Today, I wanted to explore the phenomenon of rooting for a character.
As a writer, it’s important to understand what will distance your readers from a character or fail to inspire a connection with them. Readers root for characters they care about and are invested in. So how do we make that happen?
What makes a character worthy of our well wishes?
- THEY ARE UNIQUE IN SOME WAY. This is one possible way to gain a reader’s interest. A bored reader, after all, isn’t going to care what happens next or if your hero succeeds.
- THEY ARE RELATABLE. In their strengths and in their foibles, if your reader can relate to what your character is going through, and why they want to achieve their goals, the reader is more likely to invest emotionally.
- YOU HAVE ESTABLISHED THE PRICE THEY PAID TO SUCCEED. There are so many cliches to establish the truth that “there is no such thing as a free lunch” and “nothing good comes easy”. If your character hasn’t earned success, or your reader isn’t aware that he’s put in the work, you reader isn’t going to care if he fails.
- YOU HAVE EMPHASIZED THEIR GOOD POINTS. This is critical. Even villains (especially great ones!) have some virtues. All true human heroes will have vices and flaws. But if you don’t emphasize the virtues of a character (without explaining the flaws away) your readers aren’t going to root for him or her. This is the cautionary tale of Amazon’s “The Rings of Power” re: Galadriel. Almost everyone hated her because real virtue was not emphasized in her. She came across as petulant, egotistical, angry, and generally unlikeable, to the point that there are famously lots of comments on YouTube saying “She made me root for the orcs.” Yikes.
Sticking with Middle Earth, let’s examine Frodo Baggins as an example of a hero we easily root for. (Spoilers, if you don’t know the story of The Lord of the Rings.)
- The Bagginses are considered strange by their fellow hobbits, but that’s not enough to make us root for Frodo. However, knowing Frodo is bearing a terrible, uniquely heavy, even ineffable burden and weight in the One Ring? Willingly? That’s powerful. We may not fully understand what he’s dealing with as he gets closer and closer to Mordor, but we DO understand that we want him to succeed.
- When Frodo tells Gandalf, “I wish the Ring had never come to me,” well, who can’t relate to that? Who can’t relate to feeling unequal to the tasks ahead, or that perseverance would be futile? Yet Frodo NEVER stops pushing ahead. That makes us root for him.
- Tolkien does a beautiful job describing all Frodo endures from his first step out of Bag End all the way to Mount Doom. We’ve seen all Frodo has endured. Because of this, despite his weakness, we don’t want him to fail. The moment when he slips the Ring on and claims it as his own is devastating, despite us knowing that no one could have willingly destroyed it. The moment when Gollum slips into the fire with the Ring feels deserved and earned on Frodo’s part–for all he has endured up to this point. Besides, Frodo does pay for his final failure with his finger.
- Despite the toll the Ring eventually takes on Frodo, Tolkien (more so than Peter Jackson) does a great job making clear that the influence of the Ring is not Frodo’s moral failing, and that Frodo never stops fighting the Ring before reaching Mount Doom. Frodo has been shown to be selfless and brave, willing to attempt the impossible and carry the Ring to its destruction, all for the sake of the Shire and the hobbits that he loves. Even when Frodo eventually claims the Ring at the Cracks of Doom, we know that he is a hero. We know how powerful and deep his virtue runs. And we never stop rooting for him.
So, what do you think? Who are the characters you’ve really found yourself rooting for?
As of June 15, hopefully the members of The Crimson League will join that number! Read an excerpt or an editorial review here, or visit the book’s website
Creative Writing with the Crimson League 
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