by Angela Ruth Strong, @AngelaRStrong
In my last novel, I wrote a lazy hero. You don’t see lazy heroes very often. You see heroes who have character flaws like anger, pride, selfishness, envy, and fear, but laziness seems to be the most unlikeable of all these issues. And I get it. How can anyone have a relationship with someone who won’t put in any effort?
Nevertheless, I wrote a lazy hero because I know many women in relationships with men like this (or vice versa), and I want to believe the problem can be overcome. As I started writing the story, I knew my hero Kai was going to grow, but readers could have been put off by his attitude in the beginning and given up on the story before the end. So I had to make Kai likable in spite of his laziness, and you can do this for your books too.
Here are five steps to make readers root for your flawed character:
- Hint at backstory. In the opening scene of Husband Auditions, I literally had Kai’s roommate walk past him and pat him on the head, saying, “Kai has a good backstory.” She’s a screenplay writer, so this is authentic dialog coming from her. As for Kai’s response, he simply thinks, “I don’t know if I’d call it good.” I leave it at that until later. This creates both curiosity and compassion in the reader’s mind and heart. It hooks them in to keep reading more.
- Give your character a redeeming quality. The book Save the Cat by Blake Snyder is based on a “rule” he made up by the same name. He says that even if a protagonist is burning down a building in the opening scene, you can have them stop to rescue a cat on the way out of the building, then the reader will see some good in him as a person and believe in him. For Kai, I had him give his car to a teenage mom. Nobody in his world knows about the gift because he keeps it a secret so as not to raise the bar on others’ expectations, but the reader knows and likes him for it.
- Show your character’s strength as well as their weakness. To be liked, characters don’t necessarily have to be using their strength for good, but it has to be part of an admirable quality. For example, in the movie Flight, Denzel Washington’s confidence allows him to land a broken airplane by flying it upside down. Because he saved so many lives, we root for him through all the other terrible choices he makes from overconfidence. For Kai, his humor and laid-back attitude keep him out of trouble, which is a desirable trait to possess even if he’s using it selfishly at first.
- Make your character relatable. Blake Snyder used the example of Angelina Jolie’s role in Tomb Raider as failing at being relatable. Instead, the director tried to make her “cool” by giving her expensive cars and shallow one-liners. Thus the audience never connects with her emotions or her plight, dismissing her as forgettable. I crafted Kai to be relatable in the way his fear of failure wages war with his desire to follow his dreams.
- Create your character to be unique. There are lots of likable characters out there, so you have to make yours stand out to keep your reader turning pages. Your character can be quirky like “Anne with an E” who cares a little too much about dresses with puffy sleeves, or a bit crazy like Mel Gibson’s character in Lethal Weapon, or addicted to 80’s music like Star Lord in Guardians of the Galaxy. My character Kai dresses like a surfer but doesn’t surf in Oregon due to the water temperatures being much colder than in Hawaii. This is both unique and revealing since he’s not even willing to overcome discomfort to do the things he loves…despite still flashing the Hawaiian shaka sign as his own.
Your characters don’t have to be beautiful, perfect, or nice in order to be liked. They don’t have to live happily ever after or even survive your whole book. But you do have to get your readers invested in their outcome, and they won’t do that unless they like them.
In a world full of happily-ever-after love, Meri Newberg feels like the last young woman on the planet to be single, at least in her Christian friend group. So when she’s handed a strange present at the latest wedding–a 1950s magazine article of “ways to get a husband”–she decides there’s nothing to lose by trying out its advice. After all, she can’t get any more single, can she?
Her brother’s roommate sees the whole thing as a great opportunity. Not to fall in love–Kai Kamaka has no interest in the effort a serious relationship takes. No, this is a career jump start. He talks Meri into letting him film every silly husband-catching attempt for a new online show. If it goes viral, his career as a cameraman will be made.
When Meri Me debuts, it’s an instant hit. People love watching her lasso men on street corners, drop handkerchiefs for unsuspecting potential beaus, and otherwise embarrass herself in pursuit of true love. But the longer this game goes on, the less sure Kai is that he wants Meri to snag anyone but him. The only problem is that he may not be the kind of husband material she’s looking for . . .
Angela Ruth Strong sold her first Christian romance novel in 2009 then quit writing romance when her husband left her. Ten years later, God has shown her the true meaning of love, and there’s nothing else she’d rather write about. Her books have since earned TOP PICK in Romantic Times, been optioned for film, won the Cascade Award, and been Amazon best-sellers. She also writes non-fiction for SpiritLed Woman. To help aspiring authors, she started IDAhope Writers where she lives in Idaho, and she teaches as an expert online at WRITE THAT BOOK.