Writing Characters You Can Root For

One thing I feel like you always hear as a writer is that you need characters that “people can root for”. Makes sense, really, since nobody wants to read a story about someone hard to like or get behind as a character. I think this is something pretty easy to understand as a writer, even though it might be hard to execute when you’re actually writing. So, this week, we’re going to talk about what elements play into characters readers can root for. (Thanks to Jonathan for this week’s blog idea.)

Okay, so let’s start at the beginning. We’ve had our spark of inspiration and have been consumed in deep thought about this new story idea ever since. We have great ideas for the themes, world, characters, but it’s come to the moment where we need to start asking some serious questions about our protagonist. As you probably already know, all stories start with a character in their normal life, an inciting incident that sets them on their plot, and then the ensuing adventure- that explanation is a little oversimplified, but decent for a refresher. At this point, we probably have a basic idea of our main character (MC), where they’re starting out, and what’s about to happen to launch them against the forces of evil in their world. Great.

Now why does the reader care?

You heard me. Why is this the best person to lead the story? Why are they so special and what are you going to do to make me care about them?

Probably one of the most common tactics is to utilize the underdog. No one wants to root for some stooge already at the top of the authoritarian regime running your dystopian world (unless they’re trying to take it down from the inside or something cool like that) or the horrendous monarch ruling your fantasy world with an iron fist. I would say most people generally don’t root for Team Corruption or Villainy, but we all like to see someone beat the odds. The longshot. The one person in the story who is the literal least likely to take down to massive, unstoppable beast they’re up against. That’s a story arc we can all cheer for because wanting to overcome adversity in the midst of impossible odds is a human desire.

Now, you don’t have to necessarily make your MC an underdog, it’s just a common practice. In my opinion, designing a character your readers can root for depends on several factors: personality, the situation and setting of the story you’ve put them in, other characters, the skills/abilities (or lack thereof) you’ve given your MC. Depending on the genre you’re writing in, there might be specific tropes or themes that are really popular that you could try to utilize. For example, has anyone else noticed how a lot of fantasy stories start with some lowly farm boy in the middle of nowhere who’s also secretly the son of some important dude? Just saying.

Keep this in mind though, that the situational factors of the story are tools you can use to enhance the reader’s ability to root for the MC, but this isn’t the meat and potatoes of what actually makes us love a character.

Empathy is.

The real reason a reader roots for a character is because they identify with them. Good characters make us feel things.

Maybe we as readers don’t know what it’s like to face off with an evil sorcerer, but we can either know or, at the very least, understand what it’s like to be an outsider, an underdog, lonely, dealing with grief, etc. I feel like it’s kind of become a joke about how writers always end up killing off a MC’s parents, but can you think of a much better way to instantly gain empathy for someone than leaving them all alone or dumping them with some indifferent caretaker?

The main goal is to put your MC in a situation that unlocks the reader’s humanity. This poor little protagonist needs to make us feel all the feelings. We want to see them be happy or love or defeat the monster they’re up against because that’s what we want for ourselves as well.

Now, just to cover all my bases, what about if your MC is not a righteous little cinnamon roll who’s almost always morally good? What about those morally grey characters we talked about a few weeks ago or (*gasp*) even a villain?

Same deal. Your job just might be a little harder.

Let’s talk about morally grey. Those sometimes-good guys, sometimes-bad guys. My favorite type of characters under this genre are ones that, in general, are trying to do good (or at the very least what they think is right), but can fall to selfish desires or make calls that none of our goody two-shoes characters would dare to. In my mind, the biggest technique you have to execute here as a writer is to make the reader understand why this character operates the way they do. They’re jaded, maybe angry, willing to do whatever they think is necessary despite the consensus of the other characters. Why? What has gone on in this character’s past to make them operate in this way? What fuels their behavior- emotion, realistic expectations, past experience, their own agenda? If we understand them, we can empathize with them.

What about the villains though? We all have villains we love to hate, but if your MC is the main villain, then we have to love to love them. Why is this villain truly the story’s hero? Though this might be a little more challenging to pull off, it can be done. First, it’s an interesting idea to follow the villain anyway because you would think the reader’s natural instinct would be to dislike the Powers That Be, but you could probably spin it the right way depending on the set-up.

As with morally grey, I think the biggest thing here is understanding why this character does what they do. Now, you might always have a situation where the villain isn’t really the true villain of the story or where their plot arc aids the greater good, but you’ve got to convince us why we need to believe in this hero. We need to understand this character emotionally, but more importantly, we need to understand why the “bad” they’re doing is justified. Are they willing to do bad that results in eventual good? Are they not the worst bad guy on the block? What have they been through that gave them this point of view in the first place?

So, essentially, your job as a writer is to give us a character we can empathize and understand right from the get-go. Use situational tools to make their journey as compelling as possible- give them disadvantages and obstacles that make the journey seem almost impossible.

Full disclosure, this is something I know I need to work on myself, as I’ve been chided before for writing characters that tend to win a little too much. The path to success needs to be grueling and hard-won, which is sometimes hard to write when you’re just trying to move the characters forward to the next leg of their journey. Now, you might have a situation where the characters earn a false victory, where they think they’re doing great but then get a sudden slap in the face by reality, but you have to make sure that string of wins doesn’t irritate the reader before you reveal all that success was a lie.

Any other thoughts on tactics or tricks you can use to make readers root for your characters? Let us know in the comments.

Thanks for reading. Write On.

-Kamryn