: Re: Early investment in a character who "learns better" I'm looking for ways to build early reader investment in an unlikable character who "learns better," but not until fairly late in the book.

@Smith147

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As it happens, I'm also writing a middle-grade novel with an unlikeable character. He's not the main character but he's one of the secondary ones. He has a full arc where he changes and so far two chapters are 3rd person from his point of view (in his head). He's a bully and somewhat racist and a total jerk. Now he's stuck in a situation with a bunch of people who can't stand him.

Nobody thinks "I'm a racist jerk who likes to commit assault." Those are words other people use. They think "that person got me so mad I had no choice." Or they single out the one person not like them who does something wrong and overgeneralize.

There are ways to describe what he is thinking or doing where the reader can see the logical flaws. For example, if he hits someone there will be a reason (there's always a reason) but it's something so stupid that your reader will know that you the author aren't saying it's okay.

Even racists will interact with the people they are prejudiced against. That varies some, as a lot of racism and similar bigotry is against people the racist has perhaps never met (look at the animosity against Muslims and Arabs). If he is racist against, say Latinos/Latinas, for example, show him interacting matter of factly with classmates whose parents immigrated from Mexico or a storekeeper from the Dominican Republic...the way that most anyone would.

Racism has no logic and racists pretty much always handwave and create some exceptions for people they like or have to interact with. A real life example is the bully I was in high school classes with, the one who had a swastika at his desk (we had permanent cubicles), bragged about his dad having been in the Nazi armed forces, and put down me and the other Jews every chance he got. His best friend was, surprise, an Orthodox Jew (who was equally a jerk but not anti-Semitic).

Jerks don't recognize these things as unlogical or problematic. They don't see how having Hispanic friends and hating Hispanics is a contradiction. They think everyone will hurt someone else if they are pushed too far and are brave enough. In their inner dialogue, they'll state the facts as if it was normal. But the reader will notice.

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