POV & Sympathy
Jan. 26th, 2011 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kateelliottAs a reader, I often (although not always) tend to gravitate to fiction in which I feel some sort of sympathy or compassion or resonance with the point of view character(s). That is, either I like them and therefore feel a need to know what happens to them, or at the very least I feel a sense of engagement with them such that I want to know what happens to them.
On the whole, I tend to prefer to like at least some of the characters in a novel; if I don't, it can become difficult for me to push on. I have, in rare cases, simply stopped reading a novel because I felt no affinity or actual dislike for the protagonist even if other elements of the novel--writing, setting, pacing--were perfectly fine.
One advantage in using multiple character points of view in a novel or series is that the writer can deploy a variety of character types (depending on how many point of view characters you are willing to juggle), some of whom can be sympathetic and some less so.
In addition, I always remember that a character I love may be one some readers will feel indifferent toward or actively dislike. For instance, I received email from a reader who talked a bit about the different pov characters in the Crossroads Trilogy and the ones he felt most connected to. Mai was not one of those; and yet other readers have specifically singled out Mai as the character they felt most connected to. One reader found Cat, the protagonist of Cold Magic, to be bland, while others wrote about how engaging she was.
I expect every writer here has had the experience of a being told by one reader that X is their fave character while Y is disagreeable, while another reader has the opposite opinion.
We will not all like or identify with the same experiences, traits, and personalities.
So I wanted to ask you all, as readers and writers:
How important is it to you (in either or both capacities--that is, speaking as a reader, or speaking as a writer) that point of view characters be sympathetic? How would you define sympathetic?
On the whole, I tend to prefer to like at least some of the characters in a novel; if I don't, it can become difficult for me to push on. I have, in rare cases, simply stopped reading a novel because I felt no affinity or actual dislike for the protagonist even if other elements of the novel--writing, setting, pacing--were perfectly fine.
One advantage in using multiple character points of view in a novel or series is that the writer can deploy a variety of character types (depending on how many point of view characters you are willing to juggle), some of whom can be sympathetic and some less so.
In addition, I always remember that a character I love may be one some readers will feel indifferent toward or actively dislike. For instance, I received email from a reader who talked a bit about the different pov characters in the Crossroads Trilogy and the ones he felt most connected to. Mai was not one of those; and yet other readers have specifically singled out Mai as the character they felt most connected to. One reader found Cat, the protagonist of Cold Magic, to be bland, while others wrote about how engaging she was.
I expect every writer here has had the experience of a being told by one reader that X is their fave character while Y is disagreeable, while another reader has the opposite opinion.
We will not all like or identify with the same experiences, traits, and personalities.
So I wanted to ask you all, as readers and writers:
How important is it to you (in either or both capacities--that is, speaking as a reader, or speaking as a writer) that point of view characters be sympathetic? How would you define sympathetic?