Right now, I'm struggling with this problem in my current WIP, The Capstone. The basic problem is that, although I feel like I've made my protagonist an interesting character with paradoxes and development in the series, I'm not very endeared to him as a character. Part of the problem is that a large sub-plot in the book involves one of the main villain slowly deciding to convert and reject his previous life. And, having developed that villain a lot, given his redemption, I have found myself more endeared to him and to his storyline, rather than the storyline of my main protagonist.

So, I'm unsure how to continue. I feel that I need to like my main character a lot more and be more emotionally connected to him in the story than I am currently, especially since right now I think he's being overshadowed by one of the main villains. So I'm looking for suggestions. One possibility, if I can't become more connected to my MC, is to re-write the story from the villain's perspective. I'm not necessarily against doing that, per se (although I always hate to have to let so much writing "go to waste"), but don't want to have to make such a drastic change if I must. Because I feel like my MC is interesting enough (although I may be completely wrong on this)... But I just don't feel connected enough with who he is.

So do any of you have suggestions for how to make an MC more endearing? Any specific exercises that you've tried? Ideas and suggestions are most welcome.

Give him a struggle to work through. I don't mean as in his quest, but... how can I put this? I had one character with a stutter, and I think that endeared people to him, because he had difficulty speaking, It caused readers to pity him.
I had an evil character (a child) whose only real desire was to be good. He struggled to turn his life around (and ended up dying).
I had another who lost her hand in a fight. Another whose friends were killed. And another whose adoptive family died in a deliberate fire.
What I'm saying is, pity can help make a character more endearing.

Torture him emotionally. Give him lots of inner conflict that really pulls him in different directions that he doesn't know how to resolve. Readers will sympathize with him and root for him to figure it out.

Thanks for your suggestions! Both ideas are helpful. I'll try putting my MC through some more agony and see if that won't make me like him more. Funny how those things work that way...

You're welcome.

Yeah, it is funny that way. Be careful with the response though. The wrong response can make people dislike him more.

You mean how he responds to the internal struggle/tragedy, or...?

~Aratrea, a bit confused about what response Varon is referring to

I think he means how the MC responds to the struggle.

Yep. That's what I meant.

Sort of building on what NotThatShort and Varon said, here.... You said that you are more endeared to your villain because of the time you've spent developing him and his redemption. So redeem your MC, too. Give him a flaw that he needs to struggle through and conquer. For instance, in one of my novels, my MC has major anger/revenge issues, and over the course of the story, she comes to realize that her actions and desires were wrong. Even if your readers don't struggle with the particular flaw your MC has, they'll be able to sympathize with the fact that he's struggling.

YES. What she said. I just couldn't find the words. Thanks Rave.

Thanks for clarifying, Varon. And thanks for the additional suggestion, Raven! All these ideas are really helping me so that I think I have a fairly good idea about what I'm going to need to do...

How has this been going, Aratrea? Did you try any of these exercises, and have they helped you connect with your MC more?

Also, have you heard of character fractalling? It is probably the number one thing that has given life to my characters. It helps you to lay characters out and dig deeply into their backstories/personalities/how they would probably react in different situations.

I'm against throwing random conflict (and indeed anything random) at a character until you actually know them as a person, and how they would respond. Otherwise, you may just end up writing something completely out of line with who they actually are.

I haven't read any of the other replies yet, but one idea that I use when creating (or rather, discovering) characters is to give them little quirks. I always find myself more 'endeared' towards a character who's just a little bit quirky in some way.

An example from a well-known film (as I haven't read any of the books more than once, and that was a while ago) is Pippin from Lord of the Rings. He's a quirky character in a lot of ways. And so far, I haven't met anyone who dislikes him; and nearly all people I talk to love his character.

Now, I'm sure there are people out there who dislike him. But the majority of people I meet love him.

As for a personal example, I have this character. Rowan is a supporting character in a book I've long since abandoned for now because it was horrible. He's a shapeshifter. But I had to find a way to make him and his counterpart Aelfcynn more endearing.

On a whim, I gave them opposite personalities - she's calculating and serious, and he's bouncy and optimistic. Other quirks he has is an obsession with Skittles and M&Ms, he likes to hug people, and he acts almost like a child sometimes (he's in his mid-twenties human-wise; a much higher number shapeshifter-wise) as far as hyperness and tricks/pranks go.

And I thought people would hate him, but he was well-received by most of the people who read his scenes.

(You actually read the book he was in, come to think of it, I think. The reason Rowan probably sounds unfamiliar is because I changed him a lot after you edited the book, hehe. And I shared the edited version with a few people. They all really liked Rowan...)