Tipster Tuesday (7)*

I want to apologize for today's post being up a little late. I thought I'd typed this up over the weekend, and woke up late this morning to find I hadn't. (Sooo forgetful.)

Today's Topic:

Sympathetic Characters

I've already covered creating likable characters, so I thought I should probably cover sympathetic characters. Well, that seems redundant, doesn't it? I mean, if a character is likable, naturally, they'll be easy to sympathize with, too. Right? Sorry to burst your bubble, but no, not necessarily. Of course, there are lots of characters who ride on their likability, but those characters are just alright. And you don't want an "alright" character. You want a great one. And great characters are ones you can sympathize with.

Now, what goes into making a character sympathetic?

--It helps if they're likable

Yeah, I know I said just because they're likable, blah, blah, blah. Hear me out. While it can work if your character is likable but not necessarily sympathetic, it's harder the other way around for a couple of reasons. A) It's hard to sympathize with someone you don't like, and B) they can come off as a pity pot...and that gets pretty annoying. Buuuut...

--If they're not likable, they need a good reason for being that way

Ahhh. A good motive can save an unlikeable character. If they have a good reason for doing the mean/cruel/douche-y things they do, we can still try to see eye-to-eye with them on some level.

--Seeing the MC feed a stray kitten doesn't help their case

I'm sorry, but your character is going to have to help a lot of stray kittens before I start marking down sympathy points. Cliched "look at me, I'm being a good person" scenes don't work. All scenes like that will accomplish is making the reader roll their eyes.

--Let's see those emotions
Even hard-shelled characters like Katniss Everdeen of THE HUNGER GAMES have pangs of emotion. Without that, they're nothing more than robots acting out a story. But it is possible to have a character who swallows most of their emotions--you've just got to keep it realistic. There's only so much one person can repress before things come boiling over.

--They don't need a sob story past
I see a lot of characters who lean on what happened to them in the past for sympathy. Your character doesn't need to be trapped in their tragic past to be a sympathetic character in the present. Grubbs Grady of Darren Shan's DEMONATA series had a fairly normal life until the events of LORD LOSS, but I don't have any trouble sympathizing with him.

--But a realistically painful back story never hurt
Look at Harry Potter. And Katniss. Hell, my characters aren't even immune from the dreaded SOB STORY. It's not a bad thing. But you've got to keep it realistic. There's a fine line between "Oh, that poor character had it so rough" and "Jeez...this writer is pushing it."

For those of you who skipped to the end:
*Likability without sympathy is okay, but sympathy without likability is tough unless your character has a good motive.
*Helping stray animals and giving money to the poor won't get you any points.
*We need to see some EMOTIONS!
*A painful past isn't required, but it should be okay as long as you keep it realistic.


What makes you sympathize with a character?
Are there any characters you just couldn't sympathize with?
What about the characters that were easy to sympathize with?

HAPPY WRITING, LOVELIES!

*This is technically the 8th Tipster post, but one of those was posted on a Thursday...sooo...