Liking your characters

We have to like your characters. It is as simple as that. If the reader doesn't like the characters from the beginning of the story, even if they are the bad guys, we have no "buy in" to the story. This is especially true with the romances. We need to want to see the two characters get together by the end of the book. Knowing it is a romance, we understand that they will, but there is still the tension of wondering when it will happen.

I bring this up, because I have seen a lot of books lately that are well written, but because the characters had major issues at the beginning, or the situations the characters were in were awful, I had a hard time buying into the story. Needless to say, I rejected the story. Let me highlight a few of them.

Adultry - This is a big one with me (and the publishers). Yes, we know this happens in the real world and yes, we know there are stories out there that make it to the shelves with this in it, but I have to say, this is a big issue in terms of liking the characters. I don't care if there is a "good reason" to cheat (of course that alone sounds strange), but the point is, the character is cheating. This makes that character now fall at the same level with the villain. You don't want this. Easy solution. Get them out of the marriage fast and then move on with the relationship.

Sure, the cheating may add some dimension to the character and the conflict. They have all of this conflicting feelings running through their heads, should I stay, should I go, and the like. But frankly, this makes us question the ethics of the person.

Lying Cheating and Stealing - Sure the characters can be tough, but again, if the lying, cheating and stealing is not a part of their profession, it makes us question the character. Along the same lines, if the reader doesn't know this from the beginning, then we start to question the character. Here's an example. I just read a story where the hero was supposed to be spying for the king and he was to be running around the city being a jerk about it to people.. O.K. that's fine, but the problem is that I didn't see it until at least chapter 3 or 4. This means that during the opening scenes when I really wanted to see the first glimpses of the two main characters, all I saw was a person that I wanted gone. Not a good thing.

Being a jerk - He's a rake. He's supposed to do that. Well, sort of, but I always say, that I don't care how bad the guy is, I still want to see him as a mama's boy. The reader needs to see the softer side of the characters at some point. The other characters might not see it, but we need to.

Look, there are things you can do to increase the power of your story, but creating characters we don't like just doesn't work.

Scott