Creating likeable characters

[Circe2300]

Hello, I'm working on my first visual novel and it's quite the undertaking. I love writing. But I have trouble with writing certain characters, likeable characters to be exact. I have no trouble writing up a jerkass rival, a snide cynic, or a generically evil villain. Unfortunately, stories can't always be about the bad guy, so in order to include some diversity to the cast I am attempting to write a kind-hearted likeable character. Whenever I try to write dialogue for this character though, I end up drawing a bit of a blank leading me to be stuck for days on what this one character should say or do. So I guess my question is 'How do you do it?' How do you write a genuinely kind character to offset the more negative characters? How do you make a likeable character?

Thanks,
Lowan

[NialGrenville]

Unfortunately, there is not a "Likeable character" archetype People will like characters you hate, and hate characters you like. It is completely up to interpretation!

I like Chillingworth in The Scarlet Letter. He is the villain. He was made to not be likeable. Yet, I like him.

Just write the characters as you would a "Jerk" or "flawed" or even, egad! Dare I say! Normal!

You just write characters.

[SundownKid]

Humans are social beings, so likeability is usually defined as "how far is this person willing to go to help others"? and "how much am I willing to give up enriching myself"? Even if someone acts evil, if they are willing to help people then they can be defined as likeable in some way. But, it's usually combined with behavior that shows some kind of respect or caring for other people on the part of that character, in other words they are not just claiming they want to help people and actually mean what they say.

How do you write someone who isn't a snide cynic? Well, you should give them a positive outlook on life, in other words make them an optimist. Here are some examples:

Cynic: "That show probably sucks."
Optimist: "You never know, that show could be good!"

Cynic: "I don't feel like doing anything."
Optimist: "I decided to surprise you with breakfast!"

Cynic: "Nothing I do has any impact in the world."
Optimist: "If I can help one person I've succeeded for today."

And so on.

[RedOwl]

Any character can be likable - even the villains. The key to making a likable character is to make them relatable - to make them seem like real people with real problems that you (the player/reader) can sympathize with. One "trick" you can also use is to make other characters in your story like the character you want to be likable - characters with loyal friends are simply more likable. And, as SundownKid already mentioned, another "trick" is to make the character helpful towards (or concerned about) the people around them - or simply positive towards life in general.

There's a really great video lecture series by Brandon Sanderson (an amazing writer, imo) about how to make likable characters:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THUaAYjWI-0. <-- That's the first video of 6. I'd recommend watching them all!

[RotGtIE]

More important than likeability is plausibility. The problem with trying to make your audience like someone is that people are contrarian by nature and will detect when you are trying to influence them somehow.

I'm going to use an extreme example: Napoleon Dynamite. The movie was packed with characters who all had zero likeability to them, but everybody loved it. Why? To put it in the briefest terms I'd ever heard: "Everybody knew someone like that in high school."

People like being reminded of things which are familiar to them. Everybody likes their 'memberberries. Characters who remind people of their dad, sister, best friend, first date, mean teacher, dumb boss, or that weird guy they barely knew who spent most of his time in the corner neatly folding staples straight enough to fit back into the stapler, all tend to be a hit with audiences because they lend a certain authenticity to the story which makes it easier for them to immerse themselves in.

As making characters goes, a believable jerk is better than an unbelievable altruist. But just to be clear, so too is a believable altruist better than an unbelievable jerk. Just don't make your characters do things to advance the plot for the plot's sake - let your characters do as they will and allow the results of their natural behavior advance the story. It can be a bit difficult at times, especially when your characters seem to want to bumble around getting nothing done, but it's well worth the effort when the result is able to entertain the audience without them having to stretch too far to meet you halfway.

