how can i make my characters empathetic?
Hey there, anon! Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of others. I have two different ways to answer this: how to make your characters be empathetic and how to make people empathetic towards your characters.
HOW TO MAKE CHARACTERS BE EMPATHETIC
This one is pretty self-spoken for. There is really only one way that I know of to make a character to be empathetic and it’s to put them in a situation that the character feels sympathy for another or have them care about something and to, eventually, share the feelings of the other character.
This could be just about anything - get creative with it! For example, have someone be treated unjustly, someone be thrust into grief or danger, facing an inner struggle, etc.
HOW TO MAKE PEOPLE EMPATHETIC TOWARDS CHARACTERS
This is actually pretty easy and you can also just repeat the above tips and tricks if you’d like!
However, different examples - and remember to get creative with it - are having your character display a valuable trait (though this is typically more rewarding if done a little before they make a choice that has a negative impact).
In addition, people love to watch real talent. Have your character be particularly good at something but don’t just tell how good someone is with a knife; show us. Show us how long it took, how many hours of pain and getting injured they had to withstand. Show them caring for their knives as if they were children. Show not tell is a very important part here.
Have them wish for a universal change or show them caring for people. For example, wishing for world hunger to go away and helping starving people go hand in hand together. Wishing for equality and going to rallies for pride, black lives matter, etc, go hand in hand.
Give them something unique about them. Something that will make the reader grow some sort of attachment to them.
I hope this helped, anon, and if you have any additional questions, please come ask! Happy writings! x
If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask us!
