How To Lure Your Readers To Love Your Protagonist
What tip can you apply to your novel that will make your characters lovable? and make the reader want to turn the page to the end.
Are there any secrets that a new writer can apply to their novel that will make you want to read on? What do the famous writers know and apply that help sells their novels?
in this blog, we will be looking at How to lure your readers to love your protagonist
HOW TO LURE YOUR READERS TO LOVE YOUR PROTAGONIST
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Here’s a secret when writing, no matter how weird the story let the reader connect with the lead protagonist and the reader will care about them and their journey. You don’t need your reader to love your protagonist, but you want to identify with them. Once the reader has developed a rapport with the lead character it goes a long way.
The first thing you need to do is write something about the protagonist the reader can relate to. Look at your character’s life and ask what about them can they do that the average reader will see themselves in. As though the protagonist is the reader. You want to pull the reader into the story, not just “read it.”
MAKE THE PROTAGONIST THE UNDERDOG
One good tip is to make your protagonist the “underdog”. If your protagonist is perfect and arrogant the reader will not like them. But if they’re looked down upon by others it will go a long way. Because each person feels looked down upon as they go throughout the day. Nobody really feels like they fit in.
These are certain traits we can relate to. It’s the shy people in life who we relate to, not perfect people who has everything going for them. The more faults your character has the more the reader will see themselves in them.
NO ONE SEES THEMSELVES AS PERFECT
Your average person feels they have faults. We never see ourselves as “perfect.” Everyone has things about themselves they want changed. When we see someone in a novel with the same faults we see ourselves in them. However, If they’re perfect and do nothing wrong we will not like reading about them. We don’t like seeing rich perfect people succeed.
We cheer for the underdog in sports. If a first-place team is playing a last-place team we find ourselves cheering for the last-place team. When writing a book if you write about the last-place team the reader will want to see how they overcome. It’s the reason everyone loves watching “The bad news Bears.”
WE FEEL CONNECTED WITH HER
Another quick tip, give your protagonist an enemy the reader will not like. If your protagonist is “not that likable” the reader will reject them. But if there’s another character who’s mean to the protagonist then the reader will start cheering for the protagonist. The more people who are against the protagonist the more we’ll see them as being “picked on” and we’ll start cheering for them.
Readers like “Gone with the Wind” because as cold as Scarlett came across she was rejected by everyone in town. By seeing her rejection made the reader connect with her more. If she was cold and loved by everyone, the reader would stop reading.
WE CAN RELATE TO HIM
How a story starts off is important. We need to see the protagonist living a life we can relate to. The more we relate, the more we connect.
Think of Harry Potter. It didn’t start with him in Hogwarts riding a broom. It started on a regular street in a middle-class neighborhood. Something your average reader can identify with. If the story had started in the castle with Harry Potter a full wizard we would not have connected with him.
WE ARE NOW PULLED INTO THE STORY
By seeing him in a regular house in an average neighborhood being picked on by his uncle and nephew we felt sorry for him. He isn’t a perfect, arrogant kid. He was a regular normal kid who didn’t feel like he fit it. This is one of the biggest secrets about making a successful protagonist. Have them feel like they don’t fit in. Most people don’t feel like they do. So when they read about someone who doesn’t fit in they connect with them.
Harry was nervous about going to Hogwarts. Awkward at first when meeting new students. By doing this it gave the reader a chance to connect. As though it could’ve been you. As though the story was happening to you. By the time Harry goes off to Hogwarts, you’re pulled in as though it’s you going to Hogwarts.
IT IS YOU FACING OFF WITH THE BAD GUY
When reading and you identify with the protagonist and they have to face off against the antagonist you feel as though “you’re” facing off against the antagonist. We see this in the Harry Potter novels. When kids read it they can’t help but feel they’re in the novel battling the villain.
So when Harry Potter had to battle the villain at the end it was the kids reading the book who were battling the bad guy. By making the connection first, made the ending that much more powerful.
DOING THIS WOULD HURT THE NOVEL
Stephen King is a famous horror writer. But what he does not do is write about the “monster” right away. He will introduce the characters in the first chapter and have them live regular lives. By reading this you connect with them. You feel it could be you. So by the time the monster is introduced you feel it’s you battling you.
However, another horror writer would focus on the monster right away. This would hurt the novel. We don’t read a novel for the monster, we read to see how people we connect with deal with the monster. We first have to get to know the characters then battle the monster. New horror writers would put the focus on the monster, leaving the reader to feel nothing.
WE HAVE TO CONNECT WITH THE PROTAGONIST
We need to fear and care for the protagonist, in order for that to happen, we have to get to know them.
In “Cujo”, we had time to get to know the female protagonist and her life. So by the time she was trapped in the car with the rabid dog outside we feared for her and her son.
