Making Unlikable Characters… Likable

One challenge all writers face is ensuring the characters they write about have some minimal level of likability. After all, if no one likes anything about your characters, who is going to want to read about them? This can be especially challenging if you are writing a reprehensible character.

The most common approach is to give a ‘save the cat’ or ‘pet the dog’ moment. Literally your character who may have done, and go on to do, and number of horrible things, does something kind or human for a weaker entity. It is a great strategy but there are a few others if it’s still not working (and just to be clear – I used the term ‘entity’ as ‘pet the dog’ does not have to literally be a dog. The key is that it is something weaker than them. A kitten, a child, etc. Even weaker adult characters can work but they lack the cuteness factor which automatically makes the reader make them want them helped.)

Other things you can do to improve the likability of a character:

– give a character set up that gives context to their reprehensible behavior (past trauma distorting their world view, current situation, being under duress. etc)

– show an inner monologue that allows the reader to see that they struggle between doing the right and the wrong thing.

– even if they mostly do the reprehensible thing but they do have a conscience you can write events where sometimes they do the right thing even when it doesn’t serve their best interest at all (think Captain Jack Sparrow)

– that they’re humorous (Jack Sparrow also is more likable due to this)

– popularity bias – if you write other characters who are honorable and they show through acts or words that they still like the character, this can also help, as the opinion of other characters affects the reader (although I hate to use the same example, it’s worth using simply as almost everyone will have seen one of the movies or be familiar with it to some extent – JS also gets a boost to likability from Will Turner and Elizabeth Swan both of whom are very upstanding, honorable, and likable, and who both in actions and words defend JS)

– give your unlikable character a character flaw that is relatable so most readers will see themselves in the character

– make the reprehensible character the puppy (not literally of course, just give them a weakness which means their toughness is a survival tactic, that makes the reader feel in their corner)

And most importantly, the character cannot be unrelentingly reprehensible. If everything they do is selfish and mean, they’re not funny, so there’s no tension relief on the page, and they always succeed, and they’re always smug about it. That character cannot be likable. Even the dog won’t let them pet it.

If you found this helpful, or if you have other tips for making poorly behaving characters more likable or relatable to readers, please share in the comments below!