The Fastest Way to Make a Character Sympathetic

In the writing community, much has been said about how to make a character likable and/or sympathetic. And I've written ways to do that myself, but there is one technique I've found that is one of the most impactful (in my opinion, anyway), and can often be quick.

Many writers remark that we need to put the character in unfortunate circumstances, so the audience will readily root for him. Others say that it helps if he is kind to people. And having a character be self-aware of his own weaknesses can be useful as well.

One of the most popular techniques is "pet the dog," which is also known as "save the cat." You have the character pet a dog, or save a cat, or something of the equivalent. It could be giving the homeless food or walking a neighborhood kid home from school.

If you want to make the audience dislike and be unsympathetic to the character, you use "kick the dog" or "kill the cat." You have the character hurt someone who doesn't deserve it. It could be a homeless person. Or it could be a child. Or something else.

My technique is a mash-up of the two, believe it or not. I call it, "feeding the dog, poison."

I know, it doesn't sound very sympathetic, so let me explain how it works.

It's this: The character does something with good intentions, but gets a costly negative result.

It can be surprisingly effective.

The example: The character feeds a starving dog, only to realize after that the food is poisoned. The dog gets sick, or dies.

It's tragic, and we feel it.

It's hard not to sympathize (or even empathize) with someone who acts with good intentions, only to do more harm than good.

Other examples would be:

- Completing a quest for much-needed medicine, only to then discover the person is severely allergic to the medicine.

- Finally finishing a difficult task for the mentor, only for that mentor to tell the character that he did it incorrectly and has alerted their enemies to their location in the process.

- Working long hours to save up for a gift to give to a special loved one, only to give it and have it trigger a traumatic episode; the recipient destroys the expensive gift.

- Walking a small child to a relative's house after school, only for the character to later realize she dropped the child off at the wrong house--a stranger's house.

- Removing an arrow from someone injured, only to realize the arrow should have been left in place, because now the victim may bleed out.

- Feeding a horse an onion as a treat, but learning that onions are toxic to them (similar to the dog example).

- Putting in great efforts to save a beloved cat, but accidentally killing it in the process.

In order to make this work best, the character shouldn't come off as stupid and too incompetent (I mean, unless that's the point you are trying to make). The negative reality should be justifiably unforeseen. The character had good, sound intentions, but it blew up in his face. He really wanted to help a starving dog; he had no idea the food would leave it in worse health. He may have made assumptions that turned out to be untrue.

Tone is also helpful in nailing the right impact.

You can create a similar effect by aiming the negative consequences right at the character himself:

- Feeding a starving dog, which then bites him.

- Saving a cat, that scratches up the character's hands and face.

- Walking a small child to a relative's after school, only for the character to be beaten by his own mother since he came home late.

- Finally completing a difficult task for the mentor, only for that mentor to say she had already completed it, and what he did was a waste of time and resources (and so he is punished for it).

- Going on a quest for much-needed medicine for someone, only to come back more sick than the person who needed the medicine.

All of these scenarios are ultimately more interesting than simply "petting the dog" or "saving the cat."

So personally, I feel like one of the best ways to make a character sympathetic, is to show him implementing a choice with good intentions, and then having it lead to terrible, costly consequences.