Hi Reader,
If you’ve been reading many recently-published books—especially in the romance, romantasy, or YA space—then you may have discovered that snark is having a moment in the sun.
You know…the characters who are witty with bite. I greatly admire authors who can write wit and snark well because I think it takes a delicate balance of the negative and the positive. The funny and the dark.
Last week, as part of my effort to keep current with my reading (okay fine, and for pleasure), I read an absolutely delightful book, P.S.: I Hate You by Lauren Connolly. Among many things, what the author did very well was write a snarky but lovable character.
But how does a writer craft a snarky, likeable character? You see, the problem with snark is that when it’s not done right, the character ends up a little unlikeable. Worse, unreadable. Because who wants to spend twelve hours straight with a negative jerk? Or with a hissing, biting cat that won't snuggle with you?
If you’re writing a character with bite, or if you’re hoping to write a grumpy-sunshine trope, grab a cup of tea, and get comfy. And if you’re not writing any such character, then stay for the insight to empathetic characters in general. The points below equally apply writing characters that readers connect with.
Let’s get to it.
I was inspired to study this topic not only because I was actively reading as a writer (something you should be doing too) and noticing an author who was doing a craft thing well, but because this question of how to make someone who’s not the charismatic star of the show equally likeable. It’s something I’m grappling with in my own WIP in a way.
One of my characters is sad and struggling. And as a character he’s not the Prom King, football star, magnetic guy that all the girls flock to. He’s also not the brooding magnetic bad boy love interest. He’s human, serious, but good and kind.
The question I’ve been pondering is how to make him feel lovable while he’s not happy. Enter the lovable grump, or the snarky character with a chip on their shoulder. As I mentioned, the problem with this character is that they can rub readers the wrong way if the negativity is too heavy-handed. So how do we get around this?
We make them lovable by doing six things: Through their backstory and wound; by making them self-aware; by giving them a willingness to change; through other redeeming qualities; through other characters’ responses; and by riffing off the moment.
Backstory and wound
It seems to me that when we read snarky characters, they better have a darn good reason for behaving the way they do. Enter the wound. Or, as Jessica Brody calls it in Save the Cat! Writes a Novel, the shard of glass. Essentially, having a character who’s been through some stuff makes their negative behavior if not more palatable, at least understandable. Let’s say you have a grumpy librarian character who was really rude to your main character who comes into the library looking for a sweet romance. But the librarian doesn’t believe in romance because the love of his life died in a car crash six years ago and he hasn’t tried loving since. His snarkiness would be more understandable when you learn of the wound he's carrying around with him wherever he goes.
In P.S.: I Hate You the main character’s snarkiness comes out full-force when she’s talking to Dominic Perry, her recently-departed brother’s best friend, and the man who broke her heart years ago. Given her heartbreak, it is at least understandable where she’s coming from. It also goes deeper than that for her: she has a deep fear of being abandoned, given her childhood. So her snarkiness is, essentially, a defense mechanism.
But a wound isn’t the only thing that’s going to turn our snarky characters likable…
Self-awareness
Hello, interiority my old friend…Yes it’s back, the big thing I can’t stop talking about. If you’re new here, or if you need a refresher, interiority is your protagonist’s thoughts and feelings (their inner world) directly on the page. It’s the reader’s window directly into their mind and their strongest point of connection to your character. When writing snark, I think you have to have your character be aware of their behavior, even if they don’t entirely regret it. Below is an example from P.S.: I Hate You. Dominic Perry, the likely-love interest is talking to the protagonist, Maddie, at her brother’s funeral. They haven’t seen each other in seven years:
“I know it’s been a while, but I’m here for you.” His voice rasps over my nerves, leaving me raw and my fingers cold as they grasp the doorknob. “You can talk to me.”
Been a while.
That’s one way to refer to the night we spent together, and the day after where he…
Don’t think about that.
I might finally start crying if I do. And if any tears come out of my eyes today, they better be for Josh and not some asshole who regretted me.
“That’s so sweet of you, but I’m good.” I shove out of the suffocating closet. “Got a few other one-night stands I like to call for deep, emotional conversations. You’re low on the list.”…
If anyone at my day job heard the way I just spoke to Dom, they’d think I got bit by a bitchy zombie But I don’t care. No way in hell or any other dimension will I ever be vulnerable for that man again.” (p 7)
Numerous times throughout the book Maddie cringes or winces after a particularly sharp barb comes out her mouth. Or she makes more references to the “bitchy zombie virus” throughout the book. She knows she’s not being nice, but given whatever situation she’s in and/or what she desperately wants, she may or may not care. It’s easier to forgive her nastiness when she’s aware of it, and when she’s given us enough interiority to understand where she’s coming from.
The point is this: for snark to work, we have to understand where your character is coming from…not just through the lens of their backstory and wound, but directly in the moment, through their interiority. And we should be able to see how they feel about their behavior.
