This is so helpful! I’m often told my female leads are unlikeable. I’ve been working on deepening characterization so readers can empathize with them despite not always liking them. Thank you for discussing this issue. Just signed up for Pub Crawl!
I truly appreciate the section about what else 'unlikeable' might mean, because I'm currently struggling with a recent literary novel that a lot of people seem to like, which has me texting friends 'I have never hated a protagonist more' . . .and yeah, it's a woman writing about a woman and I am somebody who will go to bat for an unlikeable female character almost any time.
So it was really bothering me to feel this way so I'm stepping back and taking a breath and going 'Yeah, I don't buy this character's choices because the author wants me to believe this is a resourceful young woman who's come pretty far on her own and yet over the course of this book she makes one clueless choice after another and also if a character is going to be this selfish and awful my personal taste is that I would like the book to be funny and have an interesting voice, and this book isn't doing any of that for me so I'll go back to disliking this character with a clean conscience.'
(Also, what doI know, this author has sold a lot of books).
Unrelated to this post, but where does one just comment about general fandom?
I'm a great fan of yours and often tell people (honestly) that you're my favorite author. So I was deeply satisfied when my son's gf recently read and loved IHSQFY.
Last night, she sent this text from Manhattan where she'd been, with her new camera, at a new-photographers meet-up.
Hola I witnessed a guy yelling at a girl and pressuring her to get into a car (and her trying to avoid getting into the car and crying) so I took pictures and called in the license plate to the police
The girl got into the car eventually and the car drove off
The police went to the house and apparently they said nothing was wrong and claimed to be sleeping
Anyways this is what happens when you read Rebecca Makkai and realize that plenty of problematic things are completely mundane and go mostly unnoticed or bystander
“After you draft for yourself, you start revising for the world.” Bam. The lightbulb that just went on over my head somewhere east of Basel, Switzerland, must surely be visible in Chicago.
This kind of nails my plodding difficulty in getting my book further. As a journalist, I *always* write for the world. That’s how I do it. And this has seemed a massive undertaking with the story I am trying to tell.
Geez Rebecca, between this one and s few other right-between-the-eyes gems gathered during your recent Story Studio workshop, I may have to dedicate this book to you. Or send you my first-born son (who just turned 17 and is a bit strenuous at the moment, so...). Or just be thankful that you are so good at sharing your knowledge and experience with the world.
I think there's a tension in your first questioner's description of her protagonist in which her "unlikeablity" is the point of her character, while simultaneously describing her as "intelligent, frank, funny, insightful." These are four traits that pretty much describe a likeable person, so I'm wondering if she is imposing the "unlikeable" restriction on her main character too much? There are a lot of ways in which a character can be basically "iffi" (intelligent, frank, etc.) but not manage to make it work for her socially (so only technically unlikeable). Like she's all those things but lacks a filter, or has no talent for timing, or is frank in situations where diplomacy would be the much better way to go . A prime example of this kind of character is Lena Dunham in Girlfriends. We like her for her iffiness, but we understand completely why she has constant clashes with her friends and boyfriends -- she's generally too honest and white-lies poorly. Harriet the Spy is a classic example of a heroine doing something we completely understand alienates virtually everyone, but she never becomes unlikeable to us. Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair is another one. She's technically "unlikeable," but we want to hang out with her. (A certain Rebecca Makkai manages this so well in The Borrower. Her heroine does something we cannot approve of, but we sign onto to it because Rebecca takes us so carefully through her thought process that before we know it, we are cheering her on in her misadventure.)
Thanks, Rebecca, as usual. Your ability to weave humor into virtually every paragraph while still saying useful and important things is sine qua non.
This is so helpful! I’m often told my female leads are unlikeable. I’ve been working on deepening characterization so readers can empathize with them despite not always liking them. Thank you for discussing this issue. Just signed up for Pub Crawl!
1.great Venns, but a true geek applies distinct colors to each circle. Next time.
