How do you make your readers care about your characters? Is there some foolproof way to do that? If so, whatโs the secret?ย
Jim posted this questionย on my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page:
Whatโs the best way to include background info on a character in the first few chapters so readers will care about him or her?
Randy sez: Making your readers care about your character is extremely important. If your readers care, theyโll probably keep reading. If they donโt care, they probably wonโt.ย
Is Backstory the Answer?
Itโs easy to think that telling your reader the characterโs backstory is the magic ticket. After all, if your readers know your characterโs whole life story, wonโt they want to know how things turn out?
Yes, probably. But the problem is that your characterโs whole life story is long, and your readers are impatient. They want to see whatโs happening right now. Your reader wonโt care about your characterโs backstory until theyโve emotionally committed to the frontstory.
If telling the backstory isnโt the answer, then what is?
The Short Answer
The short answer is that you need to make your readers relate to your characters. But thatโs not a very good answer, because it doesnโt explain how you do it.ย
Weโll get to the long answer in a bit, but first, letโs look at an example of a best-selling novel that highlights how hard it is to make your reader relate to your characters. Letโs look at the novel Enderโs Game, by Orson Scott Card.
Ender Wiggin, Boy Genius
Ender Wiggin is a six-year-old boy genius. He is scooped up by the government and sent to an orbiting battle school where heโs going to be trained to command an interplanetary fleet of starships in a desperate bid to save the human race from being destroyed by an alien race that’s already on its way to planet Earth.
Can you relate to Ender? Is your life like his in any possible way?
If youโre thinking no, then you can see why this is hard.ย
So how does Orson Scott Card make you relate to Ender within the first few pages?
By putting Ender in a situation everybody can relate to.
Enderโs First Two Scenes
In the very first scene, which only lasts two pages, Ender has a painful medical procedure. Everyone can relate to that. So the reader is quickly on Enderโs side. The procedure doesnโt go well, but Ender muddles through. If all scenes were like this one, readers would relate to Ender, but they wouldnโt care that much about him. Because so far, Ender hasnโt shown how to rise above his hard situation. But the next scene is different.
In the second scene, Ender is ganged up on after school by a group of bullies. Everyone can relate to that. But this scene doesnโt end the way a bullying scene usually ends. Most people get beat up by the bullies. Ender isnโt most people. Ender fights backโand he wins. Partly by luck. Partly by being clever. Partly by bravado. And partly by pure desperation. The point is that Ender finds himself in a hard situation that most people can relate to. And he shows how to win.ย
That, I think, is the secret to why so many readers care about Ender. Even readers who arenโt six years old. Even readers who arenโt geniuses. Even readers who will never go to battle school, command a starship fleet, or fight aliens.ย
But all readers have faced an uphill battle against bullies. And they want to believe that thereโs a way to win. Within just a few pages, the reader knows that Ender can win. And the reader is on Enderโs side. In the rest of the book, Ender goes on to face bullying that grows exponentially harsher. At each level, he grows and becomes tougher.
The reader wants to live Enderโs life. The reader wants Ender to show how to fight the bullies in the toughest situations imaginable.
The reader cares about Ender.
In Summary
If we can boil this all down to two main points, we have these:
- Put your character in a hard situation that your reader can relate to.
- Show your character responding to that hard situation in a way that gives the reader hope.
Once youโve done that, your reader will care about your character. And the reader will even care about your characterโs backstory.
If you’ve got a questionย you’d like me to answer in public on this blog, hop on over to my “Ask A Question For My Blog” page and submit your question. I’ll answer the ones I can, but no guarantees. There are only so many hours in the day.