Okay, so when I say a 'good' protagonist, I don't necessarily mean they're a good person. I mean, usually, they are. After all, they are the driving force of the novel, and readers tend to side with the morally just characters.

I say 'tend to', because I know my readers and I have learnt, in the past few months, that some of you are... well, what's the nice way to put this?

Sadists.

Respect to you, though! You love seeing the world get destroyed, and you own that! I, too, like to cause chaos in the world by asking to taste test like six different ice cream flavours whenever I go to an ice cream store.

Now, as for our protagonist, what do I mean by a 'good' protagonist?

I mean a protagonist that is engaging. That your readers genuinely care about and want to follow. Sometimes, people have amazing premises and plot twists, but they just cannot retain their readers because no one really clicks with their protagonist.

Your protagonist is the central force of your story. It's the person who, quite often, is the lens in which you view the story. Do they have to be a good person? Absolutely not. Hitler didn't rise an army due to having excellent ethical and moral standards. Rather, he was charismatic and charming, and made people feel understood enough to follow his dream.

Similarly, you want your protagonist to be someone your reader understands and cares about. You want them to read because they are invested in this character. And if they aren't good... well, then why should the reader even care about what happens to them?

Now, the way I conceptualise a protagonist is sort of like IKEA furniture!

For those who don't know IKEA, it's a furniture store that is literally giant, sells beds and chairs and tables and everything, and also sells pretty sick meatballs. However, IKEA furniture comes with a twist:

They give you the parts. You build it yourself.

Cue the pain of being unable to understand instructions. Cue the spouses fighting. Cue the divorce.

Now, creating your protagonist is like building a piece of IKEA furniture! Let's go through it!

You need to know your house before you buy any furniture. You don't want an entirely pink house, and then, bam! You have this random orange rug in the middle of it, ruining the aesthetic. It simply does not fit.

Similarly, you need to make sure that you know your story well -- or, at least, your premise and world. That way, you know what sort of protagonist you need to ensure the plot moves forward and the world makes sense.

Sometimes, people construct their world and plot around their protagonist. This is fine, too! Just make sure they all work seamlessly with each other.

You need to know the purpose of something before you buy it.

If you know you need something to sleep on, that tells you that... well, you probably need to buy a bed.

When you create your protagonist, you need to give them purpose. Goals. Dreams. An antagonist force. Something that actually gives their presence purpose and meaning.

Additionally, it needs to be a problem that we feel like only they can solve. Or something we feel has additional importance to them as a character. We want their purpose in the story to be meaningful.

Like, sure. If we look at Mary Had A Little Lamb -- why is Mary the main character in that song? It's because she is the one with the sheep who won't stop following her. Not some other kid. She is the one with the sheep who stalks her incessantly like a creep.

Notice how sheep and creep rhyme? Interesting.

Additionally, when you create their purpose, you need to make sure something is stopping them. Otherwise, it's like... okay, they want to make a cup of tea? Great. Go make a cup of tea. Done. Easy. Story over. No one cares.

However, if they want to make a tea... but there is a dragon guarding all the tea bags? That wants to eat anyone who goes near the tea bags? Now we have a story.

When you look at the aesthetic of your home, your furniture should also match the vibe. Do you want a new television that blasts loud sounds? Or do you want an old, antique fridge that doesn't work but happened to be part of the French Revolution?

You need to make sure your protagonist history is relevant to your story. You don't want to give them a sob story that never really contributes to their personality or the story events. And, honestly, if they're just an average kid doing average things with a very average backstory... sure! That's fine!

Just make sure it makes sense.

If you're going to have a super average kid who has lived a super average and normal life, then you don't want them to suddenly be super angry towards the whole world for absolutely no reason other than "that's sexy".

Use your backstory to explain why they are who they are. And keep it relevant. I don't need to know that the protagonist spent six hours shopping for carpets inside their mother's stomach before they were born (unless the carpet is a magical carpet or if there was some weird character building happening inside the womb, but also, why would you do that?).

Imagine buying a small, robotic vacuum cleaner that cleans the house by itself.

And then, imagine keeping it on the floor and doing nothing with it.

Waste of money.

You want your protagonist to move the the story and the plot through their actions and choices. Some commonly disliked protagonists are usually disliked because, rather than making actions and choices that lead to the plot rolling forward, they simply react to things happening around them. Aside from responding to other people doing things, they literally do nothing to help the plot move.

While it is great to have moments where things happen to the character and it's all about their reactions, you also want to ensure there are moments where your character is doing something. They are the ones moving the plot. They are the ones being curious or angry or stupid enough to do something that will lead to the world being in an apocalypse. I dunno.

Make sure they make actions. Make sure they make choices.

You need to make sure they...

You don't buy the vacuum cleaner, only for it to suddenly start belting out "We Don't Talk About Bruno" while washing the dishes and eating a frog. You buy it to vacuum the house.

Similarly, you need to make sure that your character's actions and choices make sense.

If they're a cowardly person who is terrified of the world, don't make them randomly confront a freaking assassin for no reason other than "you needed to move the plot forward". You need to give a reasoning behind every single action they make. And it needs to make sense to the reader, otherwise they no longer feel real.

What was that?

Segue into the next one?

Your furniture has to be real. That's why we are buying it from IKEA. Not Walmart.

