: You say it yourself: I feel that he's nothing more than a soulless archetype A soulless archetype is not going to be likeable, whether they are a positive or a negative archetype. So

You say it yourself:

I feel that he's nothing more than a soulless archetype

A soulless archetype is not going to be likeable, whether they are a positive or a negative archetype. So how do you give your character a soul?

What does your MC care about? You say "himself", but what does it mean? What is it that he enjoys? Does he have any interests? Hobbies?
How does your MC feel about himself? How does he feel about the world? Disappointment? Anger? Frustration? Acceptance? How does he feel about more idealistic people?
What are his wishes for the future? More of the same, or a change? What are his expectations for the future, and how do they correlate to his wishes?
What are the things the character wouldn't stoop to? Does he accept others doing that thing, or is it a complete dealbreaker?
Given an opportunity to do something good / something bad at no cost or very little cost to himself, would the character do it?
Are there any actions taken or not taken that the character regrets? Any doubts regarding doing or not doing something in the future?

Get to know your character intimately - their internal conflicts, fears, aspirations, know them better than they know themselves. Then see how you can show those facets of him in your writing.

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: You say it yourself: I feel that he's nothing more than a soulless archetype A soulless archetype is not going to be likeable, whether they are a positive or a negative archetype. So

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: Colloquial speech in pre-modern setting Following this question, I'm struggling with writing the speech of pre-modern (in my case - 5th century) noble-born children among themselves. Characters who

: "Too modern" words In a story set in a fantasy version of 5th century Persia, I've been told by a beta reader that a boy wouldn't call his father "dad", (would use "father" instead), wouldn't

: How to improve a scene where the drama is one-sided and not with the POV character? I have a scene I struggle with: it has potential for inherent drama, but it reads as an info dump. In

: How to stop rushing writing I get caught up a lot in what I'm writing and I'm interested in writing a particular scene, but the scene might be chapters away. I don't like writing it before

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