Character Development: Protagonist
The main character, or protagonist, of your story is the most important character you’ll need to develop. One approach that works well for many writers is to spend time brainstorming the protagonist’s backstory and personality.
Consider what motivates them as a person.
What are their strengths and weaknesses?
What challenges might they face throughout your story?Think about how your character will grow and change over the course of your narrative.
Another way you can create a captivating protagonist is to give them an interesting and unique perspective on the world.
Is your character an outsider or someone with a unique set of skills or experiences?
Consider giving your character a flaw or quirk that sets them apart from other characters in your story.
Ultimately, however you decide to craft your protagonist, they need to be relatable and to your readers. You can do this by:
Showing their vulnerabilities and flaws
Allowing them to make mistakes and learn from them.
Keep reading to learn more about creating your protagonist’s backstory, motivation, flaws, and more.
Protagonist Backstory
Construct a backstory for your protagonist that is detailed and rich enough to convey the character's development and personality to the audience. To achieve this, brainstorm what events in their past have shaped them into the person they are today.
When crafting a backstory, it’s important to consider the protagonist’s motivations, values, and beliefs. These will help you to create a more nuanced and complex character.
Motivation
To create a fully developed character, understand what your protagonist wants to achieve and delve deeper into their desires and objectives. Doing so, helps you develop a character that feels more realistic and relatable to your readers.
Flaws
Keep in mind that nobody is perfect. Imperfections make your protagonist interesting and relatable. Think about their flaws and weaknesses and how you can integrate them into the story.
Growth
Your protagonist's growth should feel authentic and believable, so it’s important to explore their experiences in depth. It’s also important to focus on the pacing of your protagonist's growth. Will it be a slow and steady process, or will it happen in sudden bursts?
Physical Appearance
Write down your protagonist’s height, hair and eye color, skin tone, body shape, and any distinguishing features such as scars or tattoos. Do they have any physical impairments that affect their daily life? Perhaps their physical appearance is tied to their cultural or ethnic background. These factors can help to make your character more relatable and interesting to the reader.
Birthdate and Age
Knowing your protagonist's age can help you understand their perspective and experiences.
Strengths
To better understand your protagonist and their abilities, it is important to explore their strengths. Also think about how their strengths and talents can be applied to situations, and how they may need to adapt or develop new skills to achieve their goals.
Weaknesses
It’s impossible to focus on your protagonist’s strengths without also looking at their weaknesses. Recognize the challenges they face like a lack of skills, confidence, or knowledge.
Biggest Fear
Know your protagonist’s biggest fear. This fear can help you build tension and create conflict in your plot because you can introduce circumstances that force your main character to confront their fear.
Personality Tests
Finally, to create a more well-rounded protagonist, you may want to consider taking a personality test from the mindset of your protagonist. This can help you gain insight into their personality traits and how they might react in different situations.
Exploring your character's personality in-depth can help you create more complex and realistic relationships between characters, too.