Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A How to prevent turning off the reader at first with a protagonist with unlikeable traits but that becomes better later on?

I have a story where the protagonist, who is a warrior meant to be the story's hero, has several unlikable traits. He is proud, kind of cold, has a hatred for the people of the enemy State (without...

3 answers  ·  posted 7y ago by Yuuza‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:21:59Z (about 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/34480
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Yuuza‭ · 2019-12-08T08:21:59Z (about 5 years ago)
I have a story where the protagonist, who is a warrior meant to be the story's hero, has several unlikable traits. He is proud, kind of cold, has a hatred for the people of the enemy State (without exceptions, which makes him support war and sees no problem in killing soldiers), has a limited knowledge and isn't much prudent. Of course, he has several qualities too, but it's not relevant for the question.

In the course of the plot, many things happen which leads him to start changing and becoming a better person (including becoming the opposite of these flaws) since half the plot's progress and slowly until the end.

The problem is: how can I non-verbally tell the reader that he will become a more likeable person but that it will take kind of long until that happens, and preventing the reader from losing interest in the story until the change begins?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-03-21T17:31:18Z (almost 7 years ago)
Original score: 20