1. Lone_Wolf

    Lone_Wolf Banned

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    How do I make a character likable and tragic at the same time?

    Discussion in 'Character Development' started by Lone_Wolf, Apr 8, 2017.

    One of my main goals in my story is to have one of my main characters be ultimately tragic, like Orange Is The New Black's season 4 tragic, but my problem is that I don't know how to make likable characters. My character has had a rough past, but she has a lot of ambition for her future, but I don't know how I can make her likable and also have a tear-jerking, tragic ending.

    A summary of my character is that she's a poet and a musician. She can be aloof and distant, and outwardly represents herself as tough and is always on guard of herself, but I also want to show her inner self, her loving, caring self who loves to make jokes and protects those she loves.

    My problem is that she's the type of character who hates showing her softer side and conceals her emotions. She's a very conflicting character, and here's why: Her backstory is that she suffered from abuse and was traumatically harassed by a past lover, which ultimately left her permanently broken and depressed. All her life, she's never really had the love and care from her family, and thus never learned to love herself, no matter how many people love her in return, but at the same time, she longs to be loved and cared for, platonically speaking, but she never felt real close to anyone, friends or family. She only met one person who made her feel like she was everything, but even that was thrown out the door from her too.

    Anywho, she doesn't really show her vulnerability and keeps most of her past a secret. It's only subtly implied that she was abused, but there's no confirmation.

    Any advice on how I can make this character likable but ultimately loses her battle in the end? I looked up some information on how to make a character's death more sadder and such, and yet I have no idea how I can pull this off with my character. Would her personality kill it? Would traumatic backstories kill the unsuspecting loss the character faces at the end? I don't know. Anyone got any ideas?
     
  2. izzybot

    izzybot (unspecified) Contributor

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    I don't think these things are at odds. Her tragedy doesn't make her unlikable, and bad things happening to likable characters is usually going to be more tearjerking (see the end of the OITNB s4 ...).

    So, I'm not really clear - is it that you're not sure how to make her likable because she's aloof? I think it kind of depends on how your story is set up. Is there room for little humanizing moments where she's kind or even opens up to someone else? Failing softening her, a distant tough character could use their distance and toughness to help someone else by standing up for them without getting emotional over it. Or they could have a dry, sarcastic sense of humor that totally fits their overall demeanor and is also endearing. Since you mention she has a lot of ambition for the future, I'd also suggest that someone having undergone hardship but remained outwardly hopeful and hard-working is probably going to be fairly likable already. She's also going to be relatable to plenty of people with similar backgrounds, if you hint at it heavily enough that they can catch on.
     
  3. Lone_Wolf

    Lone_Wolf Banned

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    I'm not sure how I can make her likable and tragic because she has a lot of inner conflict, but maybe that's the point of making characters likable? I'm just insecure about how I can represent her as such, like would scenes of her tragic backstory lower the chance of making her likable yet tragic? Would any of her past trauma make it more obvious that she's going to suffer ultimate tragedy at the end, despite her being loving and hopeful for the future? Questions like that
     
  4. truthbeckons

    truthbeckons Active Member

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    I'm also confused why you think her being likeable and her story ending in tragedy are at odds.

    I think psychological realism and making feelings and motivations understandable to the reader on a natural, intuitive level, is generally key to "relatable" characters. This is how people get on the side of characters who are kind of horrible people. If you know what they want and why they want it, you tend to sympathise with their position even if you don't condone their actions. Conversely, a nice main character or a jerk is going to be equally hollow and uninteresting if the reader can't figure out their motivation.

    And it's good that our sympathy works that way, because it's important to write flawed characters who make dumb choices sometimes and are not perfect robotic angels. Remember to make her human. Likeable or unpleasant, whether she has a sad or a happy ending, making her feel real is what will get the reader invested, and that should be your focus. Once they're invested, your sad ending will probably tug at the heartstrings.

    A caveat for tragedy though, it should mean something. I think people are most likely to be annoyed and find it grating or manipulative if it just seems to be sad for the sake of sad. There should be some thematic idea connected with the bad outcome, a way that it resonates, some idea that it illustrates.

