My apologies for being absent from so many of my favorite blogs and visiting with everyone. I’ve been neck-deep in reading through the copyedited version of LITTLE GALE GUMBO, and let me just say, to all the copyeditors out there, I raise my glass to you.
As a moviegoer who can’t help but notice when a certain actor’s drink is half-full in one shot and then miraculously filled to the rim in the next, I was determined to take great pains to keep any continuity issues out of my novel. Copyeditors catch those (among other things) and I am in awe of what they do. How they keep it all straight (dates, ages, names, eye color–you name it!) is a mystery to me, but I’m so grateful to them for it.
Every lily has its thorns? (Or something like that...)
But before the copyedited manuscript arrived last week, I was making a bit of progress on my WIP when, oh jeez…I found myself stalled again. Remember the same fella who was giving me pause? Well, he’s at it again.
Twenty pages in, I realized he wasn’t just coming off as flawed, he was coming off as, well, not very likeable.
Sounds like a job for “the scene”! You know, the one that reveals the soft, smushy, maybe even lovable underbelly of your character. The one that confirms to your reader that this person deserves their attention and their sympathy (when called upon, of course).
Now I know there are umpteen debates on whether a character has to be likable to be enjoyed. For me, I not only have to like a character to read them, I REALLY have to like them to write them. Otherwise I find myself wondering why we’re spending time together. Sure, they should be flawed, make bad choices, the works. But at their core, they MUST have a good heart to lead my story. Now, don’t misunderstand: I’m not saying EVERY character has to glow from the inside–just the ones your reader is supposed to care and root for.
You can’t assume your reader will simply like your character. Like any person we want to get to know, or feel for, we have to learn about them. We have to see them in action over time (or pages). Case in point, I once had dinner with a guy I was newly dating (and liking) only to have him berate our poor waitress because she’d neglected to serve my sandwich with mayo. (And by berate, I don’t mean “point out gently”, I mean “raise voice and throw up hands”.) So much for Mr. Nice Guy. I knew before the check arrived, I didn’t need to know anything more about this guy except how to get away from him as fast as possible. And we all know our readers won’t even wait for the check.
Now I’m not suggesting you need to have your character pull a busload of puppies from a live volcano, or that a flashy show of concern will miraculously erase twenty pages of schmuckness. Like anything believable, the reveal of character should be as natural and genuine as possible.
Writers, have you found yourself in a similar state of conflict with a character?
Readers, have you recently encountered a character who left you a little cold when you were supposed to be warm and fuzzy?
Not so much not liking a character, but realizing that I didn’t know enough about her. And if I didn’t, pity the poor readers.
Good point. Again, I think sometimes writers think they know so much about their characters, they forgot the reader is just meeting them, and hasn’t been fleshing them out in their heads for days, weeks, months, even years.
Great post, as usual, Erika. Ah, yes … the icky qualities of our protags AND the good qualities of our protags. Such a fine line to walk, is it not?
I read two books last year where i just didn’t connect with the main characters (and these were two ultra-talented writers; two of my favorite authors, actually). I simply did NOT like Caelum in Wally Lamb’s The Hour I First Believed, nor Helen in Alice Sebold’s The Almost Moon. It took me awhile to determine WHY. For me, it came down to their harsh attitudes, coy demeanors …. to me, they just were not sympathetic enough … too critical, cold and distant. There just seemed to be few redeeming qualities in either of them for me to finish the book and say, “Wow. I loved that.”
That being said, I also read a couple GREAT books with tough-as-nails characters. Coming to mind is Teri Coyne’s The Last Bridge. Flawed MC beyond belief, but likable… So, I’m with you 100%. Characters have to be relatable on some level. Definitely not perfect. Definitely flawed. But with a few traits that readers can embrace and love, even if the character is misunderstood.
Good luck making your guy into that flawed-but-likable character.
P.S. Am I missing some of the promo info about your upcoming book? Would LOVE to see a synopsis. Dying to learn more about it!
Melissa, you are too kind, my dear. As soon as I start to get promo material, I will send it out into the blogging world, I promise! I’ve been learning so much on that front from Twitter, frankly, from all of you and I’m so grateful.
I had heard and read that about the character of Helen from Alice Sebold’s book, but have not read it yet myself. I love the character of Chloe from Jo-Ann Mapson’s Hank and Chloe and Loving Chloe, even though I think she clearly makes some unfortunate choices, and reacts harshly, but Mapson writes her with such flesh and heart that you can’t help but want to relate to her, and that helps the reader to understand her conflicts and her often less-than-ideal choices.
Thoughtful post, Erika. I agree that a character doesn’t have to save puppies to be likable,
but I think we do need to find a connection with them — even if they’re the villain.
I recently had a problem connecting with any of the characters in LOVING FRANK, though the story was interesting overall, and I read to the end. Still, there has to be something to make the reader (or writer) say, “Hey — I get you!”
BTW — Like Melissa, I want to hear more about LITTLE GALE! Good luck with those edits…
Amanda, you and Melissa flatter me, so I’ll gladly serve up some more info on LITTLE GALE GUMBO!
Interesting point about liking a storyline but not necessarily connecting with the characters. On the whole, did the book stick with you, even though the characters didn’t?
Yes, the book stuck with me, but there are variables here that could explain why. First, it was my book club’s selection, so we discussed it at length. Second, the characters in the book (Frank Lloyd Wright and his mistress) are a part of the history of where I grew up, so I had a primary connection to the people and places from the get-go. Just not to the way they were portrayed in the book.
