The Protagonist of your story is the main character. It’s the person you will spend the most time with, the person who’s story you’re following. When you set out to write their story, you need to ask yourself why. Why this character, why now? If you don’t have an answer to those questions, your Protagonist won’t really matter, so your story won’t really matter either.
The best stories take characters on a journey. They are changed and shaped by the events in your story and come out the other end as different people. This is emotional journey is known as your character’s arc. Usually a Protagonist will arc towards greater strength, learning from their errors, and an Antagonist will arc to greater evil.
When you’re reading about a romance between two characters, assuming they’re adults, sex is a likely outcome. Letting your audience into that incredibly personal experience can be very rewarding. However, a badly written sex scene is just awkward and uncomfortable.
I’ll be exploring how making your characters suffer is important for keeping the conflict active, keeping your story entertaining, and giving your character an interesting arc.
There are various ways you can keep your audience invested in finding out what happens in your story, but here I’ll be talking about Unresolved Sexual Tension.
One of the most important things to consider when you’re writing a story is the relationship between your Protagonist and your audience. If your audience don’t care about what happens to your Protagonist, they won’t care what happens in your story.
When it comes to constructing a villain in your story, you need to put as much care and time into that character as you do the hero. No matter how interesting your hero is, and how exciting the conflict is, a boring villain will make your story boring. I’ll be exploring how to make sure your villain is an interesting character.
The Protagonist of your story is the main character. You join them at the beginning of the story, and ride with them until the climax. At points you might move into the Point Of View (POV) of other characters, such as the Antagonist, but for the most part you stick with the Protagonist. In this post, I’ll be explaining about how to transition your Protagonist from a passive character into an active one, and why it matters.
Your Protagonist has to have strengths to make them worthy of being your Protagonist. You’re telling a story about them so they need qualities that make that story work, be it strength, intelligence, or determination to succeed. However, their weaknesses are just as important as their strengths. I’ll be writing about why.
In reality, your characters exist solely to serve your story. They were born the moment they first appeared on the page, and they will die at The End. That is their entire world. However, your characters need to feel to your audience like they live and breathe in a world far beyond your pages. They need to be complete people, people who your audience can believe in. If your audience doesn’t believe in your characters, they won’t believe in your story.