    Sorry this advice isn't more specific about techniques, but your quandary is pretty vague. The best advice I can give is to do a lot of experimental writing and see how it feels, and to read lots, especially well-written tragedies, and work out what the authors are doing there and why it works.
     
  5. Cave Troll

    Cave Troll It's Coffee O'clock everywhere. Contributor

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    Do it in small ways, like giving a homeless person money/food/booze/clothing.
    Though you make it sound like all her past bad exp. is on par with someone who
    has been on one too many tours of duty in a warzone. Do poets/musicians really
    have that kind of trauma level you are portraying?

    No one wants to read about a wet blanket, or an artificially inspired ass.
    So try to find ways for her to do things that are loving and caring. Like
    maybe helping out at a shelter, raising money for a good cause charity,
    or something that is nice for the sake of being nice.

    I will use my own MC that is a hard nose, cynical ass with a tragic
    back story, along with being almost burned alive.
    There is a part in the first novel, where he accidentally fatally wounds
    a cyborg that decides to help him attack a common enemy. So when
    he sees that she is pinned to the wall with a large piece of shrapnel,
    and losing blood and mechanical fluids. He can't simply shoot her
    and put her out of her misery, because she is encased in a bullet
    proof armor. So he sets down with her, and holds her hand until
    she dies.

    So you see you can make even the hardest, come off as caring
    individuals. Even if it is in small doses. :)
     
  6. Infel

    Infel Contributor Contributor

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    I know it's been mentioned in a bunch of threads, but the best way to make a character likable is to make them enviable. Make them do things that people wish they could do, but for some reason or other in daily life, can't.

    When a reader wants to be like a character, they like them. In order to make a reader want to be like your character, you either a) put them in situations that the reader himself wants to be in, or b) give them traits the reader wishes they had. Courage, charisma, character, loyalty, kindness, morality, a sense of humor--hell, even friends! All of these are things that normal people would be envious of. Best example off the top of my head is Harry Potter. How many people wish they found out they were wizards going to wizard school? It even works for villains--how many people wish they had the charisma and good looks of Gaston? How many people adore Ursala's cunning ruthlessness, or Jafar's cleverness? In some aspect, in some form or another--and maybe not overtly--people wish they had those traits.

    If you can make your reader want to be your character, want to be at least some part of your character, then they'll like them.
     
  7. izzybot

    izzybot (unspecified) Contributor

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    I'm still not really seeing the problem, to be honest. Actually showing her backstory and explicitly revealing her to be someone who's been through bad shit and some out of it loving and hopeful would definitely make her likable - people tend to like an optimist, and they're almost definitely going to be sympathetic to her for having been through the wringer. I don't think that her having experienced traumatic things before automatically foreshadows that she do it again, either.
     
  8. Lone_Wolf

    Lone_Wolf Banned

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    Thanks for the words of wisdom, everyone. Now I got a bit of insight on how to make this work :)
     
    izzybot likes this.
  9. OJB

    OJB A Mean Old Man Contributor

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    Last edited: Apr 8, 2017
  10. KaTrian

    KaTrian A foolish little beast. Contributor

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    Isn't "likable" really quite subjective?

    I mean, just based on your description here, I don't unlike your character at all. Obviously I don't enjoy reading about fictional people's suffering -- my point is that I can still like this person you craft in your story, and sympathize with her story arc, and in the best case, even see myself in her and this way relate even more strongly to her story.

    So I'm wondering whether it's likability you're looking for here, or something else. Maybe you're actually asking, "how do I not make this character into a downer?" or "how do I make this character's tragic ending really pop when she's already a tragic character?" or "will the reader care if she dies if she's not a happy-go-lucky character?"

    The female character of my favorite novel ever is tragic but likable because she showcases qualities that are generally considered admirable, like perseverance and determination. She doesn't whine, she doesn't curl up and wait to die; she continues to fight fiercely the injustices she faces. Even when she's waiting for her trial in prison, she sticks to her principles and doesn't regret what she's done, although she is desperate for the world to hear her side of the story -- and so is the reader. These qualities make her very likable to me, "despite" her having been deprived of parental love and abused by an asshole lover.
     
