How Much Do You Like Her?

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: What do we do when times are tough and a job is difficult--but we need to celebrate?

We do it together! And that’s exactly what these four fabulous author friends (including our own dearest FOTR Liz Milliron/Mary Sutton) --and here they are:











--are doing with their brand new releases from Level Best Books!

And here THEY are!








And we are so thrilled to hear about them--and, for even more fun, they’ve all agreed to answer one important question. See what YOU think!


How Much Do You Like Her?

By Liz, C.L., Mally and Kerry

Thanks for hosting us at Jungle Reds! This is such a wonderful community and we’re happy to be here – and we’re having a blast celebrating our February books and exploring our theme: Truth and Lies.

While we all write slightly different stories, we all have female protagonists, as well as other female characters. As we brainstormed blog topics, one of us remarked how a reader said of a female character, “I don’t like her very much.”

It got us thinking about this idea of “likeability” and how so much more is expected of women (in fiction and in real life). Women are supposed to be soft and approachable. Editors and agents want “likeable” characters, especially women.

Some readers do as well.

Sometimes, as a writer, you feel a definite push to make your women less hard-edged, less pushy, less anything that might alienate a reader.

But is it true that an unlikeable character can’t succeed – or is that a lie?


Mally Becker: How likeable must female protagonists be?

Hold on while I spit nails, because this question makes me feel really, truly unlikeable.

Chapter One of my American Revolution mystery, The Turncoat’s Widow opens as Rebecca–Becca–Parcell is wrongly accused of betraying her husband to the British. Mortified and angry, she curses both the Americans and British for all the loss and distrust they have wrought.

“I don’t like her,” one agent said. Two others said the same thing.

After I got over wondering what had made me think I could write, I got angry. No one tells authors that their male protagonists need to be more likeable. (Double standard much?) Can’t a mystery heroine be a badass?

But I had a problem. On the one hand, I couldn’t ignore identical comments from publishing experts. On the other hand, I liked Becca just fine. I didn’t want to change her. So I packed away my manuscript for a while.

When I pulled it out again, I begrudgingly saw what I’d missed earlier. I’d left too much of what motivated Becca in my head and not on the page. I hadn’t explained well enough why she was angry, what she feared, and whom she loved.

That was a breakthrough. I wouldn’t aim to make my protagonist more likeable. What does “likeable” mean, anyway? Instead, I would try to make Becca more fully human with all the cross-currents of logic and emotion, longing and passion that move each of us.

Becca is still a badass. That hasn’t changed. But is she more likeable? That’s for readers to decide. All I know is that The Turncoat’s Widow, which Level Best Books published this month, is a better story now because Becca is a more complex and interesting character.

Liz Milliron: I’m less concerned with likeability than I am with being invested in a character. I don’t have to want to invite someone over for coffee or dinner to read the story. But there has to be a journey I’m interested in. Maybe the character is on a redemption arc. Maybe that arc fails. Maybe it succeeds. Or the character might be a good person who is doing horrible things for good reasons.

When I sat down to write Betty Ahern, I didn’t think about likeability too much. I wanted readers to be interested in her story and want to follow her. Betty is young, she only has a high-school education, and she comes from a working-class neighborhood. She’s not some society debutante – she can’t afford to be. That’s how I tried to write her. It took me by surprise when my editor said Betty had a hard edge that might be a turn-off for readers. But I wanted that edge. My editor and I went back and forth on it, and I think we came up with a picture that stayed true to who I believed Betty is without making her distasteful to be with.

I also think this question comes up way more for female characters. Why aren’t unlikeable men as much of a concern?

Kerry Peresta: A few years ago, when “Girl on the Train” and the TV series, “House,” ruined me forever, I decided I liked flawed protagonists much better than perfect ones. Or even good ones. I could not get enough of Hugh Laurie, who was the protagonist everyone loved to hate. And, I suspect, most people secretly loved, if the ratings were any indication. I was so sad when that show ended! But between those two characters, I was hooked. Flawed protagonists, likable or not, became my go-to.

My protagonists have the best of intentions. Honorable and righteous. Dependable and responsible in many ways. But they ultimately have a fatal flaw that inspires my plot arc, and creates a story that is, in my opinion, much more complex than if the character is too perfect or agreeable. I want my protagonists to have depth, and flaws drive that depth for me. I want them to do things that are unexpected and often shocking. The breakout novel, “Girl on the Train’ garnered mixed reviews. Some loved Rachel, the book’s protagonist, but many disliked her intensely. I mean, it was extreme! Not me, though. I adored her. She was someone pathetically flawed and deficient but somehow heroic. Perpetually hopeful. In short, someone I could relate to.

