: Re: Sympathy for a villain I have a villain. The villain is the hero of their own story. The villain starts off as good, looking to overthrow a monstrous leader. They were once in the same shoes

In Writing Screenplays that Sell, Michael Hauge lists these methods for creating empathy with a character, and I believe they work the same for heros and nemeses:

By creating sympathy - by making the character a victim of undeserved misfortune.

By putting the character in jeopardy - which doesn't have to be life threatening. It could be about the danger of exposure, embarrrasment, loss of a job...

By making the character likeable -

showing them as good hearted and generous (this particularly relates well to your question - he cites Tom Hanks in Road to Perdition being a mobster and hired, killer, but he is first introduced as caring family man - gaining the audience's empathy)
showing them as well liked by other characters
Make them funny - there are some really reprehensible characters out there that we still like because they make us laugh

By making them highly skilled - we are drawn to people who are talented

By showing them in touch with their own power - closely related to skill. Powerful characters fascinate and attract readers

By giving them flaws and foibles - we all walk into walls from time to time, so seeing a character do the same increases identification.

Hopefully there's something in there you can use!

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: Re: Sympathy for a villain I have a villain. The villain is the hero of their own story. The villain starts off as good, looking to overthrow a monstrous leader. They were once in the same shoes

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: Is it okay for the final chapter to be a lot longer than all the other chapters? In one of my novels (it's a middle grade fantasy novel) the chapters average around 2,000 words. But the

: I'm afraid of quashing the hopes of a new writer I recently agreed to read a new writer's novel and provide feedback. During casual discussion, I learned her mindset is currently in a state

: Should I give out specific information about agent interest to other agents? I've edited the question for clarity following some unexpected comments in the first answer. I submitted my latest

: When a story is longer than a book, is it best to wait until the entire story is done before completing the first book in the story? I have been working on a story for several years. The

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