How to create emotionally appealing characters?

Okay, so: to me, fandom has always been about the characters of a given work. Nine times out of ten, when I really, really like something, it's because I find myself loving the characters and wishing I could meet/befriend them. I am a highly emotional person.

I want to create characters that stimulate readers emotionally, including myself. I never finish any of the million-or-so projects I start every year, and I think that's because I don't quite believe in my characters. I've never created a make-'em-up pal that I'm able to love as much as the characters from my favorite fandoms, like Homestuck and Persona 4. I want to change that.

What's the trick? What are the qualities I should be cultivating here? I realize this is a somewhat cynical question, but help me out here. Here's my metric of success: I want to create the kind of character that readers can get attached to, to the point of having a crush on them (whenever some fanboy/girl gushes about their favorite character, I always feel a little jealous of the creator, because they have such control over the reader/viewer/player's emotions, which I promise isn't creepy). Where should I begin?

This sort of thing is fraught with difficulty because for people to like your characters, you have to write characters as people instead of "bags of traits/tropes/archetypes." You want to write likable characters, then write the kind of people you'd want to hang out with.

But there's not always a solid chance that intentionally "writing a Likable/Popular(TM) character" will work, because Unintentionally Sympathetic / Unintentionally Unsympathetic are tropes for when it DOESN'T.

As an OG Homestuck fan and the author a webcomic, I'll try to organize some advice for you here.

The first and easiest way to get people to like your character is to make them attractive XD no lie. So many webcomics are popular because of the physical attractiveness of their characters. Its not like everyone finds the same things to be hot, but... we live in a society that prizes certain things above others and so that's the easiest way to catch flies.

The second way is to give your character a compelling personality. That's more subjective. But if a character is well-rounded, maybe even a bit contradictory at times, it'll resonate with people. Since even at our best we can be a bit inconsistent as humans. People like the main character of my webcomic because he's very much like a kid. He's got a lot of comparison and heart, but he's also naive and silly and doesn't know big words and sometimes gets really angry. And once people learned more about his past they were even more taken with him because they felt bad to see him hurt.

Actually now that I think about it... number three: give your character a relatable backstory. I think people naturally sympathize more with characters who share their concerns and flaws more than characters who share their strengths. Like, people saw a whole different side of John Egbert in the Epilogue that got them to re-attach to his character. One of the characters in my comic feels like she's changed and that change is out of her control, and she doesn't know what to believe about herself anymore, and people really responded to that! I was so surprised since like, that's not something I feel so much, but I was able to convince people that the character did so they related to it.

Finally if you show your characters care and attention I think that makes people endeared to them. The best way to do that is in a story, of course, any kind of story. Maybe they'll feel some of the feelings you feel and that'll be good.

Or just make a very hateable character XD that can be fun too

Yeah, I getcha, but there are also characters that are likable, but you don't necessarily want to be their friend. For example, take the main five from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. They all have funny, distinct personalities, but I don't find myself missing them after I close the book. Even in And Another Thing..., where there's an increased emphasis on characterization, I feel less attachment to all of them combined than I feel to a single member of the Persona 4 gang (well, except Yu/Souji, obviously).

EDIT: Believe me, inspiring Perverse Sexual Lust is one of the items on my agenda.

edited 23rd Mar '17 6:58:19 PM by ThriceCharming

Frankly, I find this to be an odd goal for an author. Most writers want engaging characters, to act as the foundation for a compelling drama. Likability doesn't necessarily help with that. To make a character likable I think you simply need to include traits that you personally like in a person. Making that character believable as a person (which I think is necessary for the readers to take the character seriously), on the other hand, is a function of writing style and only comes with practice.

I got all that, but "likable" and "engaging" aren't mutually exclusive adjectives. Besides, I don't necessarily want my characters to be likable so much as I want them to be... emotionally fascinating, I guess? I'm asking for help eliciting a specific kind of audience reaction.