[Mammon]

Personally, I think that characters made for one specific purpose or according to one specific trope are not likeable, while characters who have something to go for them tend to be likeable even if I can't relate to them. When you said you're good in making dislikeable characters like a jerk or villain, I immediately wondered whether you actually make good characters or annoyingly bad ones. Does your jerk have some other sides to them, or do they seem to be just a jerk for the sake of the plot? Is a bully just a bully to make the protagonist seem like a likeable underdog, or does he have some relatable traits? Is the villain some B-list 'I'm evil because I'm evil!' or does he have an ideology that clashes with the hero or the world resulting in his villainry?

I think the best way to illustrate my point is with a few examples:

From all the tropes, you have characters that excel to greatness and characters that are just cardboard cutouts with no character depth. I'd like to focus on one of the most polarised tropes of all: the yandere trope. They can be separated in:
1) A yandere for the sake of a yandere. These girls just seem to love the MC and kill anyone once the plot demands such a situation. In the most stereotypical and short yandere stories, the yandere doesn't seem to have any other sides to her than the girl who's interested in you for unknown reasons and the murderous sociopath. These can be fun for some when the game is campy enough, but they're not exactly memorable or good.
2) A yandere who actually has any character depth aside from the above. Once a story starts to see a yandere as an actual person in the story, they can add other character traits to them. What is she like besides in love? Why did she start to obsess over the MC so intensely? What are her hopes and dreams aside from the MC? Even the most Yandere of Yandere have some other character traits to them aside from their trope if they're any good.


Jojo's bizarre adventure. I loved the Phantom blood series but hated Stardust crusaders. Why? Because of the villains. The Phantom blood series featured several likeable or at least not-2D characters. Dio had a very defined character, the pillarmen cared for eachother's wellbeing and respected their opponents, and even small-time characters like the Knights of Bloody Mary were respected by the story (although that story is kind of askew). This series respected their villains. Stardust crusaders on the other hand featured almost exclusively despicable villains that were meant to please the viewer by getting the sh*t stomped out of them at the end of the episode. These villains could be catagorised as either a gravely misformed human who remained hidden until the heroes beat him so they could laugh at his appearance, or a good-looking but very arrogant and cowardly villain. None of these were likeable or memorable.
While the two series above give a better example, comparing the 90' Jojo series to the modern one would also be a good way to look at things. The 90' series scrapped pretty much all the unlikeable villains, leaving only the ones with some redeeming characteristics like the blind man or the poker player. And their Dio remained a respectable one, unlike the new one who suddenly grew green lipstick at the end(?).

The bottomline of these examples: likeable characters have more to them than just what the plot needs of them.

If you don't understand what I'm saying (I can write things rather vaguely at times), feel free to ask further or give me some series that you are familiar with to make examples out of.


*Edit:

1 - Don't show Author Favoritism towards the character.

Also this. Very much this. I briefly touched upon this topic with Mary Sue-ism, but one cannot say this clearly enough. Never favour one over the rest too much.

3 - At the beginning of the visual novel, show a scene where the character is doing something nice.

True, a good trick that is used in a lot of stories. Make sure it doesn't seem too forced or detached though, whether it's an action scene for the sake of establishing someone as a badass, a tragic scene to justify someone's angst, or a villain scene to show the nefarious depths to which the villain can stoop, never make it feel like the scene exists only for that purpose. And don't overuse it, if every character gets a scene like that, it will quickly become annoying.

6 - Don't make the character a coward or a traitor.

I'll have to veto this one though. If it works, it works. I liked Joseph Jostar character because he could be a coward at times, who remained rational and kept running away or using an underhanded trick as viable options if deemed neccesary. You should off course never make someone purely a coward or traitor, even if that's the only purpose of their character to the plot.

[Taranee]

Here are some things that I think make characters likable.

1 - Don't show Author Favoritism towards the character. Nothing is more infuriating than the writer making everything too easy for a certain character. Underdogs are easy to sympathize with. The character should have at least as many struggles and difficulties as the other characters of equal importance. If the character does something wrong, there should be consequences. Other characters can disagree with him/her or be mistaken about his/her intentions. Let the character make mistakes, own them up, fix them (if it's possible), and earn forgiveness from the affected characters (or fail and deal with the guilt). The way the character reacts to his/her own mistakes can show more strength than keeping a perfectly spotless record.

