Am I supposed to Like Him

Monday, March 15 2010 -

That was the question raised by someone after reading Chapter 1 of my latest book . I laughed, because that was almost exactly the question I wanted to be asked. I very deliberately wrote the opening scenes so that the reader could both like and dislike my main character.

Now the real delicate part. By chapter two you have to either avidly like or avidly dislike him. If you don’t, then I’ve failed, because you won’t continue to read.

After thinking about this some more I’ve begun to doubt my approach here. Should you be able to form that opinion before the end of chapter 1? By delaying how many readers am I going to lose?