In a new post on Writers Helping Writers, Angela Ackerman says there’s one key element to creating reader connections with your characters. “Some characters have more shape and weight than others, feeling so authentic we can almost believe they walked right out of the real world,” Ackerman says. The key? Recognition.
“When readers see something within the character that resonates, something they themselves think, feel, or believe in, it becomes common ground that binds them to the character,” Ackerman explains.
Even your most outlandishly heroic protagonist can experience the same sense of loss, humiliation, regret, guilt, courage, love, and relief that your readers know. “These may look very different, but in the hands of a strong storyteller, they will be recognizable, holding a core truth that stirs a reader’s thoughts and emotions,” Ackerman writes. “By thinking about what it is to be human, and how to use that to find areas of common ground, we can create mirrors within our characters that draw readers in and trigger their empathy.”
Two ways to accomplish this are creating vivid emotional wounds and meaningful goals for your characters. Emotional hurts make your characters seem authentic. They hurt. They change a character and give them mistaken beliefs about themselves, society, and life. Their scars may drive them to make bad decisions or miss opportunities. Done well, the reader will see the flaws, but understand their motivation.
If the emotional wound is where your character begins your novel, the meaningful goal is where you want them to end. “One represents fear, the other hope,” Ackerman says. “In the story, hope tips the scales in the moment when a character decides what they want is more important than what may hurt them.”
The goal can be anything, but it has to be meaningful and your character has to have a strong motivation to achieve it. Their hope for something better keeps them going and – importantly – gets your reader to root for them.
“A character’s journey to leave behind a hurtful or limiting past and cross into a better, more fulfilling future should remind you of something because life is a series of journeys,” Ackerman says. “We yearn for internal completeness just as they do, so when we read, we recognize the steps they take, and the courage, growth, and sacrifice along the way. We root for characters to win because deep down, we are rooting for ourselves to win, too.”
