My Writing Advice

The Protagonist's Likability

Your main character is something you need to sculpt carefully, one mistake could very easily throw off what you were trying to go for, and though you're always told to make a character with their flaws, even those have to be carefully chosen in this scenario.

I've put my words pretty strictly in this chapter and I just want to remind you to be creative with what I say and not to take me too seriously, bend my words to your own will and make something better out of whatever crap I've said.

A problem I see in a lot of novels is that the protagonist is not likable, whether they be snobby or stupid, you don't want your reader wishing your main character fails so they can get over with the book already.  You can have an amazing story, but sometimes if your protagonist is unlikable, it throws the whole appeal of the plot down the drain.

One trait that can often be bothersome is a low intelligence trait, sometimes you don't notice this one, but man is it annoying. So imagine you're reading a story where the main character has to cleverly get through a puzzle, fix a friendship, or just solve problem. As the reader in this situation you would not be okay with the character failing because the answer is obvious(or something else), so the main the character is in a position where it should be able to easily solve this problem. But what ends up happening is they screw it over because they couldn't figure out what to do. 

Now, some people really are truly dumb, but when it doesn't fit and acts as a complete hindrance only succeeds at adding in frustration, it should not be included. A trait like this can be discovered by yourself, but it's also good to find someone to proof read the character for you because they could probably better figure out if the intelligence is a hindrance or fine, just clarify what you want them to look for. This can also be the same for ignorance. A book where ignorance is done well is The Giver where side characters are left ignorant and instead of feeling frustrated, you actually feel a bit of sadness for them.

Now, another one, arrogance. It's just about my favorite character trait because there are so many ways to bend it and get reactions from other characters because some people don't notice arrogance while others loathe it, and then the other people who are arrogant themselves have such unique interactions in my opinion. But then there's again the time when it does not fit. 

Sometimes a trait is best left to die away in character development, and if you want to keep a trait of arrogance that only gets in the way later on, it's good to do this. But if you have a character that is supposed to be well liked or kind, having them be arrogant is kind of off. It really only works best with characters that are clearly meant to be arrogant, like bad guys n' such. 

Usually it's on the side though, like the character is clearly nice to people of their status, but when they get down to the very bottom of it, they think awfully high of themselves wondering why on Earth someone would insult them or are constantly bragging about their status in their head. Well maybe not constantly.

It's like they're faking, but they're not, it doesn't make sense and your brain is telling you you'd probably want to sock this person in the jaw if you ever saw them in real life. 

An arrogant character is really fun to play around with, but sometimes it's a little tricky which is where I'd say you should ask an adult to read over your character's interactions if you have doubts. There's a difference between someone hyping their self up with the fact that they're a warrior and should be able to do this and someone reminding them self they're better than everyone else so they should be able to do this.

Now, not everyone likes the same type of people, but when a character is just a douche to everyone lower than them it won't make sense when you portray them as a caring leader, because commonly leaders who are caring care about those lower than them.

A lot of what I said is situational, but I wanted to give you some example so you can check some of the flaws you have and analyze that they do not contradict others or annoy your reader to the point of shutting the book. Don't just search by yourself though, ask friends or family to check over your character to make sure they're believable.

BUT DON'T GET ME WRONG, like I said this is situational, you can have your arrogant character. I'm just warning you that sometimes if you work a flaw in just the wrong way it can throw everything off, and that's what I'm talking about.

For example, this would be pretty different if we were talking about a first person perspective where the character may think straight past their arrogance, I'm just saying to check twice.

I guess I wrote a little too much to get into realism, but I guess my advice on that is to just look at your character as a real everyday person and think about how they'd act, if it's not how you'd like, adjust it.

I'll do more on realism in the next chapter which will be about plot and things that don't make sense and when it's good to add convenient plot points.

Sayonara kiddos