Writers – Do Your Characters Have to be Likeable?

Note: This is an online version of a writing workshop currently in progress: Learning, Then Burning (Or at Least Overturning) the Writing Rule Book. You can sign up here to receive notes from this class as they become available.

Do your characters have to be “likeable?” Based on our in-class discussion, the answer is a resounding no. Here are some of the characters in books, movies, and TV shoes that we don’t like… but still manage to love.

Dr. House from House

Professor Snape from Harry Potter

Hatsumomo from Memoirs of a Geisha

Agent Smith in The Matrix

Meryl Streep’s character in August: Osage County

Meryl Streep’s character in The Devil Wears Prada.

Jake Gillenhaal’s character in Nightcrawler

Thieren from Game of Thrones

Reese Witherspoon’s character in Wild

The writer in Californication

The commentator of Hunger Games

Walter White from Breaking Bad

Frank Underwood from House of Cards

The main character’s brother in Slumdog Millionaire

We could go on…

But a closer look at even the list above reveals some patterns. The characters we don’t like often fit in one or more of the following categories.

We don’t like the character, but…

… we respect them for their special skill set or outlook on life. (Thieren from Game of Thrones, Dr. House from House)

… we feel sympathetic to them because their outer unpleasantness reveals a certain amount of inner pain. (Meryl Streep’s character in August: Osage County, the writer in Californication, Hatsumomo from Memoirs of a Geisha)

… we’ve developed a bond with them because we first met them before they went over to the dark side. (Walter White from Breaking Bad, Jake Gylenhaal’s character in Nightcrawler)

…there is something redeemable about them that we hope will overtake their evil side. If they undergo a redemption, it will give us hope that people can change. (Reese Witherspoon’s character in Wild, the main character’s brother in Slumdog Millionaire.)

…we like the author for nailing down personality traits in a way that feels real. (This is personal, so take your pick from any of the above.)

TVTropes for unlikeable characters: There are a ton of variations of each of these, but these will give you an idea of how people in the movie/TV world describe these traits.

–Pet the Dog Moment (Interestingly enough, Frank Underwood kills a dog in the first scene of HOC – perhaps a nod to this trope.)

–Not evil, just misunderstood

–Heel-face-turn, in which a bad character turns good, or face-heel-turn, in which a good character turns bad.

Reading Assignment

The excerpt we used for this lesson is from I Am Charlotte Simmons, by Tom Wolfe.

This is a campus novel in which different characters are our tour guides through different chapters, but some characters are more sympathetic than others. This chapter, the first chapter after a quick opening description, is called “The Dupont Man.” It’s third person, but follows the point of view of Hoyt, a fraternity member who we first meet in the bathroom of a frat party.

Click here to see the book and read the excerpt through Amazon’s “look inside” feature.

Writing Assignment #1: Two Sides of the Same Coin

Premise: Often, bad traits have a positive flip-side. Often, good traits have a negative flip-side that is negative. Think of the reasons people break up – they were attracted to someone’s ambition only to find out the person works all the time. Or they liked someone’s laid back attitude only to find out they are frustratingly lazy or don’t follow through on their promises. The same is true for character traits. The things that bother us about an unlikeable character can be the thing we would like about them if it were less extreme or better controlled, and the thing that makes us like a character can get on our nerves if it becomes extreme.

Directions:

1. List five character traits that you like in a person, along with their potential downsides. Remember that the downside is often a more extreme version of the upside.

(Examples: Generous / bad With Money; Sweet / Pushover)

2. Then list five character traits you don’t like in people along with their potential upsides. Remember that the upside is often the better-controlled, less extreme version of the downside.

(Examples: Jealous / Attentive; Violent / Brave or protective of loved ones)

3. Now, pick one set of characteristics from each list and write a character sketch of someone who embodies both the positive and negative trait. Tell us everything you can describe about this character that might be relevant to the story. They don’t actually have to do anything yet. A character sketch is just a description.

Note: This exercise can be great for those Dr. House type characters that we don’t like but do respect. It can also help you make your heroes more flawed and thus more human and relatable. After all, likeable doesn’t mean perfect.

Want to take your characters to the next level?

Or, a better question might be, want to dig down to the next layer?

Click here for Writing Exercise #2: The Three Layers of Complicated Characters.

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This is an online version of  a writing workshop by Roxanna Elden, author of See Me After Class: Advice for Teachers by Teachers. (And hopefully some other books, soon.)

You can sign up here to receive notes from this class as they become available.