When I am crafting characters, even the outliers have a distinctive vice or struggle—trying to quit smoking, for instance, or perhaps recovering from a less-than-perfect upbringing. All things that my readers can relate to. Everyone, I’ve found, struggles with something. If a character has no struggles, I don’t personally perceive them as interesting.

In short, I don’t consider likability so much an issue as relatability and authenticity. I believe if we relate to and believe the protagonists we, as writers, create; then so will the reader.

C.L. Tolbert: My protagonist Emma Thornton, is female, and not only that, she’s an attorney. I hate to admit this, but attorneys are universally disliked, and I imagine the numbers are greater, if that’s possible, for female attorneys. So, Emma has two strikes against her. Emma is also a mother of two, who in the current book, is also a hard-working law school professor. She cares deeply about her children, her students, and her clients. She is in a relationship and cares about that as well. But few people can relate to a woman who, as an attorney, also solves murders. Flawed and reckless, she regularly makes mistakes, which is an off-shoot of her enthusiasm, and desire to solve the case. Yet I’ve been told that Emma’s determination, grit, and tenacity make readers care about her character, and that is what makes them want to keep reading.

In 2015, Forbes magazine noted that being “…genuine and honest is essential to being likable.” But it’s never been essential for a fictional character to be to be likeable, or even pleasant. But it is necessary for readers to care about the protagonist or they won’t continue to read the book. A protagonist with a short fuse, or an annoying manner is usually forgiven by the reader, especially in the midst of conflict. A weakness, a flaw, or even an eccentricity is often the element of a character’s personality which makes him or her more relatable.

Is it Sherlock Holmes’s skill on the violin that makes him relatable, or is it his drug addiction? Perhaps the addiction makes this brilliant, eccentric character, who otherwise seems impossibly inaccessible, vulnerable and more human. Poirot is vain and narcissistic. Both Holmes and Poirot are moody and lonely. Is it the loneliness we sense in these two men that, in addition to their brilliant crime-solving brains, keep us coming back for more?

A flawed character is more relatable, more interesting, and more sympathetic than one who is merely likeable. What seems to matter more than likability is what makes the reader care about the protagonist, and keep turning the page.

Readers, how important is it that you “like” a character? And do you think likeability is more of an issue for female characters than male?

HANK: Oooh! Good question! What do you think, Reds and readers?

********




Mally Becker became fascinated with the American Revolution when she peeked into the past as a volunteer at the Morristown National Historical Park, where George Washington and the Continental army spent two winters. A former attorney, advocate for foster children, and freelance writer, Becker and her husband live in Warren, NJ, where they raised their son. The Turncoat’s Widow, featuring Becca Parcell, is her first novel.



Liz Milliron is the author of The Laurel Highlands Mysteries series, set in the scenic Laurel Highlands of Southwestern Pennsylvania, and The Homefront Mysteries, set in Buffalo, NY during the early years of World War II. She is a member of Sisters in Crime, Pennwriters, and International Thriller Writers. A recent empty-nester, Liz lives outside Pittsburgh with her husband and a retired-racer greyhound.



Kerry Peresta’s publishing credits include a popular newspaper and e-zine humor column, “The Lighter Side,” (2009—2011); The Hunting, women’s fiction/suspense, Pen-L Publishing, 2013; and The Deadening, Book One in the Olivia Callahan Suspense Series. Recently, she worked as editor and contributor for Island Communications, a local publishing house. Her magazine articles have been published in Local Life Magazine, The Bluffton Breeze, Lady Lowcountry, and Island Events Magazine. Before starting to write full time, she spent twenty-five years in advertising as an account manager, creative director, and copywriter. She is past chapter president of the Maryland Writers’ Association and a current member and presenter of Hilton Head Island Writers’ Network, and the Sisters in Crime organization. Kerry is the mother of four adult children. She and her husband moved to Hilton Head Island, SC in 2015.



Cynthia Tolbert is the author of the Thornton Mystery series. In 2010, she won the Georgia Bar Journal’s fiction contest for the short story version of Out From Silence. Cynthia developed that story into the first full-length novel of the Thornton Mystery Series, which was published by Level Best Books in December of 2019. Her second book in this same series, entitled The Redemption, which is set in New Orleans, will be released in February of 2021. Cynthia has a Master’s in Special Education and taught children with learning disabilities before moving on to law school. She spent most of her legal career working as defense counsel to large corporations and traveled throughout the country as regional and national counsel. She has four children, and three grandchildren, and lives in Atlanta with her husband and schnauzer.