Character Sympathy - Lessons from Mad Max Part 2

As promised a few posts ago, I'm going to get back to talking one of my new favorite movies: Mad Max: Fury Road. This time, particularly I want to talk about building character sympathy. As promised, this time we'll start to think about how to do these things in your own manuscript.

Max Rockatansky

Max is probably the most straightforward of the characters as for sympathy. He's the title character, after all. Even if you haven't seen the previous movies, the monologue in the beginning establishes him as the loner who's just been attempting to survive for a while now. After his two failed escape attempts it's not hard to see why he wouldn't trust anyone. So even though he acts like a rabid animal for the first half of the film, you keep wanting to follow along if just to see how he gets out of his troubles.

Imperator Furiosa

Furiosa is established as a bad ass from the second she struts her way onto the screen. She commands her own war rig and the missing arm seems to be a testament of just how hard won it was. The trouble is, she's supposedly one of the tools of the villain of the story. But it's obvious from the very beginning that she isn't a true believer like the war boys she's hauling. She doesn't react to Immortan Joe's with the religious fervor of pretty much everyone else and seems more anxious to just have it over with. Later when the war rig is attacked for the first time, she proves that it's not an accident that she's in charge. And finally, she's caring for someone other than herself. Her manner may be gruff and fitting the horrors she's been through but she is taking care of someone who's weaker than her. Several someones.

War boy Nux

Nux, even more than Furiosa, is supposed to be a villain, or at the very least a minion of evil. From the beginning he's presented as someone who is deeply into the Immortan Joe religion. He's anxious to give his life in service of Immortan Joe's world domination. In other words he's the very epitome of a cultish suicide bomber. And yet... when he is presented as probably dying in the sandstorm, you kind of feel bad for him. You feel even worse when he's lying unconscious and Max attempts to free himself by blowing Nux's arm away. This is mostly because Nux is presented as an underdog from the very beginning. Before Furiosa leaves for her - shall we say - unsanctioned outing, Nux is more or less dead which is why he needs Max as a blood bag. "High octane crazy blood". Despite being nearly dead, he successfully fights off Slit to make sure he is the only one who drives his car on the Fury Road. Throughout the first chase scene he's almost like a puppy; so anxious and excited to please his master.

How to do it

1. Make them an underdog
   This is a really popular one, mostly because it tends to work pretty easily. If they're good at what they do, have them face an overwhelming force, such as in Max's first flight. He gets swarmed by war boys who seem to have an unlimited supply of guzzoline, overwhelming numbers and explosive weaponry. No matter how good he is at what he does, there is absolutely no way he's getting out of that situation. That doesn't stop him from trying. It's the Indy rule all over again. In the beginning of Raiders of the Lost Ark Indiana Jones faces numerous obstacles to get the object of his desire which he loses in the end because he gets surrounded by overwhelming numbers.
    
2. Make them really, really good at what they do
   Think about Furiosa hanging out of her cab to shoot the pursuing scavengers. She barely has time to sight them before she needs to be back in her cab to drive the rig and still she manages to blow the pursuing buggy out of the road. She keeps her cool even when her second in command is trying to strangle her and manages to get out of the situation. Make your character competent. Make her face hardship and get through to the other side. Loss and injury are okay but they need to come out of it victorious.
    
3. Make them a rebel
   In the Western societies we seem to have a natural tendency to root for the people who fight the power, so to speak. Furiosa's eye roll at Immortan Joe's speech marks her as a rebel even before she takes the detour. It's the whole Cool Hand Luke thing. Here's this stranger who comes to town and starts stirring trouble and yet we like him instantly for it. It makes no logical sense since human societies thrive on stability and rebels make stability harder but there you are. Maybe it's our inner teenager reminding us what it was like to be young and stupid.
    
4. Give them someone/something to care for
   This is another of those easy ones. You give a character a kid or a dog, something or someone weaker than him to care for and to protect, instant sympathy. See for example Tom Cruise in War of the World. The guy's a douchy loser but even though we don't really care about him per se, we want him to get to his target in tact because of the kids he's trying to get to their mother. The Wives are considered grown-ups but they've led such a sheltered, captive life that despite being, at least technically, adults they're in a much weaker position than pretty much anyone else out in the desert. Therefore everyone and anyone who protects them is automatically more sympathetic than everyone else around.
    

Homework time!

So, homework! You knew this was coming, didn't you? Write a page or less (maximum 300 words) introducing a character for each of the sympathy-inducing writer tricks.

Writing women

This is something of a pet peeve of mine; female characters in genre. It seems to be a great mystery for quite a few people just where these "strong female characters come from. At least Joss Whedon gets asked that question over and over. I've heard the same complaint from many other creators as well.

Lately there's been a lot of talk lately surrounding the trope of strong female character, mostly along the lines of how faulty the premise is. I think it may have started with The Trinity Syndrome. Actually, no. It goes a lot further back than that. There are Damsels in Distress and Women in Refrigerators hidden all through our modern mythology. That is when the fiction deigns to admit that women exist at all. Yes, I'm looking at you Tolkien.

