The main characters powers.

I prefer to have characters who are in many ways ordinary. That doesn't mean that they aren't socially priveledged by virtue of belonging to a group which possesses the majority of the power, either by being rich, belonging to a particular ethnicity or living in a particular area, but having supernatural powers at the start of the story just doesn't do it for me. Unless Chris Hemsworth is involved, but that goes without saying. Anyway, that's film; I'm talking novels.

I'd rather start with a character who is human. Subsequently achieving great power through research and training is acceptable, provided it forms part of the plot, and is not an enabler for the plot to happen.

 

A character can be ordinary by their own culture's standards and still be important to what's going on. They might have accidentally caused the big bad to rise from his long-barrow grave by walking three times around it anti-clockwise at the full moon, and decide that since they cause it, they're goig to fix it. Or they might be employed to protect an individual such as a young prince or a high-priest or someone else important and believe that the way to do their job is the defeat, and not just help their charge avoid, the big bad. Those are perfectly reasonable reasons for characters to be involved in a story without being in any way remarkable by their own culture's standards at the start of the story.

Personally I find it more compelling to read a story where a character is challenged by others over their right to lead. Having super magic powers or being the child of someone important means they don't have to fight for leasdership so much. People will listen to them because of what they are or who their parents are, not because they personally have earned respect and loyalty. And I just don't find that as interesting as having characters who become leaders because they have fought for it and they deserve it.

 

I never said the ordinary character does ordinary things. I have no desire to read that either. I want to read about an ordinary character who through their own effort becomes extraordinary and achieves great things. Surely it's more exciting for someone ordinary to achieve extraordinary things than it is for someone extraordinary to achieve them? Isn't that why the creators of Superman created Kryptonite - so Supes wasn't so blindingly super that he could do whatever he needed to and never be challenged?

What's special about someone who is superhuman achieving superhuman feats? That's to be expected. But someone ordinary achieving superhuman feats? That's a story I can get my teeth stuck into!

 

One of the key ways to promote reader sympathy with your character is to have that character be an expert at something. This should be something a reader should want to be able to do.

This is only one of the many things that can aid in creating sympathy. Is it imperative? Probably not but it helps.

 

I disagree. Most people aren't experts at anything. They're good at a few things, maybe pretty great at one or two things, but in any given field you only get a very small percentage of people who are experts. Thus the majority of people will find it hard to relate to an expert, particularly if their expertise is in something they are unfamiliar with. By contrast, almost everyone understands the process required to attain a respectable level of skill in something, even if they cannot relate to that skill. To become good at something you have to work at it and put effort into learning and improving. People can relate to that. Thus if you want to create sympathy or empathy, showing a character learning to be good at something, striving towards a goal, is a better bet than making them an expert.

That doesn't mean that characters who have existing expertise aren't sympathetic characters, and it certainly doesn't mean they're not cool or interesting characters, it just means that having expertise isn't, as far as I'm concerned, what makes them sympathetic characters: it is the challenges they face in becoming experts.

 

Characters are relatable to us through other human qualities & shared experiences. In my view if a character doesn't have some form of expertise that a reader would love to be able to do then that's a boring character or at most a secondary, supporting character.

Also, when I use the term "expert" I'm using the word very loosely. Someone may be an expert thief or they could be an expert interpersonal communicator. It doesn't have to be an obvious skill, trade, or ability. Also, it certainly can be about the character acquiring expertise or improving on skills.

As stated previously this is certainly not the only path to sympathy... Just one that can aid in gaining sympathy.

 

Excellent point Chilari. I, for example, am an expert rubber band shooter and can perform symphonic bliss with the kazoo.