What is a sympathetic character? I’m pretty sure I finally figured it out, and you’ll be overjoyed to hear that it really is SUPER SIMPLE! *Insert ecstatic fanfare here*
I’ve been reading books on writing.
I’ve been listening to podcasts on writing.
I’ve been reading blogs and watching vlogs, all on writing.
About outlining, about character development, about plots, about what it takes to write a good story that readers will want to read. About what the main character needs to be in order for readers to root for them. And this last bit has been the bane of my writerly existence for a good while now: How exactly does one create a character that an audience will want to root for?
All these sources agree that the main character needs to be sympathetic if the reader is going to root for them. Either rooting for them to win, or occasionally to fail. Either way, they are invested in that character and that character’s story and they are rooting for an outcome. But what does sympathetic look like? What does it mean? Do they need to be likable, or relatable, or interesting, or wounded, etc.?
Well if we go by what all the compiled sources have to say:
We all know that they can’t be too good or they’ll be a Mary Sue, but if they’re too bad readers will be put off by them.
They can’t be too smart or they’ll make the reader feel dumb, but if they’re too dumb the reader will get angry with them.
They can’t be too pretty or the reader will think they’re unrelatable, but if they’re too ugly the reader will have to face the horrible self-realization that they don’t want to read about an ugly character, and then they’ll hate the author for making them realize they are not a good person.
Sorry, not sorry.
They need to have a tragic back story, but not too tragic that they become a melodramatic nightmare.
OH, and the character can’t be too quirky either or they’ll be a cliche, but they also can’t be too plain or average or they’ll be boring and won’t be unique and thus forgettable…
…just kill me now.
Here’s the problem I have with this. You could build me a character that somehow manages to perfectly pull off the balance between all those things and I guarantee you still won’t have a sympathetic character. Why not?
Well, it has dawned on me very recently while arguing with the latest book on writing I happened to be reading, that as a lover of story, who gives my heart and soul to any good book or film that is willing to take it, I don’t give two hoots about any of those things. As a reader, I only want one thing from my main character.
I want to know what the main character wants, and I want to understand why they want it. That’s it. Yes, I know that’s technically two things, but it’s beside the point and you’re straying off-topic, so stop it. Anyway, give me that and your character can be anyone under the sun. Good, bad, ugly, annoying, boring, crazy, I don’t care.
I had a friend in college who told the most ridiculous and hilarious stories about this socially awkward excuse for a demigod named Dave (I think…well that’s his name now). Dave’s father wanted him to be a proper Greek god. But Dave didn’t want that, he only wanted one thing. A sandwich. Dave was obsessed with sandwiches, they were the only thing he lived for and he just wanted to be left alone to enjoy his sandwiches. Every day my friend had a new little story for us about how Dave had to battle an assassin sent by his father to break Dave of his obsession with sandwiches. And in every story, Dave was battling for a sandwich that he never got and inevitably died in some new way and became reincarnated to do it all over again the next day.
The basic structure of these stories was the same and always had the same outcome every time, but when my friend started to tell one of his stories, we all listened because we had to know: Was Dave finally going to get his sandwich this time?
What did Dave want? A sandwich. Why? Because “sandwiches were life”. That’s it, plain and simple.
And before you try to write me off as a crazy lady who’s just easy for stories. Let me remind you of a rough and tough character named Tallahassee from a movie called Zombieland. Anyone who’s seen that movie knows that Tallahassee wanted one thing. Just one. A Twinkie. Why? Because, in an apocalyptic world overrun by the undead, for one brief moment he could go back to a time when all was right with the world. We all wanted to see him get that Twinkie more than anything else, and he wasn’t even the main character!
Need better examples?
Sherlock Holmes from the Moffat and Gatiss BBC adaption “Sherlock”: The condescending genius who seemingly cares about nothing but solving mysteries.
Dexter Morgan from the “Dexter series” by Jeff Lindsay: A serial killer who pretends to be a completely average person so he doesn’t get caught.
Asta from “Black Clover” by Yuuki Tabata: A loud, but kind-hearted “goody two-shoes” who is always smiling and trying to see the good in everyone.
All three very different characters that you probably wouldn’t expect one person to relate to all of them, but watch this.
Sherlock Holmes - He wants to solve puzzles, and he wants a friend to do it with.
Why? Because his incredibly high IQ made him very easily bored as a child and growing up way smarter than other kids made him socially inept with an off-putting personality, and thus led to a lonely friendless childhood that turned into a lonely and friendless adulthood. And the only thing he has now is his puzzles.
We may not all be geniuses or jerks, but I’ll bet we all know what it feels like to be lonely in a world that doesn’t understand us.
Dexter - He’s a serial killer. He wants to kill people. But he also wants to be normal, to fit in, to know what it’s like to be like everybody else.
Why? Well, he wants to kill because it’s an uncontrollable impulse that he doesn’t know how else to satiate (apparently due to a schizoid personality disorder). He wants to be normal because he sees how happy everyone else looks with their simple uncomplicated lives and it looks appealing: Never having to look over their backs, not feeling like a monster undeserving of love.
Dexter has conflicting wants. And while I hope most of you out there can’t fully relate to the ‘urge to kill’, anyone who has ever suffered from an addiction, or probably even a mental health issue of any variety, knows what it’s like to feel like an outsider, judged by society because they can’t ‘control themselves’. Feeling like a monster because of their addiction. Feeling like no one will love them because they are ‘broken’.
Asta - He’s an orphan in a world where EVERYONE has magic…except him, and Asta wants to become the Wizard King, the strongest and most highly esteemed magic user in a caste hierarchy based entirely on magical abilities.
Why? Society has told him, his whole life, that he’ll never amount to anything and he’ll always be useless. He not only endured this constant propaganda, but had to watch his orphan siblings endure it too, and he hated seeing what it did to them, eventually even pushing some of them to the point of almost giving up on life itself.
He couldn’t bear the idea of just sitting by and watching them die if he could do something, anything, to save them. So, he became determined to NEVER let anyone ever again tell him that he can’t do anything he puts his mind to (like becoming Wizard King) just because he doesn’t have magic. He has to, because he isn’t just fighting for himself. He needs to have hope because his friends need that hope that he knows only he can give them, and because of that he NEVER GIVES UP. If you’ve at least seen the show then you’ll see what they did there.
Plenty of us can identify with the struggle of others telling us we aren’t smart enough, strong enough, pretty enough, to achieve our dreams, and have fought and worked hard every day to someday show those people how wrong they are.
And now Asta’s not just some loud happy-go-lucky character with a lofty dream.
Sherlock isn’t just a sarcastic jerk who’s too smart for everyone.
Dexter isn’t just some crazy serial killer.
They’re people, who feel incomplete, and who have wants. Just like us. And for whatever reason, we all want something, and we can all sympathize with that, no matter our differences.
I’m not saying that a “want” and a “why” are the only things your character is going to need to have a successful and/or satisfying character arc. But I do believe if you are trying to engage MY sympathy as a reader early on in the story, this truly is the only interesting thing I need to know about them.
Heck, make it intriguing enough, and you could even get away with just telling me what they want and leaving me curious to find out the “why”.
AND NOW, this is the part where you either get to thank me from the bottom of your heart for opening up the gates of enlightenment…or tell me how completely wrong I am…comments are right down there…I will fight you.