How Can I Make My Main Character Appealing In My Novel?

As the main character is the most important in a novel, there needs to be a lot of thought and planning put into them. It does depend on what audience you are writing for. If you are writing a novel for young children, then you should avoid making your character too dark or depressive and if you are writing for teenagers and adults then you want your character to have a lot of depth.

Even teenagers and adults can be annoyed by moody or depressed characters. Take the fifth Harry Potter novel, for instance. Harry's mood completely changed in the fifth book, and whilst fans of the book could understand his predicaments, they still felt that his character was irritating due to his mood swings and anger towards his friends.

Try to create a character that your readers can relate to. If you are going to make your character angry, sad, depressed etc, then try not to stretch it out and mix up their moods a little, whilst making sure that the moods suit the situations that you place them in, which will allow the reader to understand the character's problems without getting irritated by their behaviour.