How To Write A Protagonist

A protagonist is the main character of your story.

A Hero is the "good-guy" main character of your story.

An Anti-Hero is the "bad-guy" main character of your story.

The Hero and Anti-hero both come under the umbrella of Protagonist. When I talk about Protagonist, I am talking about the main character of your story.

What do they want?

Protagonists have wants and needs like any human being that you see walking on the street. Even if they are not a human being, for the protagonist to be active in the story, and relatable to the readers, they will need a want and a need.

A Want: This is something the character desires, it's in the front of their mind and it drives the goal of the story. In a love story, the goal might be to find love. In my story my protagonist wants to find his calendar.

A Need: A need is something your character may not think about or even realise is of significance. Usually it's related to the want and it is on a deep level. A need could be, and usually is, one of the basic human needs: Food, water, shelter, community, sex. In my story my character needs to keep his house. There could be a war because the characters need food.

When Want and Need come together: Want and Need are intertwined throughout the story. Want is what consciously drives the character towards their goal, a need is subconscious to the character but still guides their actions and drives the plot forward. In my story my Protagonist wants to find his calendar because if he doesn't, his marriage will end and he will be kicked out of his house. The calendar is his want, shelter is his need.

Who are they?

Protagonists need personality. Readers want to connect with them and become their best friend. So, protagonists need to burst from the page and come alive to the readers.

You need to do a character study.

What is a character study: There are lots of ways to achieve this on the internet. You could write a list on all the physical descriptions they have, you could write about their childhood and what their job is like and what their last 5 jobs were like, you could make the character biography 30 pages, or, you could try out my method.

Character Study: I allow myself to day dream about the characters until they are solid in my head. What do I imagine them looking like? What is their build like? If I were to walk past them on the street, what would my first impressions be? I allow my mind to go anywhere it wants to until I feel a picture of my character has stuck in my head. Once it's stuck you can write it down so you don't forget. I highly recommend doing that.

Next, I'll imagine what they are like doing everyday activities. I might imagine scenes from my novel or pretend they are seeing a movie and I let my mind goes where it goes until I feel I have a loose hold on my characters personality. Once I've had enough daydreaming I will write my character in different situations - at the supermarket, doing chores, as a child, as an elderly person, and see what comes. This is a great way to get to know your characters.

Study those around you.

There will be people you like and those people will likely represent the equivalent to a hero in your life. If there are people you have a love-hate relationship with, those people will likely represent the anti-hero in your life. Get to know these people and see what it is that they do that you like, what do they do to make you feel good. And what is contradictory about their behaviour? Everyone is contradictory all the time. I personally say I love staying up late and going out with my friends. I go to bed at 10pm every night and have only been out at night a handful of times. Everyone has contradictions about them and those contradictions will make your character pop.

When writing a Protagonist there are a few things they must have:

• A want. Something they are consciously striving for.

• A need. Something they may not realise they need but this drives the plot forward.

• A personality. What are their interests and how do they react/handle the world around them.

• A well rounded character. Make your character contradict themselves.