The Right To Write

Leading Character: Part 3

What makes a protagonist overall compelling in his role? Apart from his personality, how do you make readers feel that he is perfect for the role he was given?

Thanks to Nocturnal_Narrator for requesting this. Please check out her amazing work!

Disclaimer: A couple of these tips were based loosely on writing videos. Morgan Lyfe, also known as Little Word Weaver, and Ellen Brock. Both of them have youtube channels and make great writing videos!

Undergo change. The overall picture of your plot should consist of your protagonist moving from point A to point B. From undertaking a major problem and solving it. They can't do that without learning something. They need to gather that they made mistakes. They need to not only fix the major problem, but need to change themselves in order to succeed.

For example, maybe your character has been trying to solve the plot by violence, but in the end, he realized the only way he can fully solve it is through compassion. Thus he learns there is yet one more way to solve problems. My example may represent a minor change because it's hard to base a plot on this change, and you need a number of minor changes to give your story a feel of evolution and progression. 

Depending on the plot, your character needs to make a huge change on their personality. It may be as big as transplanting their motives, or from being untrustworthy to trusting to humanity. Anything seemingly appropriate for your setting and storyline.

A major flaw. This may slightly correlate with my example above. It is. But I need to discuss the actual nature of the flaw.

Your character should have many flaws, like all of us. But there needs to be one flaw in particular that stands out. The flaw defies every other point I make; it is the one thing that acts against your protagonist being the ideal character.

Why? Because that is the one thing keeping them from resolving the plot. Let's keep it at this; your character his exactly one step away from being the ideal character. As far as character's roles, they shouldn't be wholly suitable in the beginning. The chances of your main character surviving or succeeding should be doubted. Until, they grow into the ideal character. They don't transform into one overnight. They learn to grow into an essential hero.

Maybe Laura grew up in laid back society, where help was always available around her. But her dependance makes the plot much harder to execute because the plot is based on something she has to do alone. In the end, she may or may not resolve that flaw as a dependant person. It is still possible to end the plot without her imperfect view being corrected, but it is completely up to you. Of course, the resolve of the flaw may lead to a more free-flowing ending, and satisfying resolve. 

Flaws consist of false belief that should connect with a past event or upbringing. You need it to connect with backstory due to the validity of the present. Readers won't find it believable enough that she's shy just because she's shy. Readers will find it much more credible if it had to do with the way she was raised, or perhaps a traumatizing event.

They need to experience the viewpoint of the antagonists. I don't mean the protagonist has to be the antagonist for a period of time. She just has to know what really goes on behind the veil of evil.

It could connect with her past, if that is more applicable to your situation.

Readers need to feel the villain. They need to experience why and what goes behind the scenes. There is no better way do this than through the protagonist. The protagonist may have had sheer experience in the antagonist's standpoint, may be tempted to become the antagonist, or may feel obligated to use the methods of the antagonist against him.

We all need to see the dark, crushed side of your hero.

Of course, don't have your character wholly become the villain. That would completely turn the tables, and not in a good way. You don't what your protagonist going about saying, "Hey Lexus, move over, I'm the new villain. You go sit there in the in the corner, or better yet, how about you take my place as protagonist."

Yeah no. That's not my point.

This will give yet another layer to your character. In my vision, there are three stages of a main character in a book. Mediocre, bad, then good. We need to see all their shades. Your character needs to have a simple start, rough middle, breaking point, recovery, and a satisfying, or not-so-satisfying, resolution.

I mean to say that your character only needs to understand the ways of evil she's encountering. And this is based of the presumption that you have an antagonist. If you have any scenario such as "Man versus Nature" or "Man versus World," forget all I just said.

Sacrifice. You can use this on a few levels. And I suggest that you try to use it on every level. As a writer, you should want to strain the amount of sympathy readers feel for your character. Thus making the resolve significantly more satisfying. Here are several ways to characterize sacrifice:

-The initial sacrifice. Or for starts, the denial of your character's goals. Once you've developed your character, you have most likely outlined your character's lifestyle, and what she wants, as far as un-plot-related life. You've probably informed the reader that she wants to be a doctor, or that she is saving up for a house. Sweet, right? But what does that have to do with the plot? It has everything to do with the plot. Your job, as the sparker of the plot, is to defy your character's dream life and goals.

This makes choices excruciatingly hard for the character. As the plot goes on, you need to introduce the fact that she can't solve a crime and get straight A's at the same time. So to intensify the importance of the plot, she has to choose her path and give up her values to reach her plot-related goals.

-The climactic sacrifice. This is one of the major ways to make your character stand out. A life-or-death question of will. Merely handling the plot is one thing for the character, but to take it to another step would be the ultimate sacrifice. It should be the act of your character willingly becoming fully vulnerable. Voluntarily putting herself in an undesirable situation in order to save something else she values.

This, as you may have assumed, is best placed into the climax. Everyone is depending on the climax to fill their day with wild adventure and forming conclusion. Just stick it in that madness, you won't regret it.