Last week, I gave advice on beginning the creation of the main character or protagonist of your novel, developing their physical appearance, basic personality, and some backstory. This week, I want to dig deeper to write a compelling protagonist, delving into goals, lies and fears. All three elements can be uncovered with one question.
The Power of Asking Why
Sometimes, the genre dictates the goal of your protagonist. I write mysteries for teens. So the goal of my teen sleuth Rae Riley is to solve the mystery. But I have to go deeper with my why questions: why does Rae have to solve this mystery? Since I write a series, her goal can change for each novel. In the short story that started the series, “A Rose from the Ashes”, Rae is looking for the father she’s never known and trying to figure out if he attempted to murder her late mother when she was pregnant with Rae.
She wants to solve this mystery for personal reasons. But why? That might sound silly–everyone wants to know who their father is, but I need to find out why Rae does. Well, she was raised by her mother, who had no family. Now that her mom has died of cancer, Rae is alone. So loneliness and the innate desire for family are driving Rae to uncover a possible killer.
In later stories, the goal is still to solve the mystery but for different reasons. No matter what the reasons, they still have to fit with Rae’s basic character, which is she’s observant, curious, and likes to help people in trouble. Nothing angers a reader more than for a series character to suddenly acquire deep motivations that have never even been hinted at before because the author needed those motivations for this particular novel.
Does Your Protagonist Have to Believe a Lie?
Many tips on developing your protagonist say he must believe a lie, and through the course of the story, learns it is a lie and grows from this new knowledge. This approach works well for protagonists in stand alone novels. But if I have the same series character believe a lie in every novel, she will eventually come across as a nitwit.
Another way to create growth for a character is doubt, which works for both a stand alone and a series characters. In fact, I even put doubt in one of my titles, A Storm of Doubts. In that novel, Rae wrestles with the doubt that Mal, the man her late mother said had to be her father, actually is. Because Rae and Mal thought they didn’t need a DNA test, Rae worries that her con man uncle’s insinuations that he is her father might be true.
I like working with Rae’s doubts rather than her belief in a lie because it gives me more room to explore her experience and keep readers guessing about what will happen next. When a character believes a lie, most readers can pick it out easily and know right away that the story will be about the character learning it is a lie. I want to surprise my readers, and a protagonist with doubts lets me do that.
What is Your Character’s Greatest Fear?
In a stand alone novel, your protagonist’s greatest fear should be the most serious threat he faces as he works toward his goal. The hero of a fantasy novel fears letting down his father the king, once again, and the whole kingdom as well, if he doesn’t recover the item that will rescue it from the forces of evil on his quest.
Keep asking why questions to uncover your protagonist’s greatest fear. In A Storm of Doubts, why does Rae care about her uncle’s hints, especially when she knows he’s a con man? Because she loves Mal and the family that’s accepted her. His hints stoke her greatest fear, losing her dad and her family.
Since I write a series, I can’t invoke this fear in every novel–too repetitive. But Rae has other fears that mix with her doubts and are tied to the mysteries she solves.
What techniques do you use for digging deeper to write a compelling protagonist?