Oh, now I know the book you’re speaking of…Oh, Amanda, now you’ve got me remembering Oak Park which was one of our favorite haunts when we lived near Chicago. Talk about a hard character to feel for (from everything I’ve heard). Now I understand why you felt connected to the plot/story if not to the characters themselves.
I have to agree with Miss Fry in her opinion of Wally Lamb’s The Hour I First Believed. I was really, really disappointed, and did not finish the book. As for my guilty pleasure reading, Janet Evanovich’s #14 is currently not connecting with me, either. But I plan to keep going forward with it, because her previous 13 books have proved so darn entertaining
Thank you for your post! You really put words into how I feel about books and the characters in the story.
I am always amazed and awed by series writers who can sustain interesting characters and plots for so long–so I’m a little relieved to hear that even great writers sometimes struggle to keep that momentum going.
P.S. I was about to retweet your Dolly Parton quote a few minutes ago. Honestly, everything that comes out of her mouth (sung or spoken!) seems to make me smile.
LOVE your blog, Erika. I’m with you: If I’m going to spend time writing a character, I need to like him at least a little bit. I haven’t encountered this problem with any of my books, but I did scrap a short story in which the main character seemed to have no redeeming qualities. He’s simmering on the back burner now, pissed off that I walked away.
“Pissed off that I walked away.” I love it, Averil. And you know you wanted to piss him off just a little bit, didn’t you?:)
I agree with Amanda – if the character is a protagonist villain, the reader still wants (even needs?) to have a connection. Hannibal Lecter comes to mind.
One of my teachers suggested that we write 8 things (not sure why 8) you know about the character. It’s like a character sketch, but much more interesting. These are topics that you would include if writing a biography about that character’s life. From those items, you can usually parse what the character wants. What the character wants is usually what makes a connection to a reader.
Thank you, Mrs. Sutton!
Hi Jacquelin, Lecter is such a good example of that rare instance of a truly horrific character who manages to retain a reader’s interest…I’m trying to think of others now…
I think it can be very beneficial to take the time and do a character sketch, particularly when a character feels flat or wishy-washy. I’ve had pretty good luck with those. Sounds like you have too.
Erika
.. my personal experience / favorite:
i have my main character, when she is in New Orleans in school as a young girl ( 1904 ) , write a letter back home:
“we went to the zoo on sunday, watched the peacocks and the panda bears … ”
my daugher, who has been my best editor, called one day and said, “daddy, there weren’t any panda bears in the US until 1932 … and they were in Chicago!”
These are the kinds of things that make me nuts when I’m writing, much less reading. I sometimes feel paralyzed by these kinds of timeline questions: Which summer was Watergate on TV? When did The Waltons first come on, and what year were they supposed to be living in? Etc…
As for the likability factor, I don’t necessarily think the main characters has to be likable, but they do have to be multidimensional and complex, enough that I’m willing to follow along on their journey because I must — must! — find out how things turn out for them.
Tom and Teri, I think it’s kosher to share a perfect example of this from my book which the copyeditor picked up on: I’d put vending machines in a high school cafeteria in Maine in 1977. Now, sure, they MAY have been there, but most likely they weren’t, and the copyeditor rightly knew that would stumble readers–and meanwhile, I’d built a lovely scene around the dang thing! (New scene is just as lovely, only uncarbonated.)
Tom, yours is a perfect example too. It takes someone from the outside to look in (like we lucky viewers/readers get to do with someone else’s work) to pick up on those things.
And Teri, don’t even get me started on the swirling black hole of doom that is keeping dates in line and accurate. Oy. Clearly, you’re familiar with that particular beast too. It can leave a person in the fetal position with worry.
I like my cynical adventurer in Air, but he probably annoys not only the other characters, but some readers as well!
And my beta-reader hated my way-too-passive character in Water, but that’s what he is, and I’m not changing him just because readers think he is too passive: that’s what he is for the time of that novel and for a reason – I hope I managed to show the change in him at the end..
Happy writing!
Thank you, Barb–same to you! And you’ve made a great point–which is to say that a character, no matter their immediate likability, or unlikability, MUST reveal growth over the course of their book. So many of the times I felt frustrated or unsympathetic to a character–likeable or not–it was because they didn’t evolve, didn’t change, didn’t grow.
Yes, yes, and yes! I find it so hard to read about characters I don’t connect with /understand/like on some level. They don’t have to be perfect (those who are annoy me too) but I do want to “get” them in some small way. If not, then I just don’t care what happens to them in the story and then…I close the book.
Jenny–oh yes, the book goes BOOM. I have read books where the plot interested me enough to keep me going, but honestly, even a really good plot isn’t enough–if I don’t care, I don’t care (and I might just skip to the end. There. I said it!)
i am late to this get together, and it appears all the specifics have been covered. i would like to add that this guy KEEPS showing up for you. maybe he needs his own short story. maybe even a simple character sketch? what makes him so unlikeable? even darth vador was once a jedi. the more you work on this MSS, the more i want to meet this guy (but i was always into the bad boys)
Not late at all, Amy–the party’s always just getting started here. Oh, those bad boys…maybe I should send my guy your way? I suspect you might be just the woman to straighten him out:)
Love this post, Erika.
I think this speaks exactly to the there being characters we “love to hate,”–because there has to be something about them we connect with or relate too.
How exciting, to see copyedited version of Little Gale Gumbo! I can’t wait to see it in print.
Hi Maura! Thank you, dear–it feels very real now. Hope you all are seeing some warmer temperatures in your neck of the woods–this is the winter that doesn’t want to go, isn’t it??!!
I am intrigued by your restaurant recollection. My favorite part of reading LITTLE GALE GUMBO, after searching for grammatical mistakes and continuity flubs of course : ), will be trying to figure out how autobiographical the romance is!