What makes a character relatable?

Introducing the Book Discussions Series!

Hi everyone! Welcome back to Journeying with Jandalf the Green (that's me).

And welcome to a new series that I'm starting today, or a new type of video that I'm starting today, which I've mentioned before on my Substack that I have been excited to start, and today I'm actually launching it. And this new series or type of video is all about book discussions.

So, since this is the first video, I wanted to start by kind of explaining what I'm doing with this series, why I'm doing it, and what the point of it is, and what type of series it actually is.

Backstory

This kind of started a couple of years ago with a school assignment for my writing school, the Author Conservatory, where I basically gave myself more schoolwork by saying, “I think this assignment would be helpful.” So it was a school assignment, but I kind of asked to do it as a school assignment, and now all the students have to do it, so apologies to them, I guess. It got made into an official assignment that is now much improved from the way that I did it.

But I basically just talked to readers about what they want to see in fantasy books. I just said, “Hey, this is the genre that I'm writing in, and I would love to hear from you about what you actually want to see in that genre as a reader,” because as writers it can be very easy for us to get caught up in our own heads and our own echo chamber and our own writer lingo, and we get a little disconnected from what readers actually want to read in books.

So I talked to 11 readers two years ago. If you were one of those 11 readers, thank you so much, because it has been really, really helpful. I have gone back to those conversations so many times and revisited what we talked about, and it has been extremely helpful.

And now that it's been a couple of years, I thought it would be helpful to expand that conversation to the rest of you and to let you guys in on that and let you share your thoughts also.

One reason for that is, you know, I would like to hear more about what you fantasy readers want in books. As a writer, that is helpful for me. But rather than just being about helpful for me, I also thought that it would just be fun for all of us to have these conversations.

The other piece of background is that on my email list, I've sent out a couple of emails over the past few months to start book discussions, discussions about specifically how you guys think and feel about more traditional styles of storytelling, like “the heroes are actually good and the villains are actually bad,” rather than “we're subverting everything.” We had some really good conversations about that.

And then secondly, zeroing in on heroic characters and what you guys think about heroic characters, what makes a character heroic, how can a character be both relatable and heroic. So we also had a really good conversation about that. And you guys blew me away with your replies, and I was getting sent like a dozen long essays in response to these emails, and I was like, “Wow, okay, this is something that I suppose you guys enjoy talking about and thinking about,” because the response to those was so enthusiastic.

So again, the idea with this series is to expand that to a wider group of people, and the video format, I hope, will be fun and engaging for that. And now that I'm bringing this conversation to YouTube/Substack, there are comments, so it's not just one-on-one conversations between me and a reader, but this allows you guys to actually talk with each other. As long as you're kind and respectful, and we definitely don't want arguing in the comments or people telling each other that you shouldn't want to read that type of book, that's not what this is about. The idea is more that those who are looking for similar books can find each other.

And maybe if you see someone in the comments saying, “I really wish I could find this type of book,” and you know of a book like that, reply to that comment and be like, “Hey, I have a recommendation for you. Have you heard of this book? Have you heard of this author or this series?” And I may do that as well, go through the comments and be like, “Hey, I know of this book that has some of the elements that you're looking for.” And hopefully we can help each other find really good reads that fit with what we are most looking for in books.

Because, I mean, I spend a lot of time looking at books and finding out about new books. It's kind of part of my job. And I still have a really hard time finding five-star reads that are everything that I'm looking for in a book. So I think it'd be really cool if we helped each other find more books that are what we're looking for because sometimes even with the millions of books that come out every day, it can still be really challenging to find what you are looking for in a fantasy book.

So those are some of the reasons that I thought I would give this series a try and see what you guys think. See if it's something that you like and something that you want to do more of.

And I think it would be really cool for more readers to communicate with more authors about what they want to see in books. And maybe if this series helps you think through what you really want to see in fantasy books, maybe you'll have other opportunities to talk to fantasy authors who are already published, maybe even big-name fantasy authors, and let them know, “Hey, I love what you're doing, I love this aspect of what you're doing in your books, and I wonder if you've ever considered really leaning into this aspect of your books because I would love to see more fantasy books with this in them.” And I think a lot of authors will really appreciate that, and then you as the readers get to have more and more of a voice in the books that are coming out. And then the books that are published are books that readers want to read, and that just benefits everybody.

Relatable Characters in Fantasy Books

So the discussion that I picked for this video, I guess I didn't entirely pick it myself because this is just the concept that came up most frequently in those conversations with readers that I had two years ago, which is not really what I was expecting. I thought it was really interesting.

The most common thing that readers told me they want to see in fantasy books is relatable characters. And the most common frustration that they had with fantasy books was characters who did not make sense to them, characters they just couldn't follow.

And again, that wasn't necessarily what I was expecting for fantasy books. I wouldn't have expected characters, and especially relatable characters, to be the number one thing that readers were looking for.

Now, I find that I more and more am drawn to books that have that really strong character element. I used to be more drawn to books because of the elaborate worldbuilding, or the high action, or the mystery, or what have you. And I still find those things really interesting, and I still enjoy them a lot, but I find more and more that I in my reading gravitate toward the books that have the really strong character development, even over the books that have some of the other things that I used to think were my priorities. And the character relationships as well kind of tend to determine how much I like the book even more than the fantasy elements, even though fantasy is still by far my favorite genre to read.

How this pushed back on my writerly expectations

So I think that's really interesting, and I found it especially intriguing as a writer because I felt like it kind of pushed back on some advice that I had heard, or at least the way that I had been interpreting some advice.

