The main character of my story is a fallen prodigy, who used to be the best student in class back in his day, but now finds himself in his late 20s, living with his parents, unemployed. He then receives an invite to go to a class reunion 10 years after his graduation, so he comes up with the idea to cheat, blackmail and scam his way into being a successful guy to show off at the party. During the story, he'll do some pretty nasty stuff in order to get there, while also managing to exact revenge on his childhood bullies and rivals. How do I make this guy cool and likable to the reader? Is my MC an anti-hero?
Nice to dogs. Definitely a good idea. He's gonna be a freelancer by profession, though I don't know what exactly.
I once had much the same trouble with one of my characters, Velt. He is a gruff, crotchety soldier who doesn't suffer fools gladly, he also spends most of the book at odds with an easily loveable character. What I did was compliment those negative traits with something else that might go with them - honesty. He is the most honest of all the characters in my book. And I coupled that with him being blunt and outspoken to exacerbate it. This leads to great moments of humour when he doesn't dance around the issue and he tells people what he thinks straight to their face, about them, about their plans, their problems, the lot. He never crosses the line into being straight out mean, just extremely and inconsiderately blunt. And because he is just being completely honest, the test readers I've tried him out on really like him - because when someone gets upset with him it is coming from the very noble trait of honesty, and it is always "Oh, he means well." That thought is what makes him work and stop being unlikeable. That's what you need for your character. So with your guy doing a lot more physical examples of being bad, it might be tougher. But if you keep hitting on the note of "I just want people to like me." then that is a very understandable, relatable trait that the reader will sympathize with. If it doesn't work enough with beta readers, you could add to it with him being more noble. "I want to help people out, and to do that they need to like me first. No one listens to me at present." His motivation as to why he wants to be the popular guy is the key to making the reader believe the ever-larger, ever-nefarious extremes he is willing to go to in order to achieve his goal and not have them hating him for it.
There's a big difference between a gruff but decent character and a self-centered asshole. You really can't make a silk purse out of a sow's ear. His actions and decisions will out him, whichever he may be.
I think you're onto something there! The way I've imagined him is that this is a guy who was very intelligent, well regarded by teachers in school but also sort of a loser, he never had a girlfriend, sucked at sports, was bullied around and humiliated by the more popular guys. So he held on to this belief that he would eventually beat them in life by getting a better job, being rich and succesful but that just didn't happen. So now he wants to catch up and show them the little guy can still win, no matter what it takes.
Of course a lot depends on some details we aren't privy to. What kind of story is it? A postmodernist comedy, filled with irony and with a foolish but ultimately likable lead? Or is it more realistic, and he's actually a desperate and devious loser who doesn't care who he hurts in order to make himself look good?
Ok, so he was resentful and envious and filled with revenge fantasies? That's the profile of a real jerk and maybe a future serial killer. To become a likable and decent character he needs to grow up out of these terrible delusions and become a more balanced person, who cares a lot less about appearances and what other people think of him, especially shallow bullies. He needs to learn that it's what kind of person you are inside, how you treat others, that defines you, not material wealth or 'success' as measured by corporate standards or the standards of shallow people.
I don't think I really want him to overcome all these character flaws and become a proper good guy. Can he be likable or can he be a character readers can symphatize with despite his flaws? In my story, he's more or less going to be rewarded for his perverse deeds with recognition and status, after he "climbs the ladder" and becomes "successful".
If you want him to be an antihero, I don't think lovable is usually a part of that character bio. An antihero is someone who has rejected the standard ideas of decency and cares only about himself. At least the ones I'm thinking of. I see lovable antihero as a complete oxymoron.
And I still think we'd need to know what kind of story it is. Comedy? If so what kind? Edit—Oops! My bad, I missed where you said you're going for a realistic tone.
Here's a pretty good breakdown of antiheroes: 4 Tips for Writing Antiheroes: How to Create an Unforgettable Antihero If you go with the scruffy rogue type like Han Solo, that's pretty likable.
I don't think you can make a character like that likable. Not in a realistic story world. The only way I can see would be in a comedy world where people don't really get hurt by the things he does and he comes across as a silly child in an adult body. In fact that sounds more like a villain than an antihero really.