Because I already mentioned Homestuck, take Vriska. She's not always likable (in fact, sometimes she's loathsome), but she elicits strong emotional reactions in pretty much everyone who's read the comic. Characters who fulfill similar narrative functions in other works don't always get those kinds of reactions. Why is that?

EDIT: I should probably clarify that I'm not asking for help making Vriska clones. I want my characters to be emotionally fascinating, whether they're meant to be likable or not.

edited 23rd Mar '17 9:03:50 PM by ThriceCharming

I think you confused people by starting off with an anecdote that only references characters you liked.

The simplest answer to how you make characters that elicit reactions other than 'meh' is to make the audience invested in them. How do you do that? You already kind of answered your question- you give them characterization that would make them feel like a real-life person, rather than a cog in the story. They have a defined characterization that colors and changes their interactions, decisions, thoughts, and what they notice, these factors have an effect on other elements of the story, and they have a motivation(s) in each scene, story part, and overall driving all of their actions, decisions, and lines of dialogue. On top of that, there's the standard likes, dislikes, hobbies, and whatnot that can all add extra color, even if they're not completely necessary or story-changing.

What you've hit on is one of the biggest challenges of writing- convincing readers to care about what happens in your story. And in a way, relatability is kind of the solution, but not in the sense that your characters need to be everymen average students/office drones/whatever. They need to be relatable in the sense that they emote like how a person might. There's no way you could know how it feels to have to go slay a dragon, but a good writer can get you to connect that to any memories you have of being afraid or raring to attack a difficult exam or oral presentation. You might never know how it feels to cure cancer, but a good writer can get you to feel happy for the character who does because you probably know how awesome it feels to complete something that you've been working hard at for a long time. That's what those writers did- they made you see the living, breathing human in their characters.

Crystal, my question is a little more cynical than that. I'm not trying to "get around" creating three-dimensional characters here, but it's a known fact that some fandoms are much more rabid than others, and I want to figure out what makes that happen.

Take something like Steven Universe or Undertale, for example. What makes those characters so maddeningly appealing to so many people, in a way that three-dimensional characters from other media are not?

Strontiumsun, my art skills aren't so great. I realize how amateurish this sounds, but if all you have is prose, how do you make a character sexually attractive?

oh dude, I wish I could help you, but I highly suspect I'm asexual and even if I'm not, I'm a sex-repulsed prude who doesn't get what makes people hot XD All I can think of is whatever's in magazines. But... there's lots of good looking people online. I'd wager you can find Pinterest boards of attractive selfies...

Well, I can certainly let my own tastes guide me. What I mean is that, in prose, you kinda have to rely on each individual reader to imagine the characters as attractive. If you're drawing a comic, you can show them.

That's true. But usually, a character in the story will mention if someone is attractive or not, like in first person POV. And they'll start thinking "ooh what if we touched hands?? Ohhh his beautiful eyes <3" I think it's kinda silly actually, since I'm a bit jaded when it comes to love at first sight, and like I said I don't look at people and start feeling like I want to do intimate things with them. So you can rely on describing a character's appearance and having the MC or someone else mention that they're attractive, but like... in a show not tell way. Sorry this advice isn't so good. When I write a story with someone falling in love in it, what I emphasize seems to change from time to time.

A common way to indicate that a character is attractive beyond Informed Attractiveness is to have Alice describe Bob in terms of the features that make Bob attractive to Alice. Don't forget features other than mere physical appearance, such as social confidence, that can make a person attractive. It can also help to have Alice observe the ways in which Carla, David, etc. interact with Bob. Whatever you do, please don't have Bob look in the mirror and describe himself in his mind.

"Take something like Steven Universe or Undertale, for example. What makes those characters so maddeningly appealing to so many people, in a way that three-dimensional characters from other media are not?"

Why do you feel that these characters are not three dimensional?

Well, making a character that is 'merely' three-dimensional and feels like a real person is where it all starts.

