How Do I Create a Great Protagonist?

A protagonist is one of the main characters or the main character of a story, whether the person is ‘good’, the hero, or ‘bad’, the villain. Creating a great protagonist is the key to writing a successful story.

First and foremost, the protagonist must be believable. The reader needs to be able to picture and, importantly, relate to the protagonist. As the main character of your story, the protagonist leads it. What they say and do will change how the story progresses.

Creating a great protagonist means you know your character well. As an author, you picture how they look, smell, sound and react to different situations. A good test of whether you have created a good protagonist is to see if someone else can relate to the portrayal of your character.

Imagine your character walking into a room or a scene in your story. What would your protagonist do first? What’s the first thing they would see or concentrate on? Different characters will see things differently and react differently to the same situations.

Many authors make lists of their characters, including age, motivations, what they like, what they dislike, and even words they like to use. The main characters or protagonists will have more details. It is these details that the author uses to make the protagonists stand out from other characters.

A good protagonist will move the story along, so the protagonist will usually be the person in the story that does things, they are in the middle of the action, and their actions or reactions change the storyline.

Protagonists are strong, resilient, and likable characters. They may have a charm or be socially awkward, but the reader likes them and thinks that if they were a natural person, the reader would like to be a friend of the character.

Happy Writing!