Willingness to change
That brings me to my next effective-snark must-have: willingness to change. Stories, as I hope we know by now, are all about transformation. And perhaps, when you have a very grumpy and/or rude character, that means maybe their said grumpiness is a piece of them that must change. Think of it like thawing their frozen heart. In P.S.: I Hate You, the main thing Maddie must change isn’t her snarky defense mechanism, but it does come up as something she wants to do differently. When her late brother sends her and Dom off on a wild ash-scattering scavenger hunt, Maddie and Dom start to warm to each other, and Maddie makes numerous internal comments about how she wants to try to be nice to him. For me, that makes her more likeable, and I’m more able to easily look past her flaws.
It's like taking the step of self-awareness one step further. They see it and they know it’s not their best attribute. And as they start to change, they want to be nicer.
Redeeming qualities
This is a biggie, y’all. If you’re going to have a snarky or grumpy character, you must give them redeeming qualities. I was recently blessed with an early copy of Abby Jimenez’s forthcoming book, Say You’ll Remember Me, and there’s a beautiful example of this right in chapter one that I can’t help but share with you.
We meet our male protagonist, a veterinarian, as a woman is coming to him hoping to put down a perfectly-healthy dog to appease her dead mother’s wishes. He’s pissed about it (rightfully so), and angry that humans could be okay treating animals in such a way. He tells her it’s done, but then keeps the dog alive against the risk of losing his license. (Aww!). But then, when the female protagonist arrives for their meet cute in the next scene, she has a kitten with a rare, terminal, and agonizing condition and he recommends she put it down. She is angry that he could give her such advice, but, since we just saw the scene before we know that A.) he cares deeply about animals and really doesn’t want this cat to suffer; and B.) that he strongly dislikes people who will let animals suffer.
In their argument, he’s pretty much an a-hole to her. But by the point we see his jerkiness, we’ve already seen his true heart, too. So we can forgive him for his a-hole behavior.
So when we meet a grumpy, or snarky character, we must see their good side too. Simple as that.
Other characters’ responses
Just as the POV character is letting us know how they are feeling and why, it also helps to have characters responding positively to their snark. Readers look to other characters to learn how we should feel about our protagonist, because they know them in a different way than we do.
In P.S.: I Hate You, anytime Maddie spouts out humorous snark at Dom, he doesn’t roll his eyes or get frustrated or seem angry. He seems amused. Connolly has her barbs pulling at the corner of his mouth into a small smile. Or withholding laughter. If he is endeared by her snark, then we are too.
Or in Say You’ll Remember Me, after our veterinarian saves the dog, his employees praise him for his kindness. And later he questions whether he’s an a-hole and calls a friend, who tells him that while yes, he absolutely can be, he also is stable, and reliable, etc. So when we see our character treat others with kindness—or we see how secondary characters view our snarky POV character-- we are shown how else we can feel about them, flaws or not. And that helps endear them to us, the reader.
In other words, give your grumpy/snarky characters positive interactions with other characters. Show us their other side.
Riffing off the moment
One of the main things that makes snark work really well is the way that the character riffs off the moment. What do I mean by that? Well, they work their snark into the moment, often in a humorous way.
In P.S.: I Hate You, the two main characters are on their first of the ash-spreading missions, right after the funeral. The recently-departed brother sent them to a beach in Delaware, and asked them to spread his ashes in the ocean. Though, things don’t go as planned:
I hold the container just above the water and let him spill out into the gentle waves, ready to watch the particles of my brother become one with the majestic ocean.
But the jackass floats.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” I mutter.
What I imagined was going to be a beautiful weaving of sparkling dust motes with saltwater waves instead looks like some sewage much hanging out on the surface.
“This was supposed to be beautiful, Josh,” I rail at my brother. I was supposed to start sobbing. “Can’t you just f**king join with the ocean like you wanted?”
“He’ll mix in with time,” Dom mutters.
“Or he’ll wash up onshore and become a litter box for a seagull. Sink you asshole!” With my hands, I press the remains of my brother into the water swirling around us. I don’t know if this is something that I should be grossed out by, but this day is weird enough as it is that I don’t have a measure anymore. My normal compass is broke, If I ever had one. If I did, I doubt I’ll be able to fix it.
“I thought this was a group activity,” I snap at the stoic man beside me. “Are you going to help me mix him in with the ocean? Or are you gonna stand there in your rainbow underpants and watch me do all the hard work?” (pg 43-44).
Earlier in this scene, when the characters decide to get into the water, she notes his surprising choice of underwear for such a responsible man. Here, she uses it in her snark, along with the strangeness of the situation. You can see how the scene is what drives the dialogue and the snark. Now, you don’t have to be a comedian to employ this tip. Sure, it helps, but what you basically need to understand here is that great snark is more about small, in-the-moment things. It often has plenty of subtext, but the dialogue itself is derived from the context of the scene.
So, as you aim for snark in a scene, look at the events, the action, the relationships, and of course the character’s desires and wounds to help you figure out how to riff off the moment to hit the purest note of snark.
For the grumpy character, sometimes if there’s another character who is riffing off the moment-- poking gentle fun at the grumpy character-- it also makes the grump more endearing. It’s about looking at the context of your scene and creating a little bit of playful dialogue.
Phew! Thanks for hanging with me as I explored this concept. I hope that you found it useful even if you’re not writing a snarky or grumpy character. After all, these strategies can make any character more relatable and likable to readers.
Want More?
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Happy Writing!
Karyn
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