2 - Give the character a goal that is very important for him or her. Readers like characters who are motivated, even if they personally don't share the same goal. There should be an important reason why the character wants to achieve a particular goal. He/she should work really hard to reach the goal. Some methods should fail, but the character should show perseverance and keep trying different methods. Pursuing the goal should be active. Read about writing active, rather than passive or reactive characters. The consequences of permanently failing to reach the goal should be as horrible as possible.

3 - At the beginning of the visual novel, show a scene where the character is doing something nice. Read about "pet the dog moment". This will establish the character as a nice person. It doesn't have to be about petting a dog, though.

4 - Find something that makes you sympathize with your other characters, and make your nice character feel this sympathy. Make him/her perceptive about the other characters' redeeming traits. If your other characters are too unlikable, your nice character might seem too naive for still charing about them. If the other characters really are unredeemable as*holes, make it hard to be nice to them. The character will make the choice to suffer for the sake of his/her values, because he/she believes he/she can redeem the other characters. If it fits in the story, make his/her niceness have a good effect on the other characters. The jerks might begin to soften up slightly as a result of his/her kindness. A villain might show him/her mercy or hesitate for a crucial moment before doing something evil, which lets him/her escape.

5 - Don't make the character too whiny. It's okay for the character to sometimes break down and feel like the worst person on the planet, but self-pitying internal monologues should eventually move towards looking for solutions for the character's problems.

6 - Don't make the character a coward or a traitor. Don't get me wrong, the character absolutely can feel scared when he/she is doing something scary, but he/she should try to find a way to overcome the fear or find a workaround. A lot of people hate characters who betray their allies or values, especially if the reasons don't feel justified. Cheap traitors can just bail out of the story when things get difficult, because they don't care about anything. Even a character who appears to be a jerk should have solid values, even if he/she initially hides them. (The deliberate rejection of all values and morals can also be a set of values.) The values can be related to the character's goal.

7 - Don't make the character preachy or overconfident that he/she is always right. Continuous lectures about the power of friendship get old fast, even if their message is very good. If the character's lines sound like some party's guidebook, something's wrong. A good, nice character knows that he/she wants to always do good, but applying this philosophy in real life situations should sometimes be difficult. Sometimes he/she might have to choose between two options that both seem good. Sometimes there might be only two really bad options. Sometimes he/she might not have enough information or time to make a perfect moral choice.

8 - Don't make the character spineless. Being good doesn't mean being endlessly forgiving towards unrepentant villains, being unable to punish villains to the point of just standing by and watching as they hurt innocent people, letting everyone exploit and walk over him/her, never showing a selfish streak, never getting angry, etc. If the character is a pacifist, does he/she actively look for efficient non-violent solutions, or is he/she the type who just doesn't want to get his/her hands dirty? Also if you make the character an underdog, let him/her break out of the role after having suffered enough to build up sympathy from the readers.

[Katy133]

A good place to start is with motivation. A likeable character tends to have a goal that they want, and in the story, they are constantly doing things to try and achieve it, even though there's challenges along the way.

It's them trying to achieve it that's the key. We like characters who work towards their goals.

Another thing that may help inspire you would be to look at other characters that fit with your description of a likeable character who is good and kind. Characters like Tintin (from The Adventure of Tintin comics/film/animated 90s series, Batman and Robin (specifically 1966's Batman series), Justin (Sir Justin and the Knights of Valour film), Bernard (Bernard and the Genie film), and Cole Phelps (LA Noire, a video game). Those ones I've listed I highly recommend you check out and use as case studies. Ask yourself questions like, "What is their main goal in the story?" and "How do they react in the plot's different situations?"

You can also go the opposite route and think of characters you've seen in books/films/games/etc where you really didn't like the main character, but knew that you were supposed to find them likeable. Ask yourself, "Why didn't I like this character?" Sometimes, learning how not to write a character is way more useful than trying to learn how to write a character.