2.2 Gordon Brown
Gordon Brown also acknowledges the importance of likeability.
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Transcript
GORDON BROWN
I would say a completely unlikable character doesn’t really work in a book, unless there’s some rogue element that’s just in there because you need them for a moment. Readers often say that if they don’t like a character, they can buy a book or they won’t like a book. I’m not always sure it’s likeability. I would say in some cases it’s whether they can relate to the characters more important. But I might be wrong.
If you mean do I rationalise the behaviour in my books, and as much as it gives justifications for the baddies’ actions, then the answer is yes. That’s not to say that a rational random violence, or bullying, or cheating, or any of that might not play a part once in a while. But as I said earlier, if the reader doesn’t approve or understand of what’s being done by the baddie, then they will just buy out of it. Even if the reasons are warped, as long as they understand, I often talk about the handbrake moment when I’m writing a book.
That’s the bit, when you’re reading a book, you get to a certain passage, the character does or says something, or there’s something in the book that just makes you go, really. And you buy out of the book. And you want to avoid that like the plague. And one of the ways that can happen is if you insert irrational behaviour that the reader just doesn’t buy into.
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In describing the role of likeability for a fictional character, Gordon covers similar factors that govern whether we like a real person, including that we might be able to continue a friendship with someone who did something ‘bad’ as long as we are able to understand the rational for that behaviour and can justify it to ourselves. He notes that readers may decide to stop reading if something happens that makes them go ‘really?’, and it is easy to imagine that ‘handbrake’ moment happening in a real relationship too.