: Re: Can a likeable character be unsympathetic? I believe an unlikable character can be sympathetic, although that's tricky. But can you go the other way? Can your character be likable but at the

You have two items to consider: what makes a person likable, and why you would sympathize with someone.

Why you find a person appealing is a matter of taste. But when you sympathize with someone, you are identifying with him or her; you are saying "yes, I could see myself in his/her shoes; I might have done what s/he did."

There are a number of scenarios I can think of where someone you like has made crappy choices which you wouldn't have made. Think of "tough love" situations, or "you've made your bed; now lie in it."

An intelligent, well-spoken addict who ends up in jail (current fictional example: Gregory
House, MD in Season 8 of House)
An alcoholic co-worker who loses his license after too many
DUIs
The pretty, popular high school girl who ends up pregnant and drops
out of school to have the baby, and then complains because she has no
more social life
Your best friend dates a jerk, and no matter how you tell him the guy
is bad for him, he insists the guy really loves him... until he finds
out his boyfriend cheated on him. Then he spends the next six months
crying on your shoulder, wondering "what did I do wrong?" and saying
how lonely he is

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: If your essay is analytical (and I'm struggling to think of any other reason you'd write an essay about The Great Gatsby) then I'd put it in the present tense. Gatsby loves Daisy, but

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: How to determine rates to charge as a freelance writer While I have a few articles published, they were easy fixed rates. Today, however, I've received this email (identifying details removed):

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: What's "fair use" for borrowing someone else's invented term? Let's say I'm writing a sci-fi novel. I want to use a word which another writer has coined, which has become well-recognized outside

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: "Streamlined and useful"? Which means punctuation is useless clutter? Ask the legendary guy whose life was saved by Czarina Maria Fyodorovna's misplaced comma. ("Pardon impossible, to be sent

: Re: Can a likeable character be unsympathetic? I believe an unlikable character can be sympathetic, although that's tricky. But can you go the other way? Can your character be likable but at the

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: If your essay is analytical (and I'm struggling to think of any other reason you'd write an essay about The Great Gatsby) then I'd put it in the present tense. Gatsby loves Daisy, but

: How to determine rates to charge as a freelance writer While I have a few articles published, they were easy fixed rates. Today, however, I've received this email (identifying details removed):

: What's "fair use" for borrowing someone else's invented term? Let's say I'm writing a sci-fi novel. I want to use a word which another writer has coined, which has become well-recognized outside

: "Streamlined and useful"? Which means punctuation is useless clutter? Ask the legendary guy whose life was saved by Czarina Maria Fyodorovna's misplaced comma. ("Pardon impossible, to be sent

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