How can you make someone want to read a story about an awful/miserable protagonist?
Let’s take a look at a good example, “As Good As It Gets,” then write our own unlikeable protagonist together!
During the last stream, a subscriber requested that we go over how to write an unlikeable protagonist, specifically looking at the main character from the film As Good as It Gets.
Watch a short version of the stream here or scroll down for what we wrote.
As Good As It Gets &
How to Write an Unlikeable Protagonist
- Most stories have likeable protagonists, and for good reason: it’s the character that the reader/viewer will be spending the most time with, and it’s easiest to entice us to stay with them if they’re someone we want to cheer for
- But some stories want to have an unlikeable protagonist, like Scrooge in A Christmas Carol, Humbert Humbert in Lolita, Joe the stalker in You, etc.
- There are many different ways to go about crafting a story with an unlikeable protagonist, but today let’s take a look at the movie As Good As It Gets, which has an extremely unlikeable protagonist
What Makes the Protagonist Unlikeable?
- Melvin is a professional writer of romance novels who lives in New York City, and this is the first scene we see of him:
- He literally picks up a small dog and tosses him down a garbage chute!
- He’s also racist, referring to someone as “that colored man” and complaining that there’s “jews at my table” at a restaurant
- He’s also sexist, as we see in this scene:
- At one point he even gets kicked out of a restaurant and everyone inside cheers as he’s leaving
So how can a protagonist like this possibly work? Let’s take a look at 4 reasons
#1. Relatability/Sympathy
- No matter how unlikeable your protagonist is, there has to be something about them that can connect them with the reader
- Like Jessica Brody writes in “Save the Cat! Writes a Novel,” if you can’t figure out a way to make your character relatable in chapter 1, simply have them save a cat — instant sympathy
- In As Good As It Gets, there are several things that make Melvin relatable/sympathetic despite his unlikeable personality
1. Some of the things he does are secret desires for people. Tossing an annoying dog into the trash, telling off your annoying neighbor when he confronts you about it, these are dreams for a lot of us, so seeing them happen can be satisfying.
2. Melvin suffers from OCD. He has lots of rituals that he must perform, locking and unlocking doors, using a brand new bar of soap with every hand wash, never stepping on cracks, etc. His OCD doesn’t justify his behavior, but it humanizes him.
3. He’s put into awkward situations. When his neighbor is put into the hospital, he’s forced to take care of the annoying dog, something that any of us can relate to.
- No character is so unlikeable that they can’t have a single redeeming quality or sympathetic trait
- A murderer can love their family, an abuser can volunteer at a charity, a dictator can be nervous asking out their crush
- We don’t have to like the protagonist, but we do have to want to cheer for them to succeed, so give us something
#2. Calling Out Their Bullcrap
- Melvin does awful things, but he rarely gets away with it
- This is what happens right after Melvin throws the dog down the chute. His neighbor Simon finds the dog, and Simon’s agent confronts Melvin about it:
- Later in the movie, at a restaurant Melvin overhears his favorite waitress talking about her sick son and he tells her that her son “will probably die.” She stares him in the eye and says, “If you ever mention my son again, you will never eat here again, you crazy f*ck”
- If everyone simply put up with Melvin and let him get away with whatever he did, that would be boring
- Instead, having Melvin’s bullcrap called out on him creates juicy conflict, which is engaging for the reader/viewer
- It also humanizes him, since most of us have been called out on our own bullcrap before, and watching it happen to him helps us relate to him more
* If you use an unlikeable protagonist, consider having people call them out on their behavior. It gets you instant conflict and relatability
#3. Putting the Spotlight on Other Characters
- Melvin is the main character, but he’s not the only one
- Simon, his artist neighbor, plays a significant role in the movie; and Carol, the waitress at the restaurant, is just as much a main character as Melvin
- Both of them are extremely engaging and sympathetic characters, such as when we see Carol’s struggle with her sick son as a single mother in this scene:
- Since the story is only ⅓ Melvin, that makes his misery a lot more palatable
- If he was in every single scene, probably not even Jack Nicholson could make him engaging enough for us to want to watch the whole movie
- Instead, having some nice breaks with likeable characters can make for great palate cleansers
* If you use an unlikeable protagonist, consider having other points of view, or some other break between sections of the story to not overwhelm the reader
#4. Character Change
- Melvin changes over the course of the story, going from a bitter recluse to someone who (begrudgingly) helps others, then finally learns to care about them
- This is him on a date with Carol toward the end of the movie:
- It’s a bit of a twisted compliment, but the sentiment is there, he’s clearly different from the person he started off as
- Not only that, but he asks Carol about her sick son, and he pays for a specialist doctor to work with her to help him
- When he has to give the dog back to his neighbor he cries over it because he bonded with the dog
- He even goes out in the middle of the night to talk to Carol when he realizes he cares about her and made a mistake
- Having the character go through a change is the entire point of starting off with an unlikeable protagonist
- If your unlikeable protagonist doesn’t become somewhat likeable by the end, then readers will likely reject your story
- The hard part is making sure that your unlikeable protagonist starts off “likeable” enough for readers to go along for the ride, and eventually get to that ending where they change… which you can do by following the points we went over!
* If you use an unlikeable protagonist, make sure that they end up in a very different place than where they started
After that, chat voted that we write a story with this unlikeable protagonist: Founder of a scam who finds joy in taking advantage of the middle class.
