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How to Create a Bond between the Main Character and the Reader

The main character can be fascinating without really connecting with readers on a deep level. You can have a superhero with incredible abilities, a worthy supervillain, intriguing fights and battles and a beautiful finish. Yet your superhero character doesn't feel real to your readers, and that can be a serious problem. To fix this problem, you need to make your characters relatable, giving them rough living conditions, making them endearing and exposing their inner thoughts.

Make Them Human

For readers to connect with your lead character, they need to identify with them. Readers need to see themselves in your main character and imagine that in the same situation as your lead, they would do the same thing. To achieve this, you need to portray the protagonist as a human being, not a superhuman who looks larger than life. They need to possess flaws that are common to humans. Everyone knows what it is like to struggle to make it in life, to have fears sometimes, and to see good intentions result in terrible mistakes. Including some of these qualities in your lead would make your readers see him as a real person. Even Indiana Jones is arachnophobic, and kryptonite weakens Superman. So, your lead character should also have flaws and weaknesses.

Give Them Bad Luck

Another way to make readers connect with your lead character is by making them feel sorry for him. Sympathy creates a connection on a deeper level. Here, readers see your character in a terrible situation, trying to make the most of it, but no matter how hard he tries, things just keep getting worse. Or your lead character is an underdog with an opponent that is much bigger and better. Everyone loves an underdog story. That is why Cinderella is so magical, an orphan with an evil stepmother, turned princess. Also, Where The Crawdads Sing presents a poor outcast, abandoned by her family and ostracized by her community, whose only company was the creatures in the marsh. So when she deals with loneliness and makes something of herself, we can't help but follow her through her journey and root for her.

Make them Endearing

A third way to create a bond between readers and lead characters is by making them appealing. There are qualities that we can't help but admire. We admire bravery, kindness, humor, generosity and selflessness. So, let your lead possess one more of these qualities. You can make your lead a character who looks out for others and goes out of her way to ensure they are well taken care of. This is what makes Nina Riva a remarkable character in Malibu Rising. She is selfless to a fault, looking out for even those she just met, and we can't help but fall in love with her personality. Even despicable antiheroes need something about them that readers can admire. For Scarlett O' Hara, she could manoeuvre obstacles on her way, and that was impressive.

Expose their Inner Thoughts

Stream of consciousness is a very essential tool in fiction because it lets readers into the mind of characters to see their thought process, worldview, and the internal conflicts that plague their actions and decisions. Making readers aware of who your lead character is on the inside is a sure way to create a strong bond between them and your lead. Expose the fears and doubts of your main character. Even the most optimistic of them should have a moment of second-guessing and despair.

Written by Readers’ Favorite Reviewer Frank Stephen