Most people believe Stephen King writes about violence and horror right from the first page. He avoids doing this. he will let the story creep up on you. Even in his earlier works, he knew to write about things you could relate to as though it’s you. Your average new horror writer would jump right into the nasty horror, thinking this sells. But the reader has no one to connect to. Stephen King knew to hold it off.
WE NOW CARE FOR EVERYONE IN THE PROBLEM
By approaching it this way he could have his characters battling the oddest demons or villains your mind can come up with. But we read on because we care about them, and we see ourselves in them.
In the novel “The Exorcist” we were given time to get to know all the main characters and seeing how they lived. We had time to connect, so by the time the two priests had to battle the demon we were right into it. Instead of rejecting the novel, we cared.
WE SEE IT HAPPENING TO US
The movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind” started off with a regular family in a middle-class house having the same problem we all do, something we can identify with.
What the kids were watching on TV is what we all watch. The toys they had were the toys your average kid had back then. We had a connection. So by the time the movie shows us the aliens we feel it’s “happening to us.” We feel we’ve been taken on a journey.
If it had started off with aliens we may not have cared or connected with the protagonist, meaning we would not have cared about the ending or felt anything.
WE WERE PULLED INTO THE TWILIGHT ZONE
Rod Serling understood the mindset of making the audience connect first. When he wrote an episode of “The Twilight Zone” he made sure to show us the protagonist living a regular life in the beginning. This was done to make us feel as though the protagonist could be “us.” As the episode continued, after the inciting incident the “problem” became more strange and the protagonist had to deal with it. The whole time we felt it was “us” dealing with the problem.
However, if the lead character was odd right at the start we would not identify with them. There would be a disconnect between you and the lead character. But by having the protagonist an everyday person, the average viewer could connect and feel it’s them dealing with the problem. It’s as if you were in the episode. You were pulled into “The Twilight Zone.”
IT MAKES THE STORY SEEM MORE ALIVE
As a writer, you want to connect the reader and the protagonist as one. Make them the same person.
When writing you want your characters to appear they had a life before and after the novel. You don’t want your protagonist to appear as though they came to life for the story. It makes the story feel fake. Talk about the character’s past. (not too much, you don’t want to drag on with exposition) have them mention things they want to do in the future. Have them mention things that happened “off camera,” this makes the story feel more alive. Make the reader feel as though the characters are real.
ALL PEOPLE ARE COMPLEX
Remember your characters are complex, just like they are in real life. We are all affected by our childhoods, we all carry ghosts with us. We all act differently around friends, family, strangers, and co-workers. As a writer, you want to know how would your character act around family as to their friends or boss.
What are your character’s dreams and hopes? By knowing this it helps shape your story better. Knowing your character better.
SAVE THE CAT TRICK
Think about what it would be like taking your character out of your novel and placing them into another well-known novel. How would they act? What would they say? While staying in character. By thinking like this, it gives you a better idea of who your character is.
Here’s a little tip for making the reader like your protagonist. It’s called “save the cat,” it was a term made up in Hollywood about making the protagonist likable when there was a chance they may not be. As a writer if want your protagonist likable have them do something good for someone at the beginning.
DOING SOMETHING UNSELFISH
Have them do something unselfish where they help someone who cannot help themselves when there’s nothing in it for them. They’re not doing it out of selfishness, looking for a reward.
Have them (literary) save a cat, or help a child, help a senior. Have them do something that makes the reader cheer for them from that point on. It’s a little technique you can find in a book called “save the cat” by Blake Snyder
(There is also a book called “save the cat writes a novel” that points out tips that help with novel writing.)
GIVING THEM ACCESS INTO THEIR MIND
Let the reader understand the motives of the protagonist. Instead of making the character a stranger. Let the reader inside the mind and emotions. Once you have access to someone’s mind you connect with them more. You may not agree with them but at least you understand where they’re coming from.
Rapport is a powerful thing in making your reader connect with the protagonist and want to read on to see how things turn out for them. Even if we don’t like them or agree we still want to see how things turn out.
LET US KNOW THE PROTAGONIST WANTS AND NEEDS
Let the reader understand the protagonist’s wants and needs. What are they after and why? What is driving them? Do we know their goal? By knowing what they want we can connect with them. Doesn’t mean you have to fully support them, but at least you understand what drives them.
Do we know the protagonist’s obstacles? By letting the reader know what barriers they have to face makes the story more compelling. We want to know how they overcome them.
here are some other blogs you might be interested in…
PUT YOUR PROTAGONIST IN THE GREATEST DANGER
8 DIFFERENT TYPES OF ANTAGONISTS IN YOUR NOVEL
HOW STEPHEN KING CREATES SUSPENSE AND CONFLICT
