“No one likes my characters”

You’re handing your precious book over to a beta reader to see if it’s worthwhile, ready, perhaps, for a Chanticleer Book Review or to be entered into the Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards. They look at you over the cover that you worked so many long hours on with your designer and say with all the authority of fate: “I just don’t think your main character is very likeable,” they say. “Can’t you make them more likeable? All characters should be likeable.”

Are your grumpy readers right?

Writer, they are wrong

You can of course have an unlikeable main character! If they were only willing to read for ten minutes though, you may have a more difficult problem on your hands than whether or not your character is someone they want to be friends with. Some of the most compelling characters in literature aren’t someone I’d want to share a hotel room with anytime soon. 

We can sleep in separate bedrooms. Really, it’s okay.

The key isn’t to worry about whether or not your protagonist is “likeable” (which is a tricky word to define), but about whether or not they are interesting.

• Are the actions they take moving the plot forward while engaging the reader at the same time? Those two things must be true of anything that happens in your story. 

Manuscript Overviews and Editing

Now, if the majority of your readers are coming back to you and letting you know these early drafts aren’t working, we highly recommend a Manuscript Overview. A manuscript overview (MOV) is a broad overview of your manuscript – what’s working and what isn’t from all aspects of your story: structure, plot, pacing, character development, dialogue, etc. We are here to offer our guidance on what you need next. Save time and money by honing your work before you begin the editorial process.

Here, we’ll go through a few basic checks to make sure that your character is compelling. 

On Writing Compelling Characters

There are a few questions you’ll want to ask to see if your complex character is someone who will grab your reader’s attention. 

• What is the Status Quo your character inhabits? 
• What is your character’s Desire?
• How does the Conflict impede the character’s Desire?
• Cats

If you simply need help developing your character, consider reviewing this article on Secondary Characters here. Otherwise, read on!

Speaking of Secondary Characters, Severus Snape, Professor of Potions from the Harry Potter series is a prime example of uncompelling compelling character.

Severus Snape

Status Quo

This is the classic way you engage readers with your story. The story is introduced, and something happens to break the status quo. One story where this jumps to mind is Neal Stephenson’s Seveneves. With cannibalism and the end of the world, there’s no lack of unlikeable characters in this book, but all the characters rivet your attention. 

Seveneves begins with the moon blowing up. Well, more accurately, with it being split into four pieces. Up until the catalyst (the breaking of the status quo), the four chunks of the moon are a point of fascination, friendly enough to have one chunk named “The Bean.” Then the status quo changes when one of the moon chunks hits another and they start to fragment even more. This gives all the characters a goal to work for: Save the Human Race. Having a strong focus for your characters will help readers empathize with them and want to know what’s happening.

Our favorite editor Jessica Morrell has an excellent article detailing even more ways to stir up trouble for your characters here.

Character Desire

Similar to the breaking of the status quo, your characters will all want something different out of the world you’ve written them in. Of course, like the breaking of the status quo, this problem won’t be easy for them to solve. 

Tom Ellis as Lucifer from Netflix

There are two common methods of frustrating your character’s ability to achieve their desire. The first is simply to make it difficult to do. Anything that takes a lot of work and will make them struggle. The other excellent choice is to have them try to solve the wrong thing. So often characters misunderstand what will make them happy or they struggle to find the correct solution to their problem. By having them do the wrong thing, the reader will be able to enjoy a much more interesting story than an unlikeable person succeeding at everything they do and never growing or developing. 

Cats

Who doesn’t love cats? We love cats at Chanticleer, that’s for sure!

The newest additions to the Chanticleer family: Tiefen and Biscuit at 15-weeks-old

Now the connection between cats and what to do with your unlikeable character might not be immediately clear, and it might sometimes be a metaphor rather than an actual cat. The tried and true advice is you have a character who might be a little rough around the edges save a cat early on in the story. This shows that, despite their flaws, they do care about the world around them, and they will help a creature in need. Of course, this doesn’t have to be a literal cat, but it’s something sweet the character chooses to do without being pressured. 

For those of you in The Roost, Chanticleer’s online community, you know that we have been reading SAVE THE CAT, WRITES a NOVEL by Jessica Brody (based on the screenwriting books by Blake Snyder) in our Writing Craft Book Group. There is even a reading guide by Chanticleer’s David Beaumier uploaded to the  activity feed.

The opposite can happen too! In Lower Decks, the irreverent Star Trek cartoon that’s currently playing on Paramount+, Beckett Mariner kills a holographic character to establish herself as the villain in a fantasy program she designed. 

Beckett Mariner as Vindicta in “Crisis Point” from Star Trek Lower Decks

It’s fairly easy to flip through the first pages of your book to see if there’s a cat who your narrator can save in the early pages of your work, and then see if you can find a few beta readers to poll on their feelings. 

To consider more of the timing and development of plot in relation to your characters, review this article here.

“There’s no such thing as writer’s block or plotter’s block. There’s only perfectionist’s block.” Jessica Brody

Always lovely to end with a bit of advice. Thoughts on this?

Go forth and write!

When you’re ready, did you know that Chanticleer offers editorial services? We do and have been doing so since 2011.

Our professional editors are top-notch and are experts in the Chicago Manual of Style. They have and are working for the top publishing houses (TOR, McMillian, Thomas Mercer, Penguin Random House, Simon Schuster, etc.).

If you would like more information, we invite you to email Kiffer or Sharon at KBrown@ChantiReviews.com or SAnderson@ChantiReviews.com for more information, testimonials, and fees.

We work with a small number of exclusive clients who want to collaborate with our team of top-editors on an on-going basis. Contact us today!

Chanticleer Editorial Services also offers writing craft sessions and masterclasses. Sign up to find out where, when, and how sessions being held.

A great way to get started is with our manuscript evaluation service, with more information available here.

And we do editorial consultations for $75. Learn more here.  

If you’re confident in your book, consider submitting it for a Editorial Book Review here or to one of our Chanticleer International Awards here.

Also remember! Our 10th Anniversary Chanticleer Authors Conference (CAC22) will be April 7-10, 2022, where our 2021 CIBA winners will be announced. Space is limited and seats are already filling up, so sign up today!  CAC22 and the CIBA Ceremonies will be hosted at the Hotel Bellwether in Beautiful Bellingham, Wash. Sign up and see the latest updates here!

Thank you for reading this Chanticleer Writer’s Toolbox article.

Writers Toolbox Helpful Links: 

AMPLIFY, MAGNIFY, & STIR UP TROUBLE for Your Main Characters – by Jessica Morrell

Supporting Cast – Taking Risks with Your Secondary Characters – by Jessica Morrell

Character Development, Dialogue, and Beats – by David Beaumier

The traditional publishing tool that indie authors can use to propel their writing careers to new levels?  The Seven Must-Haves for Authors – Unlocking the Secrets of Successful Publishing Series by Kiffer Brown