Unique vs. Relatable

So a bit of a behind-the-scenes look into how my mind was responding to this as a writer is that there's a lot of advice sometimes about creating unique characters and not just having a generic everyman character as your protagonist. And I don't think anybody when they say “relatable character” is asking for a bland character. I don't think that's what relatable means at all. But I did find it interesting that people weren't telling me that they wanted to see character aspects that they had never seen before. What they cared more about was being able to see themselves in that character in a sense. They cared about being able to follow that character's journey in a logical way, which I'll talk more about in a second.

But we talk so much as writers about creating unique and interesting characters, and I think sometimes we maybe go a little too far off the deep end of, “How can I make this character like nobody else ever was.” And I don't think that's what readers are asking for.

Pacing

And additionally, as a writer, there's a lot of pressure that we feel to jump right into the action and to keep the pacing very fast throughout the book. There always has to be something happening, always has to be conflict, every chapter has to end on a cliffhanger.

And one of the things that readers actually expressed frustration with was not spending as much time as they would like with the characters before the main conflict and after the main conflict, which again I just found so interesting because we as writers feel like we have to keep up with 15-second TikTok videos, we have to keep up with action movies streaming on Netflix, we have to keep up with all of this visual media that offers an immediate dopamine hit.

And I think some readers definitely enjoy fast-paced stories, obviously. I can enjoy a very fast-paced story. It's not that everybody wants things to crawl along at a snail's pace. But at the same time, books offer a unique opportunity to slow down with the characters in a way that doesn't make as much sense in a visual medium because if you have a movie or a TV show and you just have a couple characters sitting around and talking for a long period of time, it's going to feel boring visually because nothing is changing visually. Whereas in a book you can actually do that because we're following the characters’ emotions and thought processes way more than we're following what's happening visually because it's a word medium. As long as things are happening in the words, things don't necessarily need to be happening visually as much.

So I think the slower pace that allows for more character development, we as writers can sometimes feel like it's a weakness for books, but I think if we do it right it should and can be a strength for books and a way that books can offer something that a visual medium can't or, at least can offer a depth of something that doesn't come through in a visual medium. So again I thought that was really interesting.

Understandable Progression

And then the other thing that kind of surprised me was that the readers across the board seemed to define or associate with character relatability, understandable growth. Meaning, “I felt like I was growing right along with the character and I understood their change.”

What readers really didn't like was characters suddenly changing without a clear reason or characters making decisions that felt out of the blue and the reader’s like, “I did not follow how you got from point A to point B there. That did not make sense to me.” So there's a logical disconnect sometimes or they just feel like the in-between got skipped.

And again, as writers, we can feel like the book's going to be more interesting if I skip everything that isn't the really big moments, but you have to balance that with remembering that going from big moment to big moment is only going to make sense if what happened in between bridged the gap and if we actually see the step-by-step progression from how the character was at the beginning of the book to how the character was at the end of the book. And that's just not something that you can rush and that's not something that you can do entirely during a very fast-paced, cut-to-the-chase kind of scene.

What do you think?

Pacing?

So that was something that I found really interesting. And I would be really interested to hear from you guys your thoughts on pacing in books and how fast you actually are looking for your fantasy books to be. And I'm sure it varies from book to book, to some extent. Obviously, not every book has to have the exact same pacing to allow for the exact same degree of character development.

But in general, how fast do you want your books to be? How much quick action are you willing to sacrifice for character development versus how much time with the characters are you willing to sacrifice for it to be fast-paced and easy to get through the book more quickly? I guess like, what's your priorities there, and where do you feel like the book crosses the line on one side or the other of being too character-focused or not character-focused enough? I would be really curious to hear more perspectives and opinions on that.

Uniqueness vs. Relatability

I would also be curious to hear your thoughts on uniqueness versus relatability. Not that those two things are necessarily in conflict, because the character who's very unique can still have a journey that we very much relate to. So uniqueness and relatability aren't mutually exclusive.

But like, I'm curious how much an everyman character bothers you. Because we complain about bland everyman main characters, but also some of the most successful stories that have sold the most books ever have relatively everyman protagonists. There's a reason why that's sometimes done. So I'd be interested in you guys’ thoughts on that and how much you want to be able to kind of project yourself onto the main character and how much you don't want to be able to. Or maybe projecting yourself onto the main character isn't what you think of for “relatability.”

What else?

And also what what else makes a character relatable, because I'm sure being able to logically follow the progression of their growth isn't the only thing.

I did think it was interesting that none of my readers said, “I relate to characters who look like me or who come from the same background as me,” or even necessarily “who have the same struggles as me.” Like, I'm sure those are all factors and I'm sure those are all things that can have to do with a character's relatability, but it seemed like “feeling like I was right along with them on their journey” was generally what made readers most feel like they related to a character versus any of the other things. So yeah, I'm curious if that is also what makes a character feel most relatable for you, or if there are other things that that primarily make a character feel really relatable.

The importance of relatability?

And to zoom out even farther, do you agree with this selection of readers that relatable characters are one of the most important factors, if not the most important factor, in a fantasy book? Or do you come to a fantasy book like, “Maybe there could be relatable characters or maybe not, I don't care as much. I'm more looking for this other part of the story, and I'll forgive no relatable characters if it has this thing in it.” You know, is that what's most important to you, or not? Are there other story elements that trump relatable characters for you?

Let’s discuss!

So I'm really curious to hear what you all have to say. I would love for you guys to have a really great, uplifting, respectful discussion in the comments, and I will plan on being in the comments as well.

If you are subscribed to my Substack and you get this as an email, then you can also just reply to the email. And if you would rather have a one-on-one conversation with me than in the comments, then we can do that over email. And if you're watching on YouTube, there will be a link to join my Substack below so that you can do that.

I’m excited to hear from you guys! Let me know what other book discussions you might like to have and if this is the kind of video and post that you like to see. I’ll see you in the next one. Bye!