2.I am golden (not the dog) b/c I want my female protagonist to be dislikeable and morph in to likeabikity. You know, like real life?
I truly appreciate the section about what else 'unlikeable' might mean, because I'm currently struggling with a recent literary novel that a lot of people seem to like, which has me texting friends 'I have never hated a protagonist more' . . .and yeah, it's a woman writing about a woman and I am somebody who will go to bat for an unlikeable female character almost any time.
So it was really bothering me to feel this way so I'm stepping back and taking a breath and going 'Yeah, I don't buy this character's choices because the author wants me to believe this is a resourceful young woman who's come pretty far on her own and yet over the course of this book she makes one clueless choice after another and also if a character is going to be this selfish and awful my personal taste is that I would like the book to be funny and have an interesting voice, and this book isn't doing any of that for me so I'll go back to disliking this character with a clean conscience.'
(Also, what doI know, this author has sold a lot of books).
Hi Rebecca-
Unrelated to this post, but where does one just comment about general fandom?
I'm a great fan of yours and often tell people (honestly) that you're my favorite author. So I was deeply satisfied when my son's gf recently read and loved IHSQFY.
Last night, she sent this text from Manhattan where she'd been, with her new camera, at a new-photographers meet-up.
Hola I witnessed a guy yelling at a girl and pressuring her to get into a car (and her trying to avoid getting into the car and crying) so I took pictures and called in the license plate to the police
The girl got into the car eventually and the car drove off
The police went to the house and apparently they said nothing was wrong and claimed to be sleeping
Anyways this is what happens when you read Rebecca Makkai and realize that plenty of problematic things are completely mundane and go mostly unnoticed or bystander
“After you draft for yourself, you start revising for the world.” Bam. The lightbulb that just went on over my head somewhere east of Basel, Switzerland, must surely be visible in Chicago.
This kind of nails my plodding difficulty in getting my book further. As a journalist, I *always* write for the world. That’s how I do it. And this has seemed a massive undertaking with the story I am trying to tell.
Geez Rebecca, between this one and s few other right-between-the-eyes gems gathered during your recent Story Studio workshop, I may have to dedicate this book to you. Or send you my first-born son (who just turned 17 and is a bit strenuous at the moment, so...). Or just be thankful that you are so good at sharing your knowledge and experience with the world.
“If you’re reading to find friends, you’re in deep trouble.”
Claire Massud is a class act.
Brilliant share and info. Venn diagrams: yep! And here I go signing up for pub crawl...! Lisa B Martin, aka zihuawriter
OMG the Claire Messud. Never would have seen that w/o your prompt. Thank you.
I think there's a tension in your first questioner's description of her protagonist in which her "unlikeablity" is the point of her character, while simultaneously describing her as "intelligent, frank, funny, insightful." These are four traits that pretty much describe a likeable person, so I'm wondering if she is imposing the "unlikeable" restriction on her main character too much? There are a lot of ways in which a character can be basically "iffi" (intelligent, frank, etc.) but not manage to make it work for her socially (so only technically unlikeable). Like she's all those things but lacks a filter, or has no talent for timing, or is frank in situations where diplomacy would be the much better way to go . A prime example of this kind of character is Lena Dunham in Girlfriends. We like her for her iffiness, but we understand completely why she has constant clashes with her friends and boyfriends -- she's generally too honest and white-lies poorly. Harriet the Spy is a classic example of a heroine doing something we completely understand alienates virtually everyone, but she never becomes unlikeable to us. Becky Sharp in Vanity Fair is another one. She's technically "unlikeable," but we want to hang out with her. (A certain Rebecca Makkai manages this so well in The Borrower. Her heroine does something we cannot approve of, but we sign onto to it because Rebecca takes us so carefully through her thought process that before we know it, we are cheering her on in her misadventure.)
Thanks, Rebecca, as usual. Your ability to weave humor into virtually every paragraph while still saying useful and important things is sine qua non.