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Q&A How to write a manipulative protagonist that the audience can connect with

The core of this problem may be the misconception that the reader needs to identify with a character. That is oft repeated, but simply not true. A story creates an experience. One way to enter into...

posted 7y ago by Mark Baker‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

Answer
#4: Attribution notice removed by user avatar System‭ · 2020-01-03T20:41:53Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27328
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:16:41Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/27328
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T06:16:41Z (almost 5 years ago)
The core of this problem may be the misconception that the reader needs to identify with a character. That is oft repeated, but simply not true. A story creates an experience. One way to enter into that experience is to identify yourself with one of the characters in that experience. But it is not the only way, nor is it a necessary way. We are (some of us, at least) interested in people other than ourselves. In some cases we enjoy their company without wishing to be them. In some cases we rubberneck the disaster that is their lives the way we rubberneck an accident on the highway.

So, don't get bogged down by the idea that the reader has to identify with the character. It is enough, and often better, that they simply regard the character with fascination or even horror. Make them interesting and we will follow them like we follow the kind of celebrity trainwrecks we would never want to be like but, for some morbid reason, can never seem to quite avert our eyes from.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2017-03-23T13:01:56Z (over 7 years ago)
Original score: 4