On Beloved Characters
As a writer and artist, I often can't help but create characters to inhabit the stories I invent, as well as stories that already exist, such as those in video games or movies. As I develop them, I come to care about them, often deeply, and I want to share them with people.
Naturally, because I love my characters and find them charming or cute or funny or sympathetic, I want other people to love them as well. Ideally you'd bring a character into a dressing room or other community and have people fawn over them instantly. Well, this just does not happen. You have to work at it a little.
Why do people like characters? Often because they can relate to and sympathize with them. For example, I have Mu, an Alpha Series Big Daddy character from the Bioshock universe. Now I'm under the impression that my RP buddies like Mu. It's perfectly possible that they're all just lying to me, but I like to think that they're better than that. Mu's had it fairly rough. Besides being framed and arrested for murder, he's also struggled with Autism and an inability to conduct himself in public. His life is not just a string of tragedies, though. Woe-is-me gets old quickly. As sad as the things that may happen to Mu are, he has people in his life that care about him, and he finds happiness through them. Even as a sick, half-mad diving suit mutant, he has happiness in his life, and somebody he loves. He's a human being, and I've worked hard at trying to make him one. He has his strengths and flaws, lots of flaws, but he manages to survive in spite of them, and people find this endearing.
Or let's look at another beloved character, this one belonging to a friend of mine. He comes from the same universe, though he's a regular human being rather than a Big Daddy like Mu. He's a man addicted to a genetics-twisting superdrug, and like any addict, he can get desperate at times. In spite of this, he tries to be a good person. He has a daughter he struggles to raise and mold into a better person than he is, and a husband he wants desperately not to disappoint. Like anybody he has moments of weakness and self-pity, but he does not wallow in his misery and instead allows himself to be helped through it by those he loves.
I think I've gotten off-track now. My point is: show, don't tell. Let us get to know your character through their actions. It's not enough to just sit them down and point to them and shout, "Look at my character! I like them! Don't you like them? Don't you?!" That sort of thing will probably drive people away.
I don't believe anybody can ever love a character as much as the character's creator, and sometimes you just have to accept that. If your character fails to endear themselves, you can either work a little harder to make them appealing, or you can accept it and move on to something else.
Naturally, because I love my characters and find them charming or cute or funny or sympathetic, I want other people to love them as well. Ideally you'd bring a character into a dressing room or other community and have people fawn over them instantly. Well, this just does not happen. You have to work at it a little.
Why do people like characters? Often because they can relate to and sympathize with them. For example, I have Mu, an Alpha Series Big Daddy character from the Bioshock universe. Now I'm under the impression that my RP buddies like Mu. It's perfectly possible that they're all just lying to me, but I like to think that they're better than that. Mu's had it fairly rough. Besides being framed and arrested for murder, he's also struggled with Autism and an inability to conduct himself in public. His life is not just a string of tragedies, though. Woe-is-me gets old quickly. As sad as the things that may happen to Mu are, he has people in his life that care about him, and he finds happiness through them. Even as a sick, half-mad diving suit mutant, he has happiness in his life, and somebody he loves. He's a human being, and I've worked hard at trying to make him one. He has his strengths and flaws, lots of flaws, but he manages to survive in spite of them, and people find this endearing.
Or let's look at another beloved character, this one belonging to a friend of mine. He comes from the same universe, though he's a regular human being rather than a Big Daddy like Mu. He's a man addicted to a genetics-twisting superdrug, and like any addict, he can get desperate at times. In spite of this, he tries to be a good person. He has a daughter he struggles to raise and mold into a better person than he is, and a husband he wants desperately not to disappoint. Like anybody he has moments of weakness and self-pity, but he does not wallow in his misery and instead allows himself to be helped through it by those he loves.
I think I've gotten off-track now. My point is: show, don't tell. Let us get to know your character through their actions. It's not enough to just sit them down and point to them and shout, "Look at my character! I like them! Don't you like them? Don't you?!" That sort of thing will probably drive people away.
I don't believe anybody can ever love a character as much as the character's creator, and sometimes you just have to accept that. If your character fails to endear themselves, you can either work a little harder to make them appealing, or you can accept it and move on to something else.