My thoughts. 1) The character must be understandable. It should be easy for him to understand and put in his place. To do this, it is necessary to reveal its history well. What made him cruel? What makes him take revenge on them? Revenge should be the main factor in this case. Because the desire for success is not something for which you will harm others and be an antihero. 2) Brain process. Since our protagonist is not a fighter, but rather an intriguer, we need to constantly give a snapshot of the protagonist's thoughts. How he gathers information, how he plans his revenge, how he cites plans because of the circumstances, what he thinks about other characters. You must constantly give pieces of his perspective on the events of the book, so that the reader does not lose touch with him. Constantly give contrast to which protagonist is outside and inside. Good examples of the implementation of Dexter, Death Note.
Just look at Ash in evil dead 3. A complete a**hole dick, but you just gotta love him. Cool one liners and a bit of fun quirkiness.
I'm sure this has been addressed already -- you can't really make an thoroughly unlikeable character likable. But you can make him interesting, maybe cringeworthy but eye-catching, like a bad accident on the freeway. I'm thinking of Ignatius Reilly in Confederacy of Dunces, I couldn't believe how phony and self-serving he was, but couldn't wait to see what he did next. "Likable" is probably overrrated as a character attribute anyway. Kind of vanilla. Even the most upright characters need flaws to appear "human."
I think some people mix up antiheros with villains. No matter how many kittens and puppies you make Joffrey Baratheon from A Song of Ice and Fire pet and feed, he is still an asshole villain. Contrast this with a story about a hitman in the American old west. He works for the big cattle ranches and is paid by them to shoot settlers encroaching on their ranches. He believes that since the ranches were there first, they are in the right and he has contempt for dirt farmers. One day while riding between jobs, he comes across a wagon that has been attacked by Native Americans and finds one baby boy who survived. For some reason he can't even explain to himself, he rescues the boy, puts him in an expensive boarding school and pays all his expenses. He becomes a father figure of sorts, eventually teaching the boy tracking, stalking and shooting and intelligence gathering skills but carefully shielding him from the killing. When he is finally gunned down, he leaves his possessions to the kid who goes east and employs the lessons he learned in the west to business and becomes a successful railroad baron. Is the hitman an asshole? I think anyone would find someone shooting a hardworking farmer trying to scratch out a living in cold blood to be quite a disagreeable character. But then you balance it with a human side and when he is gunned down in front of the boy, you feel the boy's loss and anger at the people who (probably justifiably) did the killing. This latter example is the opening to the book Flint by Louis L'Amour. It is the only one of his books where the main characters are antiheros and among his fans it is generally listed in their top ten favorite LL books. When I write antiheros I use it as a measuring stick. My current work has a highway man who came from a noble family who were disinherited backing the wrong side during an imperial civil war. He promised his mother on her deathbed to raise the funds to buy back their family estates and titles and settles on holding up travelers as the most practical way of raising the money. He particularly holds up rich nobles and takes some small pleasure out of torturing them to ensure that they don't hide any of their money from him. He justifies it because in his mind, none of their families stood up for his when they lost their position. Over time he keeps finding people in need and in Robin Hood like fashion, gives away his money to keep them from loosing their businesses and farms because he knows how it feels to loose your place. But the loss of money means his own goals are not met, so he continuously steps up the ruthlessness of his hold ups. (edited into paragraphs)
Do you want the story to take itself seriously? If it can be self aware and a bit funny, then you could make him a nihalist who is definitely an asshole, but a funny asshole. Think deadpool, but less insane. If you want the story to take itself seriously, then establish limits. After all, I can root for an asshole protagonist, but usually only if I know they have a limit to what they will do. Sort of a "save the cat" moment, but instead of establishing good intent, it established the maximum assholery of your mc. A lot of writers never establish that limit, and it can ruin a good story, either the reader is left unsure as to who the mc really is, or your reader feels misled when the protagonist does something much worse then what they thought was in line with their character. Just draw that line early.
Happens when I am on my phone...for some reason even if I make paragraphs it just merges 90% of the time when I hit post. When I'm on PC it works...not sure what that's about.
