How much time do you spend getting to know your protagonist? While reading this post, I was inspired to go back to a character I had written quite a few words about but never really felt I got her motivations and perceptions quite right. I am inspired to go back now and take the time to fill out the character a little more and then rework my story.
Getting to Know Your Protagonist
Today’s guest post is by Steven-John Tait.
If you’ve ever struggled to get under the skin of your protagonist, don’t lose hope. This post tells how mine went from a protagonist I couldn’t relate to to someone so real to me that I felt guilty about finishing the novel and therefore his existence.
Here’s my experience from initial inspiration to the creative processes I used, and my eventual breakthrough and tips you can apply to your own work.
On vacation in a town in North Brazil, I was drinking a beer at one of many beachside bars, when I noticed a haggard man walking between the tables and chairs trying to catch anyone’s eye. It was obvious he was looking for someone to take advantage of. Nobody returned his gaze except me.
He sat down across from me and asked the waiter for a beer and a cachaça. The waiter looked to me for approval because we both knew that I’d be the one paying. I couldn’t understand much of what my guest said because my Portuguese hardly gets me from A to B, but he interested me, as did the faded tattoos over his arms and the white lines he’d drawn on himself using acid from cashew nut shells.
Here I was on the other side of the world, drinking beer with someone I’d never otherwise have met. I’d been looking for this since I set the goal of writing a novel. Here was my protagonist, and this town would be the setting. From then on I couldn’t think of one without the other.
I returned home, and having found the initial spark sat down to write the novel, but I had a problem: my protagonist.
Read the full story on Live Write Thrive!