You must make sure your character is believable and relatable. They must feel like a real human being that we can bring ourselves to care for. This includes letting them struggle and fail. This includes letting them feel sad, painful emotions to balance out the happy, exciting moments.

When you begin building your character, you must make them feel as real as possible?

Speaking of building characters...

Before you start building, let's look at the pieces. We want to construct this protagonist, right? So, what pieces do we need to make a protagonist? Here are, in my opinion, the vital pieces your protagonist needs:

- Something to gain.

- Something to lose.

The two above don't necessarily need to be established straight away. Can you imagine that?

"Once upon a time, there was a boy named Brian. He could gain world peace. He could lose a sausage roll."

Nah.

You can have the stakes shown to the reader later in the novel, especially if the character is yet to see the gains/losses until later on. After all, some protagonists genuinely start of clueless -- and that's totally okay!

More pieces you need include:

- Meaningful habits and idiosyncrasies.

- Compelling qualities.

Pause.

When I say compelling, this can be anything. Maybe they are likeable and funny. Maybe they are twisted and weird. Maybe they are the underdog. Maybe they have super contradictory quirks, like they are scared of pianos but they're a musician in an orchestra.

Whatever it is, make them different to the people around them. Make sure they have something that stands out.

Speaking of standing out, make sure they have:

-

And, you know what? I'm gonna say it. Being clumsy and awkward is not a flaw.

Yup.

I said it.

Unless someone has severe social anxiety that genuinely affects their ability to communicate and interact, and is something you want to see them grow from, then go right ahead. But there is a difference between 'haha I'm so clumsy that I just tripped and landed on my romantic interest's lips" and "I am genuinely so terrified of people that I don't know how I will survive this school year".

Also, for anyone with social anxiety, I'm not saying that having social anxiety is a flaw! However, if it is impairing your protagonist's ability to do what they want to do, then yes, that can be considered something that is hindering them that they want to grow out of.

As for other flaws, I would love to see more dishonest protagonists. Greedy protagonists. Cowardly. Short-sighted. Selfish. Jealous.

I know what you're thinking. Sunshine -- they're protagonists! They're supposed to be good! Now greedy or selfish!

Well, I'm a pretty good person. And, because I am a flawed human being who is real and reasonable, I totally get jealous when my dog gives more attention to my socks than to me. I absolutely have eaten the last piece of pizza, just because I was hungry and I wanted it, before asking anyone if they wanted it. I have walked past charity donation counters because a) I am too poor and b) I wanted to use the money I could give to buy myself an extra box of cookies with my groceries.

And I just know that in a war against good and evil, or in a world where I am dealing with real stakes, those little acts of 'selfishness' or 'jealousy' would be amplified even more so.

So, there is no shame in having a protagonist with some scary, 'villainous' traits. Because it's human to be jealous and selfish. It's usually because we simply care too much about something.

Also, one last advice for here: if you are going to make them funny, make sure you know your audience and make sure you master the humour required.

Making people laugh is so damned hard. If you take it the smallest step too far, it could become cringe-worthy.

So, now you put it all together. The flaws, the strengths, the backstory, the stakes. All of it comes together to create your protagonist.

But what are some things that you need to make sure they stand out?

- Their interactions with characters.

They won't say the same thing to every single character, unless they're an automated robot in which case... link me your book. I'm curious.

You want to show where they sit in the world by showing the different ways they react to different people. Show us some power balances and imbalances. Show us some tension between some characters, but some wholesome sweeping moments of laughter between others.

- Don't build it too rigid.

Give them the capacity to change and grow. Make sure they are able to learn from their experiences. By the end of the book, the reader should be able to look back and see that the protagonist is no longer the exact same as they were in the start.

- Multiple protagonists is fine!

Just like it is okay to have multiple chairs for a table, it is alright to have multiple protagonists! Just make sure they all stand out from one another!

Basically, read a lot of books.

This is going to help you with the building process. You'll learn what you like, what you don't like, how good authors incorporate strong characterisation, and learn a thing or two about how to effectively develop a character.

I have probably asked you to read like... seven hundred times.

Consider this number seven hundred and one.

Read.

In your house, not everyone is going to like your taste in rugs or beddings. Not everyone is going to think your sofa is comfortable. People have different tastes when it comes to interior design, and it's no different for literature.

The most important thing to understand is that no matter how brilliantly you write your protagonist or how much care you put into every detail, not everyone will love them. It's human nature. There is always someone who irks us.

Like, have you ever met someone, and for some reason you just can't explain, you don't like them? No matter how hard you try?

That's the case with characters. You will always have big fans, but you will also have people who just don't care about your protagonist.

Accept this. And just maximise your chances of having a strong protagonist by making sure they are complex, authentic and unique characters!

I hope this helps people! I'm sorry it is so vague. At the end of the day, there is no 'standard recipe to a perfect protagonist' -- after all, the originality of our characters is what makes them stand out!

Next time, we'll be talking about I'd love to hear some thoughts here on this topic! How do you like to foreshadow? Do you find it super difficult? Love it? Hate it? Want to have babies with it? I know I do. Oops, I said too much--

As always! If you have any topics you want me to discuss, let me know! I'm a bit random with my update schedule here, as I'm sure... many have noticed. Wheeee!