I’ll admit I’m a real fan of imperfect protagonists. If I’m reading a book and I can’t identify with the main character because they are just too sweet, then I’ll put the book down. Even Pollyanna had her moments when she wasn’t wonderful.
But then….where’s the line? How far can we push the reader before they dislike our protagonists for having too many faults? The last thing I want to do is alienate a reader by having them get frustrated with my protagonist.
This post goes along a little with my post yesterday. I feel like character qualities (good and bad) influence their behavior in a plot and the outcome of different events.
At the same time, I try to balance the good qualities and the bad ones. I tend to focus more on the bad, though—that’s the source of much of the humor in my books.
My protagonist in the Myrtle Clover series is a feisty woman. She’s smart, caring, active, and witty….but she also has a sharp tongue, a huge stubborn streak, and a proclivity to irritability.
I try to ensure that Myrtle’s warm-heartedness, even though she’s not a sentimental character, shines through her actions. I try to minimize her vices by having her machinations backfire on her in humorous ways.
Do you write protagonists with obvious vices? How do you successfully keep the reader engaged? How do you balance the good with the bad?
Often mine have negative qualities & hangups that don’t overwhelm or prevent the reader from liking that character. Book I of my series had the sweetest character, while Book V has the one most challenging!
L. Diane Wolfe “Spunk On A Stick”
http://www.circleoffriendsbooks.blogspot.com
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hmmm…good posting as usual Elizabeth. I am right now trying in my revision to make more of a distinction between my two main characters. They are both a little too bitter, too sharp – they have in fact some of the same qualities! Not all together but it is annoying. So, the one that will not be continuing in a main way to my other books needs to be more daft and less sharp. I like doing this although it requires reworking several sharp funny scenes that of course I loved! Kill your darlings…
I have two characters with the same vice and secret. I have had to really work hard at making them complete opposites in the book,at times it would have been easier to make them twins! Getting the balance between the two has been a challenge, and when I finally bring them together it will good to see them both on the same page.
I enjoy a protagonist that is strong,independent, compassionate yet has a backbone when needed.I don’t like for them to have a lot of faults as I know to many real people with that problem!HA!
Yes, I do write protagonists as “real” people. Nobody is perfect, and neither should fictional peeps be – no matter HOW heroic and valiant they are.
The Old Silly
That’s such a tough balance, isn’t it? Sometimes I think it takes an objective reader or editor to let us know if we’re getting the balance right. Often times we’re just too close to our MC’s to know if we’re portraying enough of their good qualities to make them likeable and enough of their vices so that readers can relate.
Nice post! Marvin put it so well. Nobody is perfect and (in agreement with you) perfect protags are a bore. (Sorry to be so blunt! You said this in a much more diplomatic way. You put the book down. LOL!)
At the same time, I’ve had readers complain and criticize when they see my heroine (Clare Cosi) makes mistakes and bad choices in her life (just like every other human being on the planet). But my philosophy is “power to the writer” – most readers understand that dimensional characters come with faults, as M said, no matter how heroic they are!
My warning to writers: Don’t let such criticisms throw you off your game or vision. Stick to your guns on keeping characters dimensional.
~Cleo
Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen
It’s always a trick to have a protagonist who is likable yet flawed, even if the flaw(s) is/are few. Even the Dexter character on TV is in his own way likable (or maybe it’s me who is weird for liking him).
Helen
Straight From Hel
Diane–Sounds like a good plan!
Labanan–Isn’t it funny how we write ourselves into our books?
Glynis–Oh, that would be hard. Have the same faults and the same secret and portray their reactions very differently.
Carol–Me too! Way too many…
Marvin–So true. Otherwise, they’re TOO fictional.
Cleo–I’ve heard a little feedback from my very first book, too. I’ve tended to ignore it. I want to make sure I don’t alienate readers, but faults are a big part of my protagonist. Good for you for sticking to your guns.
Jody–You’re right…an editor wouldn’t let us go too far in the unlikable direction.
Helen–I like Dexter, too! :) Maybe we’re both weird…
I think you can go a long way with flawed charcters, and people will still like them. It’s a matter of how they are handled. Anti-heros/heroines are often very popular. The two most popular characters on the british SF tv-series ‘Blakes 7’ were Avon, a snearing antihero who walked a thin line between being mearly bad, and being evil, and Villa, a cheerfully congential coward. It was the chemistry between these two, and how they were handled, that made them likable.
Even more extreme, if you see the BBC adaptation of Michael Dodds “House of Cards”, the lead character is hugely likeable, but he’s evil. He’s outright evil. But he manages to drag the viewer along, rooting for him the whole way, and closing their eyes to his evil, until the final scene where he does something so bad that suddenly the spell is broken. In that moment the viewer realises all the terrible things that they’ve gone along with up till now.
And then there’s Sherlock Holmes. He’s misantrhopic, and misogynistic (quite an achievement to be both, though I don’t think he’s misandronous too, which would give him the hat-trick), a drug addict, a snob, selfish, and a thoughtless friend. Despite all of this, he still manages to be a sympathetic character.
You can go a long, long, long way into the negative, if you handle it right. Or that’s what I think.
I like people who are believable – and someone too perfect is definitely not believable.
And since you mentioned Pollyanna, I didn’t particularly care for her as a character because even though she is far from perfect, she was written in as the paragon of perfection.
Carnimire–True. And perfect people aren’t fun to be around, anyway! Case in point…Pollyana. :)
Elizabeth