Character Development: Does Perception Equal Reality?

I think I might have commented in the past that no two editors do their job exactly the same way. Our primary job, of course, is to bring money in for the house that hires us - and there are many ways to go about that.  Yes, we are businesses that must cover costs and turn a profit, lest we go under, so I never apologize to for making business decisions that keep us in the black.  

Another part of the job that we can't get away from - and that most of us would never want to get away from - is author development. A good review for our authors is a good review for us; great sales for an author are great sales for us.  Their success is ours.  We thus find ourselves often in the role of coach. We aren't writing the books, just the way the coaches aren't playing the game, but we do think our advice can make the difference between success and failure.

The advice I've been offering a lot of writers lately, I've realized, has to do with protagonist development in the early pages of the manuscript. Because I am a very reader-centric editor, I try to calibrate my reading to a high level of sensitivity regarding the reader's perception of the protagonist and some of the supporting cast, especially in those first 30-40 pages.  

In a post from a few weeks back, I asked of aspiring writers "What are you trying to accomplish?" and this questions applies not only to themes and plot but also to character. I think many commercially-oriented writers would say that they are trying to make their hero/ine likable - that they want the reader to become very fond of the protagonist.  And while I do have an issue or two with trying too hard to make characters likable (sometimes doing so makes them treacly or nauseating), having a likable protagonist is definitely a good idea in a genre that lives on series characters.

For all these reasons, I encourage writers to look closely at what their protags say, think, and do in their first couple of chapters. Even a protagonist with some sort of grudge needs to be perceived as being somehow "above" the other characters for us to root for him.  But spite, malice, sarcasm ... these are often the traits I see exhibited in the early chapters of manuscripts, and they set me against the protag.  So even if their cause is just, I perceive them as unlikable or childish - and I don't necessarily want to read further.

An example from my own life: Decades ago, one of my older brothers had a sort of rivalry going with another guy in our primary school. The rival decided to expand his vendetta to other members of the family, and I distinctly remember the following sequence of events: I was in the schoolyard at lunchtime, playing with friends, when this guy hurled a baseball with intense malice at my private parts. It was 50 years ago, but I can still remember doubling over in pain, along with the embarrassment and rage I felt.  (For those who are interested in how the story ends - my brother beat the guy within an inch of his life, got arrested, but was let off by someone who agreed that the guy deserved everything he got.)  I tell this story because I still think about it occasionally all these years later - but if I was a protagonist in a crime novel, looking to get revenge on this guy for something that happened half a century earlier - I think most readers would think, "OK, that was pretty bad.  But it happened 50 years ago. Shouldn't you get a life?  In the last half century, shouldn't you have done a few other things to occupy your time?"

The idea of perception being reality is one of the reasons I am so sensitive to the use of humor in manuscripts. A character who is trying too hard to be funny comes across as desperate - and I cringe. A character who shoots one snappy comeback after another reminds me of those people in "real life" who are impossible to talk to, who see you not as a conversational partner but rather as someone to impress with their wit and/or repartee.  A protagonist who acts in a spiteful or malicious way early in the manuscript is someone I have a hard time wanting to spend the next 300 pages with.  

I'm not trying to imply that protags should be milquetoast, or all sweetness and light. But I do think that those early chapters are the basis on which many an agent and editor make decisions, so it's worth taking a look at the early pages of your work in progress and ask yourself how your character is coming across.  For mainstream genre mysteries (even for hardboiled) I would save the deeper, darker things for a bit later (of course, there can be hints early on).  

And I'm not suggesting that this balance is easy for a writer to pull off.  I don't know that there's a set of rules anywhere outlining "What a good protagonist does or doesn't do."  We all know how to establish villainy - have your bad guy hurt an animal or a child, and that's the end of it - you'll never get the reader back. This is one of the things that made Stephen King's The Shining so interesting: We know that Jack Torrance "accidentally" (?) hurt his young son as a result of alcohol and anger issues; it's precisely these sort of issues that the Overlook Hotel uses and magnifies, which makes the book nice and creepy. However, that is horror - not mainstream mystery fiction - and I doubt anyone would argue that Jack Torrance should have been a series character.

Any writers out there care to comment on their DO's and DON'Ts for establishing a reader's connection with your protagonist?  This post is getting a little long (feeling rather pensive this evening), so maybe I'll try to come up with a Top 10 list for my next posting.

Comments

[Chris]

DO have a protagonist say things that a reader would only dare think. Ex: The hero directly accuses the villain or some other character of lying, causing an instant conflict. A real person might say nothing, or pretend to believe someone who lied to them, yet stew inside for not having the courage to speak out. Maybe what I'm saying is to give the character the courage to speak and act when others can't or won't for lack of courage.

I think that's why readers are drawn to heroes--we want to be more like them. More: brave, honest, intelligent, creative, analytical, exciting, etc. At the same time, we don't want them to be perfect, either. Just 'better' than us in some way.

[Jersey Jack]

In many of his older westerns (think Hombre) as well as his modern crime novels (think Get Shorty) Elmore Leonard loves to establish that his protagonist takes no crap. This works very well on me as a reader