Well, for one, dear author reading this; you should. There is a huge, untapped marketshare in women of the world and every one of us should be taking note. The romance genre for example, whose readers are almost solely women, raked in just over $1 billion in 2013. It may be that women just naturally like romance more, but somehow I doubt it. I don't think that's the whole truth anyway.

I have a theory about this; I think part of why we read fiction is to find ourselves in other people. Sure, there is an element of escape there, and stress relief and excitement (David Farland also has theories about this which he discusses at length in Million Dollar Outlines). But I also think that we are always looking for human connection and that doesn't change when we turn to fiction. And I think that a lot of especially speculative fiction is either knowingly or unknowingly trying to turn women away from it.

Here's what you do: write humans. Have your women want something. And that something can not be your male protagonist. If you have a love interest for example, be sure you know what they want. Have them pursue it even if it may come at the cost of the relationship. Let them be heroic. I know that the instinct is to come up with ways to put the loved one in danger but you should try to at least curb that urge. Let your female characters fight for good alongside your hero if that's what they want. And for goodness' sake, let them talk to each other.

Endeavor to make about half your characters female because, after all, about half of the world's population is female. And if you don't, at least have a reason for it and realize that your lack of women will have consequences to your characters. You will have swaths of men who will never be able to have a family. Historically, that kind of situation has lead to unrest and wars. And while it might be interesting to write an epic fantasy exploring the social ramifications of the scarcity of women so common to the genre (oo that does sound interesting, memo to me, write this story), that might not be what you're looking for.

That witness your character is interviewing, is there any reason they need to be male? Or the traffic cop who pulls your MC over? Women have been a part of all wars and revolutions throughout history. As spies, warriors, leaders and all sorts of other roles often considered to be less important. Pirates, smiths, kings, gods, there are very few roles that women historically have not occupied. I hear that argument a lot so allow me to reiterate: by removing women from your narrative of epic fantasy, you are not making your world more real, but less so.

For that matter, let's talk about monsters. This is something I think the Alien series got really right: the eponymous alien is female. If there is only one of whatever species of monster you've come up with, that one had better be female or intersex. Because while, to quote Granny Weatherwax one of anything is no good, the basis of the species seems to most likely be in the female of the species. There are, for example species of lizards that are only ever female. See for example whiptail lizards. I at least have never heard of a species of males reproducing through parthenogenesis in reality, yet we do it all the time in fiction.

I know there is a great urge to follow the narrative we've been reading all our lives. Believe me, I keep falling for the same narrative over and over. But here's the thing; we can all write much more realistic and interesting narratives if we push past the lazy options and search for the hidden gem inside.

Dialog Checklist

Dialog is one of the best ways to bring your characters to life. A sharp line of dialog can tell you more about a character than an entire paragraph of description. I've compiled a list of some of the good and bad ways to approach dialog. There are exceptions to everything, of course, but I find that these are pretty good rules of thumb.

GOOD:

• Dialog Steeped in the Character's Voice - An expert is going to use the vernacular of their field. A street urchin is not going to use erudite vocabulary.

• Altering Characters' Speech Depending on Who's in the Room – Most characters will speak differently to their boss than they would with their buddies at the bar. If they're irreverent with both you need to consider what the consequences of that are.

• Brevity.

• Wit - But make sure it's truly witty and suited to the character. If your beta readers don't chuckle, or worse, if they groan when they get to that bit– it's not witty.

• Differing Character Voices – The words should let you know who's speaking before you get to the dialog tag.

• Dialog Tags – As many as necessary, as few as you can get away with.

• Interspersing Actions Within a Conversation – Use to show character mood or attitude and for pacing. You can also use this to reduce the need for dialog tags.

BAD:

• "As you know, Bob…" – This is a bad way to get an explanation into your story. Never have one character explain something to someone that should already know the information. Use a foil or put it in your exposition.

• "Said Bookisms" – I'm not as against these as some people, but use sparingly. 'He whispered', or 'she yelled' can be effective and unobtrusive alternates to 'said' and 'asked'. But don't have your characters spouting, snarling, screaming, moaning, and ejaculating all over the place.

• Boring Introductions – When someone is introduced to a group don't bother with, "Hi, nice to meet you." Put it in the exposition. Susie was introduced to everyone in the board room. However, if there's something important about the way two characters meet, by all means show the introduction. A good case for this would be instant attraction or animosity. Leading off with a charming smile or a killer grip to show dominance can be very telling about the characters.

• Using a Class Lecture to Present World Building – A sentence, or two, maybe, if it makes sense for the character to be in that class and if something else is going on in the scene. But don't use a history class as an excuse to info dump your extensive world building onto the reader.

• Inappropriate Colloquialisms – Make sure your turns of phrase are appropriate to the time and place of your story. A medieval peasant would not use the phrase, 'totally awesome' or 'crackalackin', and really, neither would a human five hundred years from now on another planet.

Did I miss something? Feel free to add your thoughts in the comments.