: Re: How do you make a story succeed in spite of an unsympathetic main character? I'm looking for techniques specific to a story with an unsympathetic main character. Confederacy of Dunces, for example.

@Radia543

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I haven't read Confederacy of Dunces, but I think in general, it's not as important that your main character be sympathetic as that s/he be compelling. I can read a book about reprehensible characters and love it as long as I'm intrigued by the main character: Hannibal Lecter (Silence of the Lambs, etc.) is super-intelligent and creepily charming; Patrick Bateman (American Pyscho) is, well psycho, but also clever and just intriguing; Macbeth could have been so much more, etc. As long as they hold my INTEREST, they don't have to hold my affection.

Like any character, you need to be sure than an unsympathetic character isn't flat, and isn't a cliche. Can you introduce an element of humour, so that the character is wryly aware of his/her own shortcomings? Or can you show the character growing and changing through the story? It doesn't have to be a complete about-face, but just a little improvement can go a long way. Or could you give us enough background on the character so that we understand the nastiness, and manage to care about him/her anyway?

I think one important aspect of writing with unsympathetic characters is making it clear that the author KNOWS the character is unsympathetic. Nothing makes me throw a book across the room faster than finding a character that I can't stand but that the author seems to think is great. (I'm thinking of some of the alpha males in some romance novels, for example - if I'm yelling, "that's rape, you jackass!", the author shouldn't be going on about the character being a dashing rogue.)

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