{"id":272,"date":"2016-06-08T06:41:47","date_gmt":"2016-06-08T06:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/?p=272"},"modified":"2022-07-24T17:28:53","modified_gmt":"2022-07-24T17:28:53","slug":"why-dont-people-like-my-characters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/2016\/06\/08\/why-dont-people-like-my-characters\/","title":{"rendered":"Why don’t people like my characters?"},"content":{"rendered":"
Because they suck. Kidding\u2026 but maybe they do. Characters carry your story. There is no way to get around that. It doesn\u2019t matter if you have the best plot ever. If people don\u2019t like your characters, then no one cares about what they\u2019re doing or how they\u2019re affected by what\u2019s happening in your story. So let\u2019s talk about what makes characters likable.<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
1. Change is Good<\/strong>:<\/div>\n
\n

Your characters should always change.\u00a0 By the time your story ends, your character needs to have changed. Somehow. Someway. Period. There should be a noticeable difference in the character that we meet at the top of the story and the character that we bid adieu to at the end of the story. If not, you will have pissed off a lot of people.<\/p>\n

2. Flaws and All<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Your characters should be flawed. This should be obvious but let\u2019s discuss anyway. No one is perfect. I hate to burst your bubble (not really) but you\u2019re not perfect. But for some reason, writers think that audiences\/readers want perfect characters as an escape from reality. Word to the wise, reality is inescapable. Readers want relatable characters. The only way to relate is through flaws and perseverance regardless of those flaws. Whether people will say it out loud or not, they know they\u2019re flawed and they\u2019re looking for someone who is on their side. It\u2019s comforting to know they\u2019re not in the world alone.<\/p>\n

3. Redeeming Qualities<\/strong>:<\/p>\n

Does your character have any? Even unlikeable people have redeeming qualities. This means that not all of your characters have to be \u201clikable\u201d in the general sense. They can be mean people, evil people, bad people, but they must still be liked enough to care about their journey in your story. For example, in \u201cUp\u201d (the beautifully made Pixar movie), Mr. Frederickson is a grumpy old man. Without the opening montage, he\u2019d be totally unlikeable. No one likes a sour puss. But because we understood why he was sour, we gave him a pass and ultimately went with him on his greatest adventure. Another example is Heath Ledger as the Joker was an antagonist that you loved to hate. You wanted him to lose because obviously, Batman is the good guy. But there was a small part of you that wanted him to win because you cared about him. He shares a bit of his story making him relatable to those who come from abuse. If he\u2019s relatable, then we can understand his actions because we know his motives. Bad guys don\u2019t consider themselves bad guys.\u00a0 AND all bad guys are good guys to someone. Never forget that.<\/p>\n

Character is everything. Take time to build them. Show their vulnerability.\u00a0 And then ask yourself a simple question. Do my characters suck? If so, go back to the drawing board. You\u2019ll thank yourself later.<\/p>\n

Wanna learn screenplay structure from The Professional Pen? Click\u00a0here<\/a>\u00a0to take the leap.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Written by: Shannan E. Johnson<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Because they suck. Kidding\u2026 but maybe they do. Characters carry your story. There is no way to get around that. It doesn\u2019t matter if you have the best plot ever. If people don\u2019t like your characters, then no one cares about what they\u2019re doing or how they\u2019re affected by what\u2019s happening in your story. So let\u2019s talk about what makes characters likable.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[156],"tags":[203,205,142,157,92,206,13,204],"class_list":["post-272","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-screenwriting","tag-characters","tag-heath-ledger","tag-hollywood","tag-screenplay","tag-screenwriting","tag-the-dark-knight","tag-the-professional-pen","tag-writing-dynamic-characters","entry"],"acf":{"featured_image":{"ID":600,"id":600,"title":"Heath Ledger The Dark Knight","filename":"Heath-Ledger-The-Dark-Knight.jpeg","filesize":458273,"url":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Heath-Ledger-The-Dark-Knight.jpeg","link":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/2016\/06\/08\/why-dont-people-like-my-characters\/heath-ledger-the-dark-knight\/","alt":"Heath Ledger The Dark Knight","author":"2","description":"","caption":"","name":"heath-ledger-the-dark-knight","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":272,"date":"2022-07-24 17:28:06","modified":"2022-07-24 17:28:21","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/jpeg","type":"image","subtype":"jpeg","icon":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1336,"height":2000,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Heath-Ledger-The-Dark-Knight-150x150.jpeg","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Heath-Ledger-The-Dark-Knight-200x300.jpeg","medium-width":200,"medium-height":300,"medium_large":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Heath-Ledger-The-Dark-Knight-768x1150.jpeg","medium_large-width":750,"medium_large-height":1123,"large":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Heath-Ledger-The-Dark-Knight-684x1024.jpeg","large-width":684,"large-height":1024,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Heath-Ledger-The-Dark-Knight-1026x1536.jpeg","1536x1536-width":1026,"1536x1536-height":1536,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Heath-Ledger-The-Dark-Knight.jpeg","2048x2048-width":1336,"2048x2048-height":2000,"post-thumbnail":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/Heath-Ledger-The-Dark-Knight.jpeg","post-thumbnail-width":1336,"post-thumbnail-height":2000}},"show_featured_content":true,"post_image":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=272"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/272\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=272"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=272"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/content.orgosco.com\/theprofessionalpen\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=272"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}