Here are just some of the reasons given for rejection. Some are rather harsh, virulent even.
we neither like nor trust Ben to
the extent that we can’t stand him - he must see the error of his ways and
change
Ted is an unsympathetic
character - his begging for a second chance and saying he's had a change of
heart doesn't ring true
the problem for us is that Dave
sounds too pushy and tiresome
the stumbling block here is that
Henry is so unpleasant - not an engaging character - his later climb down isn’t
really convincing
Creating realistic characters isn’t easy. Do you have any hints as to how it should be done?
It's especially tricky to make them likeable if we want them to change a lot during the course of the book. If they start off awful the reader doesn't care about them. If they start off nice then there's not much change needed. Giving them a good reason for their unpleasatness helps, I think. That hints the state might only be temporary.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's a good point, Patsy. To quote from 'West Side Story', "Hey, I'm depraved on account of I'm deprived!" I'll work on that one.
Delete