T Campbell's Blog
Writer of Penny and Aggie, Fans (also called Faans), Rip & Teri, Search Engine Funnies and A History of Webcomics. Experienced webcomics editor, currently seeking full-time work and working on strange and interesting new things...Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Writing Tip From An Animator...
This post gave me some important insight about One Five and my past work in general. I enjoy exploring a lot of characters who do unlikable things and questionable things, and I think at times I may have asked a bit too much compassion for them from my readers. Establishing your leads as likable at the beginning... simple tip, but a lot of people miss it. Good one, Jenny.
Comments:
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I don't think her point was to "make characters likable at the beginning". I think it was that characters should not be flatly unlikable (except at the end, when they are "redeemed"). She spends much of her article stressing that characters with unlikable traits are made likable by being realistic and possessing multiple sides.
Nicolas
Nicolas
Hey! Look at this--you flatter me--thanks for posting that. : )
You're both right--Nicolas and T.(in my opinion, anyway); the character shouldn't be unsympathetic in the beginning--which again in my opinion makes him or her unlikable....now, it's also true to "never say never"--and that means that every rule can be broken--and it can! But boy, it's sooo tricky and makes very hard work to keep or establish audience interest in your lead guy if he starts out with no redeeming qualities.
The biggest probalem overall on that project I was writing about(which should remain nameless)was an overall total lack of depth for ANY of the characters, esp. the main one; it was just a shallow, shallow character with these overly obvious "moral lessons" being foisted on the story(ugh). And they just went for the most obvious "problems" for this little guy that didn't make him complicated, just obnoxious. Believe me, you didn't like him, didn't care about him after 5 minutes. But once you've made us connect with him, man, you can get away with murder--as some characters in fact do, in films; yet the audience roots for them! Hitchcock loved doing this once in a while, just to be naughty. ; )
Thanks again for reading and sharing! That's what it's all about.
-Jenny
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You're both right--Nicolas and T.(in my opinion, anyway); the character shouldn't be unsympathetic in the beginning--which again in my opinion makes him or her unlikable....now, it's also true to "never say never"--and that means that every rule can be broken--and it can! But boy, it's sooo tricky and makes very hard work to keep or establish audience interest in your lead guy if he starts out with no redeeming qualities.
The biggest probalem overall on that project I was writing about(which should remain nameless)was an overall total lack of depth for ANY of the characters, esp. the main one; it was just a shallow, shallow character with these overly obvious "moral lessons" being foisted on the story(ugh). And they just went for the most obvious "problems" for this little guy that didn't make him complicated, just obnoxious. Believe me, you didn't like him, didn't care about him after 5 minutes. But once you've made us connect with him, man, you can get away with murder--as some characters in fact do, in films; yet the audience roots for them! Hitchcock loved doing this once in a while, just to be naughty. ; )
Thanks again for reading and sharing! That's what it's all about.
-Jenny
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