Here’s what we came up with:
I sold people hope. My Distilled Dreams helped hundreds find the light in their darkness, same as it had done for me. By mixing the right amounts of essential oils, I could concoct a cure for any ailment. Chronic pain, depression, anxiety, even cancer. My bottles of Dreams were little miracles for sale.
I sat on my couch in front of my work table, diligently mixing lemon and lavender for one patient needing help with her liver failure, peppermint and orange for another with arthritis, chamomile and bergamot to ease another’s Alzheimer’s. All of it was delicately stirred in my amethyst crucible, with a lapis lazuli pendant hanging overhead for added potency.
They would all be cured in no time, thanks to me.
When I put the cork in the bottle of Alzheimer’s cure, I leaned back and admired my handiwork, petting Pumpernickel as she purred on the couch next to me. She was the reason I know my medicine works, even though the doctors wanedt nothing to do with me. They were too far deep in the pockets of Big Pharma to see the power of belief anymore.
Pumpernickel was my miracle baby. She was born a runt, little more than gooey mess without a heartbeat. But thanks to my quick thinking, and a mixture of frankincense and catnip, she popped back to life, mewling and happy to be part of the world.
We’ve spent twenty years together, me and Pumpernickel. When mom passed away and left me nothing, Pumpernickel was with me. When I dropped out of college with no degree and debt up to my ears, Pumpernickel was with me. She was a living reminder that I could distill not just the essence of plants, but the essence of life itself. And I knew I could show others how to distill their lives to become their true selves, too.
Right as I was about to start packing up tomorrow’s shipment, my phone rang. It was Edith Pauline, an old lady I’d sold some agar, acai, and juniper extract to. It’s a popular order nowadays, as a defensive shield against coronavirus — Corona Berry-e, I call it — an original concoction of mine that I’m very proud of.
“Hello, Distilled Dreams guru, shaman, and gem charmer Krystal Fyre speaking,” I said.
The voice that came from the other end was not soft Edith, it was harsh and angry.
“Listen here you little scammer b*tch,” he said. “Did you con my mother into buying that bottle of slime you call a covid cure?”
Their heated words flustered my chakras. I had to realign all seven paths within me before I had the composure to speak.
“Before we continue this conversation,” I spoke as calmly as I could, “I need to ask you to find a small orb of inner peace, so that we—”
“F*ck your inner peace,” the man seethed. “The only peace around here is what my Mom is resting in now — no thanks to con artists like you!”
It drained my heart mana to know I’d delivered my last Dream to a patient. My hand instinctively went out to pet Pumpernickel, to find some comfort. I stroked her head, but no reassuring purrs came from her.
“I’m sorry to hear that your mother passed on,” I said. “But perhaps she simply didn’t believe strongly enough. All of my Dreams require an intense amount of faith in order to—”
“I’ve already contacted the Better Business Bureau about you,” the man growled. “You can expect them to show up soon, and hopefully police soon after. You’ll have plenty of time to Dream from the hard cot of a jail cell.”
This was getting too much. I had to let go of Pumpernickel for a moment and step out onto the apartment balcony with my phone to prevent the buildup of negative energies inside.
“I can assure you, nothing illegal is happening here,” I told him. “I’ve used my medicines on myself and my precious Pumpernickel for years, and we’ve had nothing but success.”
He grunted out a sad laugh. “The only success you’ve had is taking advantage of desperate people. Selling them a fairytale in a bottle. One that ends with you getting what you deserve.”
Before I could even reply, he hung up. I was left with a beeping phone and one less customer.
Still, his words left me with a chilly energy. Was there a chance that my Corona Berry-er hadn’t worked? No, that was impossible. Pumpernickel, and all of my other customers, were living proof of that fact.
I sulked back inside and collapsed onto my couch, grabbing hold of Pumpernickel for some much needed comfort. No matter what would happen, police or “better business bureaucrats,” we’d get through it together.
But when I stroked her fur, something was wrong. The skin underneath was hard like cardboard and her tail didn’t twitch at all.
Panicking, I picked her up under her arms. She was just a furry lump, her eyes clouded and her jaw hanging open. I grabbed an emergency cinnamon and cypress oil mixture, popped open the cork, and poured it into her mouth. The reddish liquid just bubbled up around her teeth and tongue, not a single drop swallowed by her unmoving face.
I didn’t care about the other orders, I just wanted Pumpernickel to be okay! I uncorked every vial on the work table and dumped them on her, until she was a soaked mess of every smell imaginable, dribbling all over the couch. She didn’t so much as spasm.
When I cried into Pumpernickel’s fur, I didn’t think about bottling my tears. Or the negative energies I was exuding. Or the death ki that was infecting all of my mixtures. I just wanted her back.
The beautiful vision I had of my future with Pumpernickel, and the business I thought would save so many lives, started to fade. And I had to wonder if I needed to wake up from the dream that Edith would never get the chance to come out of.
Be sure to check out the video for a dramatic reading, and to see how we used the elements we went over when writing the story!
If you want to join us and help write a story by trolling in chat, or share your own writing for feedback, then we’d love to have you join us on Twitch.
And you missed the stream, you can still watch them on the YouTube channel or watch the full stream reruns.
Hope to see you next time, friend!
Images: Pakutaso