Day 9: Getting Your Reader to Root for Your Protagonist with Katherine Sherbrooke

Today we hear from author Katherine Sherbrooke about how to make your reader root for your protagonist and why you should even need to try. What if your character is an awful person? What if they don’t want to do anything? We talk about navigating these complexities in order to keep the reader engaged.Katherine Sherbrooke is the author of a family memoir called Finding Home and three novels: the New York Times notable Leaving Coy’s Hill, which was selected for 2022 MA Book Award’s Honors in Fiction prize, and Fill the Sky, the winner of a 2017 Independent Press Award and finalist for the Mary Sarton Award for Contemporary Fiction. Her newest novel, THE HIDDEN LIFE OF ASTER KELLY is coming out on April 4th from Pegasus Books. She just ended her term as Chair of the Board of GrubStreet but will forever be a Grubbie. Find all of our craft book faves and books by our guests on our Bookshop page. Thank you for reading The 7am Novelist. This post is public so feel free to share it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit 7amnovelist.substack.com