  11. truthbeckons

    truthbeckons Active Member

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    I don't think that's strictly true. That can be a recipe for Mary Sue characters who have a charmed life and the golden touch and the ability and confidence to say everything on their mind and do everything right... it can be a lot more irritating than a character who's in a bad situation or who's held back by the same hangups as real people. It's just as common to resent someone for whom everything comes easy, someone who has everything you don't.

    I don't follow your logic in the examples you give, either. People don't like Jafar or Ursula because they're cunning and clever. If anything, maybe they find them amusing, but they're not widely admired and they're deliberately written to be disliked, so that the viewer sides against them.

    And importantly, Harry Potter would be a much weaker character, and much harder to like, if we didn't see him struggle through just about everything, embarrass himself and doubt himself on a regular basis, to make up for his being the chosen one with lots of special abilities and rare magical items.

    So I don't think "enviability" is either necessary or sufficient for getting readers to like a character. It can definitely be part of it, but there are more fundamental factors.
     
  12. Infel

    Infel Contributor Contributor

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    The best part of making a character enviable is that, when it comes down to it, people envy all sorts of things! I'd say that watching Harry Potter struggle through his trials and succeed IS enviable. I think people every day wish they could be put to a challenge and succeed the way their heroes do.

    The important bit, and the part that relies on the author, is to make a character the subject of envy without turning them into an 'everything works out fine and I'm the greatest' character. And even when they are a bit Mary Sue-ish, it doesn't necessarily fail. I envy Luke Skywalker, for goodness sake!
     
  13. Pinkymcfiddle

    Pinkymcfiddle Banned

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    I find Othello likeable, but he is a flawed and ultimately tragic character.

    In the early parts of the play he is portrayed as honourable, caring, selfless, but it points at his weaknesses, his outsider status, his simplistic and gullible nature, and his arrogance, which foreshadow his ultimate undoing. He is still likeable though.
     
  14. truthbeckons

    truthbeckons Active Member

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    But that's just stretching the idea of "enviable" to encompass the things that actually win people over. We don't respond positively to characters overcoming challenges because we "envy" challenges, we respond positively because we like to see progress and it's more satisfying to see someone succeed after they'e struggled, again because struggling is more real. We don't have to personally want to overcome that challenge, we just like to see a progression. It's entirely possible to enjoy something without "envying" it. I think you're honestly taking something quite incidental and making it central, and like I said, because that's not the main reason people like characters, the advice could easily lead someone astray.

    Are you suggesting Luke Skywalker's a Mary Sue? He's a powerful character, but he goes through plenty of challenges, he fails first, he's genuinely threatened by the plot and faces meaningful conflict. I'm not sure you understand the criticism Mary Sue if you think Luke Skywalker has Mary Sue elements. (Which is okay, lots of people don't really know what the actual problem is with Mary Sues, but if you are confused, you should try to get your head around this, since it's a useful thing to understand.)

    A Mary Sue isn't a matter of how powerful or likeable a character is, a Mary Sue is a character who is never really challenged, or the challenge is arbitrary for the purposes of showing them off. There's a good argument that Rey in The Force Awakens is actually a Mary Sue, because she does just know how to do everything she needs to do when she needs to do it, and whether that makes sense or not given her backstory, she's just not challenged in the story. Instead of a character arc she has a series of stuff happening to and around her. Some people definitely like her in spite of her being actually Mary Sue-ish, but that's not a reason to be happy writing characters that weak.

    If you're not writing officially for the Star Wars universe, no one's going to be as excited about or willing to make excuses for a character who's not written very well, whereas arguably when people are already excited about a world and series that they know and love, they're more forgiving. So I think it'd be helpful if you gave examples from lesser-known books. That way you're isolating the factors of contagious pop culture icon enthusiasm and you can zero in on the reasons the writing itself makes you really connect with a character.
     
