10,000 Words With A Jerk

I guess I don't really have the problem of Twenty Minutes with Jerks. In this case, I'm not waiting for carnage — rather the problem is that when the story begins, the MC is a jerk. He doesn't have a Freudian Excuse but is rather sleep-deprived, food-deprived, had some very recent trauma, thinks he's going to catch on fire, etc. Once these problems are adressed he does get a lot nicer, but this doesn't happen for 10,000 words or more. Meanwhile, the reader is left to deal with the jerk.

Will most people have put down the story already? Because I'm not sure what to do, or if anything needs to be done at all.

Try looking at Toy Story — at Sheriff Woody. At the beginning when Buzz takes over Andy's room, we see Woody getting quite peevish. But not that Woody is obnoxious for no reason, but rather we can sympathize with why he's acting this way.

Try having other characters being likable. I empathize, my own main character is near-intolerable. Well, actually, all my characters are intolerable...hrm.

But yeah, try and make the rest of it appealing.

hmm yeah i empathise too. probably. if im capable of that.

Sam for the first few arcs of his story is completely unlikable and trolls everyone around him. he eventually changes, but some of his asshole nature remains and he keeps trolling everyone, just to a lesser extent. the only redeemable trait that he has from the beginning is that he trolls people solely to annoy them, and tries his very best to hold back on actually hurting any feelings.

still, im less concerned with "will they read this far" and more concerned with "can i write a jerkass like this consistantly" all evidence so far suggests, no, i cannot.

Erin too, in her story she's pretty mean-spirited to everyone around her, and has crossed the moral event horizon once or twice before the story begins, and she doesnt actually change untill shortly before the end, less out of character development (all that came before the story), and more out of desperation

still, i like to think ive given all these main characters valid reasons to act the way they do (erin more than any of the others, sam the least) and that a large part of what would make people read on is to find out what those reasons are.