7 Steps to Creating Likeable Characters

How do you make a character likeable? Easy...

1. Have them do a good deed, a pet the dog moment, during their introduction. It can be as simple as giving up a seat for an old woman on the bus or as heroic as saving a child from a burning building. Good people are good because they DO good things. We like good people. Don't make your character like Tony Stark in Iron Man 2, not once did he do something heroic. Sure he saves people... people he put in danger in the first place by his own selfish actions. Those don't count by the way.

2. Give them a tragic past and/or childhood. Make them a victim of some horrible injustice. Who doesn't root for the orphan wizard with the odds stacked against him? Harry's parents are dead, everyone seems to hate him for no good reason, and there's this evil immortal snake guy after him. Man, someone give this kid a hug.

3. Give them a sense of humor. Who doesn't love wisecracking drunken pirates? Where's all the rum? Oh Tyrion Lannister you will forever rule the seven kingdoms of Westeros and my heart. That and you make a great foil for boring emo John Snow.

4. Give them a code of morals, and show clearly where that line is drawn in the sand. Batman will do anything to save the day, anything but take a life. That's what makes him a hero and keeps him from becoming the villain. Because you either die a hero or live... you know the rest.

5. People care about people who care about other people. Does your character love someone enough to risk their own life/happiness? Will they fight Nazis or interrupt a wedding or hijack a billion dollar giant blue alien avatar body and battle huge airships while riding a dragon all in the name of love?

6. Give them dreams. I wanna be the best, the best there ever was... pokemon yeah! Ash is gonna be the best pokemon trainer in the world, Naruto is gonna be Hokage, and Luffy is gonna be king of the pirates. You can see a trend here in Japan's number one franchises. And that trend is billions of dollars.

7. Make the villain a real A-hole. There's an old saying in professional wrestling: People don't pay to see the hero win they pay to see the villain lose. Its true, the events that make the most money are the ones where the Heel holds the belt in the title match. Your hero can be a real scumbag and do some really shady stuff but as long as he's fighting a child executing Nazi, hell he's a saint in anyone's book.