  15. Infel

    Infel Contributor Contributor

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    Maybe I didn't argue my point well enough! I'll try again:

    Likable characters are curious things. What even is a likable character? People like different things--some people like Batman, other people like Superman, some people like Dexter even though he's a serial killer. A ton of people like Rick Sanchez, even though he's a nihilistic, drunk, heartless monster with no regard for human life or the people around him. How can you pin exactly what makes a character 'likable' in the first place?

    There's probably as many answers for this as there are people to answer it. You probably wont find one character that's likable to absolutely everyone. So the best way to start is to narrow the scope: make your character likable to your audience--your audience being the people you hope pick up your book, or story, or movie, or game, or what have you. That's pretty standard advice--play to your audience.

    But even if you have your audience clearly in mind, how would an author go about making a character 'likable' to that audience? Well, what TYPE of like do you want your audience to feel? Do you want them to like your character the way they like a puppy? The way they like a good meal? The way they like a potential partner? A sports team?

    No. I would argue that you want your audience to like your character the way they like a person they look up to; the way they like a person they admire. Though different people read for different reasons, my argument for why people read fiction is that they want to escape the monotony of their every day and step into a fascinating world, and to live in that world, vicariously, through your protagonist. They want to experience your focal character's story as if it was their own. They want to feel your protagonist's tension as if it was their own. The character's victories are the reader's victories, the character's sorrows are the reader's sorrows. In order to have that, your reader needs to connect, to identify with, your character. Your reader needs to LIKE your character. If they don't like him, at least in some way, they won't read. And they wont feel the things you want them to feel.

    So why would your reader like your character? Simple; your focal character does things your reader wishes they could do. Your focal character behaves in ways the reader wishes they could behave. They spit in the villains face, they chose the morally correct choice instead of the fiscally correct one, they're so charming and charismatic that they can get away with murder, they toss the lightsaber to the side and refuse to give into the dark side, they fight against all odds, or even, in some cases, make a mockery of mankind's values to show just how ridiculous it all is.

    They have the courage to attempt to control their own reality.

    Do they always succeed? Heck no. Just like the reader, your focal character fails and fails hard sometimes. Sometimes things don't work out, sometimes tragedy strikes. Your character has flaws, as the reader does. Your character makes mistakes, as the reader does. This, too, allows your reader to identify. But even in the face of tragedy, your protagonist stands tall. They keep TRYING--that's what makes a character 'likable'. The courage to try, to push forward, even to a bitter end.

    Why does that make a character likable?

    Because your reader wishes they could do that, too.
    Your character is the type of person your reader would like to be like. That's envy.

    And that took me way to long to come up with ._.
    I hope that makes more sense, and I hope, in some way, that it helps!
     
  16. truthbeckons

    truthbeckons Active Member

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    You can use as many words as you like, @Infel, but you're still fundamentally confused. You're just defining "likeable" as "enviable" even though, as I already pointed out, it's entirely possible to appreciate something without envying it/wanting it for yourself. Because enviability is only one aspect of one kind of liking something, it is not a good general rule for understanding why readers like and sympathise with characters, although there are other principles that explain how it works a lot better (psychological realism, clear motivation, meaningful challenges, traits like humility, resilience, wit, the list goes on). So many different things actually create likeability rather than occur as side effects of it.

    The more you try to explain why "enviability" is "likeability", the more you have to refer to the actual things that are likeable (the character makes progress, the character learns and grows, the character keeps trying, all the things you've just touched on and more). But whether someone envies the characters they like is only incidental. (And speak for yourself when you say that we all want to be the characters we read about. Some people are looking for that particular kind of escapism, some of us are not.)

    I seriously suggest you let go of this theory, because it doesn't explain anything in itself, it confuses things which are relatively straightforward, and as I already pointed out, as advice it can just as easily lead someone to create a totally flat character that just about any reader would despise.
     
  17. Infel

    Infel Contributor Contributor

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    I guess we just have to agree to disagree on this one!
     

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