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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39582
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/39582
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

There may be action, but perhaps what you are missing is conflict. (Conflict is the MC personally having to make choices and solve problems, not just reacting to or living through "action".) Your character might be unlikable to other characters, but for me it would be impossible to get people interested in an MC that they don't like at all.

You only need one early incident (in the first 15% of the story) of your MC actually performing an altruistic act to help somebody, even a stranger, to get the sympathy of the reader. You need to show they are at heart a good person, even if they are irritable or think the worst of many other people, when it comes down to it they have some sense of justice or charity or humanity.

When you do that, make this altruism cost him! Hours, irritation, slipping and falling in the damn mud, whatever. But he perseveres. Altruistic acts that cost nothing are not as endearing as persisting in your altruistic act despite experiencing costs, or persisting _knowing_ it will cost you.

Also, this act doesn't have to benefit a human. For example, it can be to free an animal that has been trapped somehow, tangled in some garbage a thoughtless person discarded in a field. Or a baby animal trapped in some mud. A painful altruistic act that nobody is going to know about (except the reader) is even more endearing.

Especially if somebody asks him and he doesn't brag on it. "What happened, Mike?" -- "What's it look like? I fell in the damn mud."

A working definition of "evil" in fiction is somebody willing to hurt innocent people for their own selfish gain, pleasure, or power (or out of selfishness is willing to allow them to be hurt). You need to show the reader your MC is NOT evil, but is actively good.

Otherwise, watching somebody we don't give a crap about running about doing things is _meh_. The MC can be an anti-hero, but anti-heroes are shown to have some redeeming quality in the story setup. The hitman hero has a puppy that loves him (John Wick).

Original score: 19