My question is whether you're emphasizing that you can't make characters that you care about, you can't make characters that someone else cares about the way you want, or you can't make characters that inspire other people to make obsessive fanbases. If the heart of the issue is that you haven't found a way to build characters that you yourself care about, that's a totally different thing from making characters that inspire other people to make rabid fanbases. The latter occurs when the writer gets lucky enough to hit just the right combination of things for the story and becomes a straight-up wild goose chase when actively pursued, because having good characters and characters that inspire rabid fanbases both begin with just plain good writing. The former is a personal problem, and means your writing process isn't working, something in your thinking needs to change, or both.

Thanks for the tip, and don't worry—I definitely know better than to write one of those corny mirror scenes.

No, I'm not saying they're not three-dimensional. Only that other, equally three-dimensional characters in other media don't get nearly as much adoration.

Mainly, it's the first one. I've created a handful of characters I feel strongly about, but so far I haven't been able to write their story in a satisfying way. Whenever I try to write a different, unrelated story, the characters always turn out pretty shallow. Or maybe not shallow, per se, but I don't feel very attached to them.

Luckily I'm trying again and feeling better about it than I usually do. But having a rabid fandom of my very own... That's the dream, isn't it? I know it sounds petty and/or cynical, but if there's anything I can do to increase the chances, I really would like to know about it.

edited 29th Mar '17 7:41:04 PM by ThriceCharming

Figure out what they want and go from there. If you don't know that or the direction you want their story to go, your character needs more work, because their story and what they do is just as much a part of them as their characterization. If you know what you're trying to have happen in the story but you just think the execution sucks, get practicing.

That's the thing, though. Outside of switching your medium to something visual (which might be the only common thread in most cases of this), there really aren't any quick, simple ways to make it more likely that you'll end up with a rabid fanbase. It's both luck and just plain skill- characters who are attractive in just the right way, plus a plot and setting that plays off of them in just the right way, released at the right time and with the right kind of exposure, all of which are executed well.

I want to make it clear that having an obsessive fanbase that gets people to make memes and ridiculous fanart and proclaim their love doesn't automatically mean your work is better than a work whose fans are more chill. It's also far from a universal or even commonplace dream or fantasy among writers. Trying to predict what will get readers obsessing is a wild goose chase on the level of trying to figure out how to become rich and famous off of writing. Which is why it's more productive to set your sights on becoming a damn good writer. That's where getting readers in the first place starts, after all.

edited 30th Mar '17 6:58:47 AM by CrystalGlacia

I disagree with your assessment that it's unusual for a creator to dream of a rabid fanbase. Being a Homestuck fan like the OP, and a content creator, this is certainly a big dream of mine. I wish I didn't have to beg my readers to work on my work's TV Tropes page (because I think it's obvious when the author adds to it, lol.) I think being a part of the Homestuck fandom and the fervor and attention to detail that the people in it gave to the work really rubbed off on me. It was so amazing how analytical people got with it! But at the same time... a really large fanbase is hard to manage, and the more people reading your story the more likely there will be annoying and obnoxious fans.

However I do agree that a rabid fanbase is really hard to make. Lighting in a bottle, really, even if that's pretty trite to say at this point. What people like is what they like. You can entice them in many different ways, but even though creators in all different media create interesting and developed, complex characters, only a few of them are going to get noticed by a critical mass (or a tumblr critical mass as if.) Even if your work is well-reviewed and of an all around high quality, people will not just flock to it by merit. Which is really frustrating, since making something objectively quality is hard and takes years of practice.

You do have to start with a good story and good characters, and if you struggle to find a situation where the characters really shine, I'd suggest taking a break and reading some other stuff and find situations and ideas in other works that could work for you. Or work on another story to give yourself some distance from them.

The key is to make them relatable.

If they're unrelatable, what the fuck are they doing around the protagonist? Aside from instances of Enemy Mine.

How would you make a villain protagonist that's a socipathic hitman appealing and relatable?