Underdogs

While I really dislike dogs (and, yes, there are two living in my house and the relationship is tenuous at best), underdogs in literature are always a favourite. I mean, most stories are about someone who in all rights should not succeed in a strange and new circumstance, but they overcome with a mix of grit and wit.

But writing the underdog isn’t simple.

Life is hard. It’s a reality we all don’t really want to admit, but it is. We are always losing even if we are winning. A lot of times, underdog characters have an innate talent that helps them overcome a lot of what is difficult or should be difficult. However, these talents or innate characteristics need to have a cost. There needs to be a complication in order for the character to succeed. This is often at the cost of something the character depends on. Like a mentor character that is removed and the underdog needs to now survive without that guidance, relying on oneself. The story needs to have a challenge and cost in order to succeed.
Goal needs to be congruent with what the character desires. If you have a character who is, say, hidden royalty, they need to be suitably motivated to succeed and reclaim that power. If the character is forced into pursuing their hidden birthright, it needs to be for a reason, not just, “Hey, this is pretty cool! I’ll get neat clothes and stuff!” If the character is blackmailed, make the threat real to something the character values. If the character needs the power to make a change in the world they love, make that threatened by the current regime. The reasons motivating the underdog needs to be believable, not passive directions provided by other forces.

Source: pinaquote.com

Morality. Most believe that underdogs are hard-working and strive to succeed while playing by the rules. If you are going to go against this reader assumption, you have to make sure that the reader is sympathetic to the character’s methods. If you have a story set in a culture where something socially acceptable now is not socially acceptable there, then that method is almost automatically accepted by the reader as being sympathetic. The one thing you need to be careful of is making sure that the characters who believe in story’s social norm really believe in it and don’t get swayed by a drop of modern logic. If you are going to undermine the honorable reputation of the underdog, ensure there is reader sympathy for the motivation behind the action.
The underdog can’t do everything. A character, any character, can’t be the most capable person at everything. It is important that your underdog has a network, a team of cohesive sidekicks that can make what the underdog desires possible if motivated correctly. Are they all friends? Not necessarily. The enemy’s enemy is thy friend…but should be counted on for great backstabbing when they have contributed to an accomplishment that will be a gateway to their own desires.

For the article that inspired this post, see this article: 7 Ways to Win as an Underdog.