Created a character expecting them to either hated or just not noticed only for the reverse to happen? Or maybe you made a bad guy or villain who wasn't really evil just the opposition to your main character but you fell in love with how they came out and struggled with a way to at least make them more neutral?

I have a bad habit of sympathizing with my villains. Even ones that make me scared to write them. My characters each have a room in my head and they whisper in my ear how to write them and some of them are very scary. They help me make them more human and therefore more relateable and less hateable.

Do you guys do that?

Or do you have a character who you wrote to be a complete jerk but they still somehow came out likeable?

I have a demon overlord character who is very.... blunt? Lacks tact? Insults you with a sugary voice? That my siblings seem to adore and I personally find it hilarious because they hate the main "hero" of my story because he doesn't like the demon overlord or the character who befriends said overlord... The "hero" has a lot of the stereotypical hero things. Believes he's right all the time, rather confident and charismatic and jockish with a slight anger problem that comes out later. But anyways I've gotten side tracked.

Have you guys ever had a character not stay in the place you wanted them to, be it in the writing or in a readers eyes?

I've had that happen to me before. I had this jerk of a character named Marcus, who was a mere second grader, and he literally threatened to gouge out your eyes with a golf pencil... And he grew on people... xD

Marcus sounds rather terrifying xD Was there anyone thing that people liked about him?

They found him easy to relate to, somehow... xD

Don't tell Marcus, but I have 60+ golf pencils left over from our wedding favors... shudders

Haha, I'll definitely fail to mention that to him! xD

My character Sean. He is very selfish and wants the world to leave him alone. He hates most all other humans. People who read his past feel bad for him and then tend to like him. Or else they like him because his looks xD

That happened to me with my last novel. I can't remember how I originally planned my antagonist, but as I wrote more and learned more about his backstory and his relationship with the main supporting character, I started to really love his personality and genuinely feel bad for him. He wasn't a bad guy, really, just kind of misguided and overemotional, and his boyfriend actually sort of inadvertently screwed him over and things went very bad. :/

By contrast, in that same story, I had a couple characters that I totally meant to have a more prominent role and they just sort of fell by the wayside, and it made me sad because I really liked them as people. If I ever get off my lazy butt and do a rewrite I might try and give them some more screen time, just because I like them so much.

Yeah really, it's happened to me for sure. One of my main characters is supposed to be the type of character you're supposed to hate and yet I'm having a hard time with that idea. I mean he's not nice... least not to everyone but a select (very select few) and if I change too much about him, well then he wouldn't be quite the same. I've had this character for nearly 8 years after all.

Both the "hero" of the story and the "villain" can exhibit good traits and bad traits. In fact, what makes them the hero or the villain can come down to simply which side of the story goal they are standing on. Personally, I tend to make my villains as likable as possible. I even have a few who are initially more likable than the hero of the story, on purpose.

Both the hero and the villain should think they are right. (Even if that's just a delusion.) Both should believe the other is wrong. (Even if everyone else is telling them different.) Both should have reasons for feeling that way. And if the villain seems to have the more valid reasons, well, that just makes things interesting. It also opens up the possibility of having an anti-hero... A hero who doesn't possess the traditional qualities of a hero... A hero who might have been the villain, if it were a different story. I like anti-heroes. XD [edit] -realizes something- I like anti-villains... Villains that might have been the hero, if it were a different story. I... I did not know that. Well... I mean guess I did, vaguely, but I hadn't zeroed in on that aspect. -feels enlightened- LOL

lol. xD

He sounds like a character I'd get behind x) I like those grumpy hate the world charries

Hopefully the supporting charrie treats him better, cause your antagonist sounds like a very relatable guy, which is awesome I sometimes have a hard time getting mine that way.

I've noticed that the ones that are mean and hold their affection for a select few tend to be more loved because you get to see their more human side when they interact with those few. I know how you feel about changing someone you've had for eight years though. It's like cutting off a piece of yourself so you don't do it too often right?

It doesn't happen too often that they switch side, I just get too attached to go with my original plans for them lol. But you do bring up a very valid point.

Oh yes that sums it up perfectly I agree completely!

I used to try to force my story to fit my characters, but I've learned to let my characters develop alongside my story.

Since for me, my characters are almost real, when I am actually working on their stories especially... I pretend that maybe they lied to me when we first met. Maybe now that I know more about their world, they feel compelled to tell me the truth about who they are and what they are like. Makes it easier, especially when I have to make major changes. LOL (It does help that a lot of my characters have personality traits that would make them liable to lie me. Like the characters I am working on right now... MC1 is mischievous and MC2 is secretive. So, yeah, when they tell me I've got something wrong, I just go "Ugh. Fine. Is that all or is there something else you'd like to tell me?")

^^

I'm glad to know I'm not the only one who has like mini conversations with my characters... Though most of mine are me going "No, I'm not going to do that.... Fine you win stop it with the sad looks!" xD

Absolutely, all day, every day.

My current project's bad guy ended up being one of my favourite characters. Damn it. He's nasty.

I try to make all my villains sympathetic.... err, sometimes they end up too sympathetic. My current story's initial villain actually ends up being more of an anti-villian, and the primary antagonist became an alternate version of herself who's trying to get her to do her dirty work for her, and even then that character's intentions are noble. (Free an enslaved species, good, do so by giving them magic and plunging the world into total chaos.... well, it's not so good, at least according to the protag.)