of the pants writing is that you toil on a book, you do a little planning, you create a person and stick them in a situation. Partway through the book, you realize that you’ve developed a strong dislike for that character.
This happens a lot more than you know. And if you absolutely can’t stand your main character, then here it is… your readers won’t either.
Reading a book for many people takes weeks, or even months. Some people don’t read as fast as others. I know I can sit and read a book through in a few days. Most people never made it through “The Mysterious island” by Jules Verne to find out that the mysterious person saving everyone on the Island was actually Captain Nemo, and learned his real name!
If you don’t have a character people care about, they’re more than likely going to toss the book and not finish it. I can name one movie I’ve watched with a budget of almost $100 million, where quite literally I hoped every last one of them died, because I couldn’t stand ANYONE in the movie!
War of the Worlds was a case in point. We all liked the first one. The remake featured a self centered, abrasive and rude character named Ray Ferrier who was snotty to his kids and ex-wife. What helped the movie was that Ray Ferrier underwent quite a change, literally killing a man to protect his daughter and taking out one of the alien’s tripods as well. The drawback to the movie was that Ferrier didn’t get back with his Ex-Wife, but that’s the subject of another article.
Your audience must care about your character. There are ways to make your audience care about your character, and if your character is unlikable, you need to pull these out. I’ve read them several places and heard them in two seminars, and pretty much everyone’s saying the same thing. I’m going to leave out one by James Rollins, because he’s the only one teach this, and since he’s the only one I’ve heard teach it, you need to buy his seminar to find out! (it’s only $5, and VERY GOOD, by the way!)
- Undeserved misfortune. This is the single biggest way. If something bad happens to them that they don’t deserve, they’re now the underdog, and audiences love rooting for the underdog. Avoid the plot trap of so many 80’s movies where we see so many bad things happen to the protagonist one after the other that you can’t sit through the movie. so many of those kinds of movies I ended up just watching the last 20 minutes to avoid the torture of watching them get humiliated again and again.
- Animals. They pet a dog or cat, or they have a pet that loves them. No kidding. So often used that there’s a book series about it – Save The Cat. no kidding!
- The best at what they do. This was Ray Ferrier’s tool. He was exceptionally good at moving two containers at once from two different ships and placing them on trucks, suspended 70 feet in the air. Did it work? It made me sit through a 2 1/2 hour movie about an abrasive, caustic snotty man, didn’t it?
- Massive underdog. This is method one to the extreme. I used this unintentionally in my series’ premiere script for Star Trek. I’d written a plot based upon someone too smart for the Federation, and the trouble it generated. By the time Lohman gets a starship, you’re cheering for him!
- Kind to children or the elderly. Willie Wonka… all I’m saying. He severely punished the kids for their greed and bratty behavior – but you root for him all through it, because you see he’s trying to help Charlie. By the way, Willie Wonka and the Chocolate Factory is rigged deliberately for Charlie to win – spot the clues yet?
- Funny. If they’re a wise cracker, you tend to root for them.
- Treat Others Well. Another Ray Ferrier trait. He stops to let Manny know how to fix a car engine. It helped. I finished the movie, didn’t I? Hey, I even bought the movie!
These are just some of the ways to rescue an unlikable protagonist. Use one or two of them to bail out your protagonist as needed!
Conclusion
If you don’t like your protagonist, the audience will not either – and your book will not get published, your script will not get sold! Use these keys to rescue your protagonist, and rescue your book or script from sure rejection!
