The protagonist is THE main character of your story. They are the backbone of everything you’ve created – you’re telling their story, after all. Because of this, they deserve to be fully developed and well-rounded. A badly written protagonist will inevitably lead to an overall poorly constructed story.

I’ve collected some tips I follow when developing my protagonist in my stories, and I’ve decided to share them with you so you can have the best protagonist possible.

 

1. Make a connection between the protagonist and reader

The protagonist should be likeable and memorable. Give them qualities you know your readers are going to fall in love with. Keep in mind, this doesn’t mean your protagonist should be perfect! Your protagonist might not even be the good guy, and that’s okay. But to make them believable, your audience needs to be invested in the story and want your protagonist to succeed. This will keep your readers reading. To do this, you’ll need to make them relatable.

 

2. Give them flaws

Your job as a writer is to make your characters as realistic as possible. In order to do that, you’ll need to give your protagonist flaws. Human beings in everyday life have flaws, so your characters should too. It doesn’t have to be some huge, morally conflicting flaw, but you need something to make them not seem perfect. Perfect is boring.

 

3. Know their history (and tell the reader some of it!)

Your protagonist is the reason you’re writing your story. Because of this, you need to know how they got to where they are currently as the book is starting – aka you need to know their history. As part of this, you – the author – need to reveal some of this history to the reader so they understand the motives of the protagonist behind the story arc. You don’t need to give everything away – some mystery is good – but make sure you give the reader enough of the significant events of their backstory.

 

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4. Find out their motivation

This suggestion might fall in line with the previous point a little, depending on how you’ve planned out your story. Your protagonist wants to obtain something – physically, metaphorically, spiritually – and it’s your job as the author to know what the motivation behind this drive for success is. Once you know what your protagonist’s motivation for their endgame goal is, show this to your audience. Make them want it too.

 

5. Make your protagonist work for their endgame

Put obstacles up in your protagonist’s way. No one wants to see a cakewalk. Working hard for their goal is what will keep your readers flipping the pages. The easiest way to do this? Give your protagonist something to lose. If there’s a risk to lose everything while going along their journey. This loss will be the largest non-physical object they can possibly encounter on their journey. That being said, the physical obstacles are also great to have in place as well.

 

6. Your protagonist should grow by the end of the book

And I don’t mean grow in height. They should learn something about themselves before you wrap everything up. Your protagonist should no longer be the same person they were at the beginning of the novel. They will have changed, adapted, and evolved into a different version of themselves. After all, they’ve just overcome many challenges and reached their personal endgame!

 

So there’s some suggestions for creating a believable and well-rounded protagonist. Let me know if you have any other suggestions you’ve used in your own writing! I always love to hear from you!

 

 

Teagan Berry writes books, watches sports, and reads. She started her blog initially to beat writer’s block, but it’s turned into so much more.