Shannon Dittemore is the author of the Angel Eyes trilogy. She has an overactive imagination and a passion for truth. Her lifelong journey to combine the two is responsible for a stint at Portland Bible College, performances with local theater companies, and a focus on youth and young adult ministry. For more about Shan, check out her website, Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest.
I finished reading a book recently. It was an exceptional book. Well-written. Clever. Unique.
From all appearances, the author accomplished what she set out to do, but you know what? I didn’t really like it. And here’s why:
I didn’t care about a single character.
Not the protagonist. Not the antagonist. Not the sidekick.
It’s certainly possible that other readers felt differently–likes and dislikes are a tricky thing–but this book forced me to think about why I fall in love with certain stories and why I don’t.
While story worlds can make or break a tale, it’s the characters that compel emotion from me. Either I connect or I don’t.
In Blake Snyder’s book, Save the Cat, he says this:
So how do we do that? How do we create characters that are worth caring about? A few ideas:
Show your character doing something noble. Snyder calls this the Save the Cat scene. Early on, you can pen a moment in which your character does something that endears him to the reader. He can save a cat from a tree or help an old lady carry in her groceries. She can stand up to a bully or rebuild something that was broken. Whatever it is, it must scream, THIS CHARACTER IS WORTH YOUR TIME!
Show your character struggling. We all struggle. Our characters should too. It helps readers connect when they can identify with the imperfections in your fictional people. It keeps the pretend real. But don’t just tell us what your lead struggles with. SHOW us. Write that struggle in. How does she deal with it? Does she fail every time? Maybe the struggle is another person. Maybe it’s internal. Show us.
Show your character is redeemable. This is especially important if you’re going the antihero route. An antihero is a lead character who lacks conventional heroic attributes. Maybe your character is not brave or kind or noble or fearless, but you must show your character to be worthy of the fictional air you’ve pumped into his lungs. If your readers do not care whether your lead lives or dies, you’ve missed something somewhere.
Show your character is special. While there is a desperate need in all of us to be normal, there is also this warring notion that somehow, some way we must also be special. Where does your character find herself in relation to this? Does she feel TOO special? Is she attempting to hide her uniqueness? Or is she trying to find what makes her different from everyone else? Maybe she’s trying to master her special gift? Like Spidey learning how to shoot webs. Opening up this struggle to the reader will endear us to your lead.
Now, it’s not necessary to show ALL of these things about every character, but making the effort to endear your readers to the main characters will pay off in one simple way. They’ll keep turning the pages. They’ll HAVE TO KNOW what happens.
They’ll care.
And in that way, you’ve spun a little magic.