there was an old man who had envy
of anyone younger and trendy
and so out of spite
with all his might
he made himself extremly unfriendly!
The 'trick' (for want of a better word) is to differentiate between empathy and sympathy. The two emotions are very different.
It's all to easy to sympathise with someone who is suffering physical pain of some description because all of us, at one time or another, have been in pain and we all know what it feels like.
Empathy, on the other hand, is a completely different animal. There was a time I could never write convincingly about the death of a loved one because I had never lost anybody close to me. That all changed when both of my parents and my eldest brother died within a three and a half year timespan. Now I am fully empathic with someone suffering grief and/or loss.
To make your characters empathic they need to be real and they need to be believable. Readers will not empathise with characters they cannot relate to. Hell, you'd find it hard to raise any sympathy for them! It's a delicate balancing act. My advice to anybody designing a character is to put as much realism into him or her. He or she should be like everybody else: flawed, make mistakes and be capable of heroism should it be required. More readers will respond and relate than a character who bears little or no resemblance to anybody the reader knows.
Yes, Larry you show them the way.
Whatever you guys buying sounds yum. I am waiting here
Tyler needs to hurry, I'm hungry.
Aww why he say no to the taco?
A cool friend that is great to talk too.
Rebs did you get the stuff?
quote] Do you feel lucky punk?
Dirty Harry
It's a big building with patients... and don't call me Shirley.
