How Do I Create Sympathy For Characters In My Novel?

To create sympathy for characters in your novel you must firstly make the reader feel sorry for them. If a reader feels pity for a character they will want to find out what happens to them and will be interested in their plight.

Sympathy can be for their current situation or a past situation. Introduce the character with a human emotion involved. Make them hungry, exhausted, upset, or frightened. The reader will immediately want to know why they feel that way. Then build up the reason, whilst putting the character in crisis situations that reflect and reveal parts of their personality.

The character must reveal emotions, thoughts, and feelings so that the reader can feel them also. This will make the reader sympathise with their actions, even if they don't agree with them.  Have the character's actions misunderstood. This is very common in real life, and the reader will see both viewpoints and will feel sympathetic towards both persons involved.