Empathy

In earlier chapters, I already established a definition for empathy and why it’s the most important part of your characters to get right. Empathy is understanding for why people are they way they are. And without it, audiences do not care about the characters, which means anything else the story does is meaningless.

But how do you create it? How do you add this understanding?

Logical Understanding

At first, you might say that you just need to invent logical backstory. (Or events within the story itself.)

You want to make the audience understand why the hero doesn’t trust anyone? Give them backstory that shows their trust being betrayed.

You want to clarify why the hero is jealous? Give them backstory that shows how others got shiny things and they never got anything. Or show how others achieved things with little effort, while they have to work hard to get unlucky and achieve nothing.

You can play psychiatrist this way. Invent a trait you want your character to have (to serve the plot or theme), then invent the logical reasons for how somebody ends up with this trait.

This is a good start, but not enough.

Characters are the emotional core, not the logical one. (That’s plot. Plot should be a sequence of logical events and consequences, action and reaction.)

Empathy comes from a deeper understanding than “well, it’s only logical they ended up that way”. Something more emotional, more human, more felt.

Emotional Understanding

As such, in my eyes, there should be one “emotional leap”. There should be a part to your character that is not “rational” or “logical”. A part people can’t explain with logic.

But they understand it anyway. That’s what empathy really is. The choices a character makes aren’t rational to you, the things they do are not the most wise or thoughtful, but you still understand it.

Because you know what it’s like to be human, to be hurt, to have overwhelming feelings, to shut off your brain for a bit.

I see two ways to do this.

Born this way: to some extent, humans are simply ruled by genes. We have different personalities, different preferences, different intelligence with which we are simply born or which we cannot control.

This is the easiest way to add a character, but also the least satisfying. (It’s easy to say “it’s literally impossible for him to control his anger!”. But there’s no inspiring message or journey, as you can’t simply change your genes.)

Broken along the way: otherwise, there should be events that are so shocking to a person, that they stop thinking. Something that hits so hard or cuts so deep, that they make that “emotional leap”. If you make a character’s life too easy or straightforward, they’ll never develop that extreme personality that makes for interesting characters.

This method leads to the strongest, most beloved characters. You give them extreme flaws and problems, which cannot be completely explained with logic. They do stupid things, but it’s understandable why they would stop thinking for a minute. People love the character, but they also kinda don’t.

Whatever the case, the character is still able to change and perhaps grow a little. This ensures they aren’t static for the whole story and can provide a deeper (uplifting) message or theme.

More specific techniques

Below are some more specific techniques to heighten empathy for your character.

• Progression: start your character with clear flaws or bad sides. It’s both satisfying and relatable if they grow during the story and slowly eradicate that flaw. More on this in the later chapter about character arcs and growth.
• Underdogs: people love the underdog. Starting a character from the absolute lowest position also helps propel the story forward and gives the most room for growth.
• Familiarity: a big part of empathizing with somebody comes from actually having lived their experience. A character that is relatable and embodies something your audience is likely to have experienced, automatically creates understanding. (Even without much explanation, as people have actually lived it.)
• Core of Decency: even the darkest of characters should have glimmers of hope or decency. Usually, characters are externally awful, but internally pretty much in the right place.
• Interesting to be around: your characters don’t have to be nice, sweet or helpful to be liked. They just need to promise “hey, when I’m around, something interesting happens”. So you can have a grumpy idiot who shoots down any plan, as long as they regularly come up with creative and better plans. You can have an evil guy who kills anybody who disagrees with him, because it’s interesting when suddenly his own daughter disagrees with him.
• Overwhelming Odds: this is a good example of “the choice isn’t logical, but still understandable”. Show your character getting beat down, facing overwhelming odds or a near-impossible task. Then show how they still do it, through sheer will power. Logically, “I will fight these twenty guys on my own, with a broken leg” is a stupid move. Emotionally, if done right, it’s very powerful.
• Active & Capable: people simply prefer proactive, capable people with a clear goal. Even your biggest idiot or douchebag can elicit empathy if they are capable in some way.

The biggest test is obviously to ask yourself. Do I really care about this character? Do I really care what happens to them, how I write their path in my story? Am I eager to write a new chapter when I know it’s from their viewpoint? If I killed off the character right now, would I care?

Many authors talk about their characters as if they’re real humans. They care deeply about writing a good story for them. If you can feel that yourself, you will make the audience feel it.

The biggest pitfall

Many writers learn to write conflict in every scene. Conflict, conflict, conflict. Unfortunately, they often put this advice on a pedestal, far above any other advice! They invent scenes that seem engaging and tense on the surface, but actually destroy their overall story.

That’s the biggest pitfall.

Never kill empathy for your characters just to create conflict. Instead, invent a type of conflict that increases empathy for your characters.

An example

In the Rings of Power series (season 1), we follow these pre-Hobbit creatures, and they’re supposed to be the good guys. We’re supposed to like them and root for them. But then, halfway the season, they make some baffling decisions that are just cruel and put other members in needless danger.

For example, they travel around, dragging their own carts. Anybody who gets left behind, because they’re too slow or have an accident or whatever … just gets left behind entirely. One of the main characters is on their own (her family lost in the way I just described) and has to drag a huge, heavy cart on her own. She is even put at the back! As punishment!

Conflict, right? Will she be able to keep up? Will she fall behind? Boy, what a dangerous life they’re living!

Yes, it’s conflict. But it kills empathy for these supposed good guys.

Nobody helps her? Nobody even attempts to keep people from falling behind and just dying? And she’s on her own, so her stuff probably just fits inside another cart.

There’s no reason for this whole conflict, except the cruel selfish nature of these characters for whom we’re supposed to root.

That kills the whole storyline and is a deadly sin.

Now, how would you improve this? Find a conflict that increases empathy.

For example, everybody wants to help those who stay behind, which means they don’t make enough progress and might not be able to stay ahead of danger. You could do a whole subplot about a team forming to track back on their route, which is dangerous and hard, just to pick up any stragglers.

Heck, they could search for that girl’s lost family through dangerous terrain, and might actually find them! How satisfying would that be? Empathy and cooperation rewarded.

Hopefully, the idea is clear. Empathy is everything. Construct your conflict and plot to increase it, not kill it. Often, this isn’t hard to do if you think a little longer.