What makes you click with a character?

For me, that’s both an easy and hard question to answer.  The obvious answer is that the character should be likable.  For a protagonist, I have to like the character enough to be willing to see them through whatever nastiness the story has in store for them.  I have to like them enough to hope they come out alive when the story ends.  If I don’t, why keep them?  I have had the occasion where mid-story I realize that I absolutely hate the main character.  This usually occurs right around the time that I kill them off (it’s a reliable indicator).  Someone else becomes the main character and the story goes on.  In most cases, I soon realize that’s what I should have done in the first place.  The story is better because of it.  Other times?  Well, that’s what a trunk is for…

That was easy, right?  Well, the hard part for me is when I take great pleasure in developing a character that I absolutely hate.  Nasty people are fun to write, but that doesn’t mean they’re as fun to read.  Thankfully I learned long ago that first drafts are like playing in a sandbox.  You can throw whatever you want in there and then just rake the crap out later on.  That, of course, is the hard part.  First drafts are fun.  Editing is hard.  That’s the time to take an asshole character and turn them into someone that’s fun to read.  Either that, or go through countless pages of manuscript deleting them from existence.  Both take time, but in the end you’ve got yourself a character worth reading.  That makes the story worth reading.

Villains are a different story altogether.  With villains, all bets are off…

***You can pick up G Elmer’s books through AMAZON.

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