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| sawyer_fountainhead.png (Photo credit: Marchange) |
I've been hooked on Lost once
more--looking for hooks and twists and characterization to improve my own
writing. Two characters, similar in personality, evince two opposite reactions
from me: Sawyer and Anna Lucia. For one full season I wondered why. Then I
discovered the likeability factor.
I love Sawyer with his sassy wit and
vulnerability.
Anna Lucia is only nasty despite the pain
from her past.
So why him and not Anna Lucia?
- Other characters like him. From the start, likeable characters accepted Sawyer. If Jack or Hurley or Sun could love him, then I knew something good resided there.
- Wit. He scowls and cusses and hoards and cheats, but he's funny. Hurley's nickname "Jabba," Kate's affectionate "Freckles" or Sawyer's moaning "son of a..." Angst ridden, he's funny.
- Vulnerability. We saw enough of his innocence hinted at to know reasons lie behind his pain. We accept that his past informed his present.
- Unexpected refinement. Sawyer loves to read anything. This macho man scavenges goof glasses, even patching disparate ones together so he can read tells us more lies behind this scoundrel than he allows us to see.
So do you have a character who is nasty, but
a major force in your novel? How do you make him human? If he isn't, look at
the four means of characterization above and try it out.
Carol, I was just talking about this with another author. Sometimes readers comment that they didn't like a character. But I don't think we're supposed to make all our characters likeable. Some are villains, some are antagonists, some are there to show what the protagonist's life would be if she'd made different choices.
ReplyDeleteHave you read any of Susan Elizabeth Phillips' books? Her main character is often unlikeable, but she's so fascinating I keep reading!
Cathy, it was a Phillips' book that got us talking. I forgot my title already--it was the maid of honor Meg who tells the groom his bride is ditching him.
DeleteAnd yes, sometimes we start out unlikeable and then make the choice that change our direction.
My last episode of Lost had Sawyer comforting Kate over the death of her friend. Sawyer--The villain I LOVE.