Two miniature people sitting on top of books. The woman has a ponytail and a yellow dress and is facing the man who is turned away. He has shot brown hair and a blue vest.

Don't Sabotage Your Hero: Common Protagonist-Crafting Errors

Characters are the engine of your story, but they can be hard to pin down. Even seasoned writers can struggle when creating credible, relatable and fully-fledged protagonists. The plot can seduce writers into crafting an incredible story full of twists and turns, only to discover that their protagonist hasn’t followed.
Poorly developed characters are among the main reasons someone will stop reading a story and this is even more true for your protagonist. If the reader can’t step into their shoes, they can’t experience the story as if it were happening to them, which is one of the main reasons why we read fiction.

When assessing manuscripts, I often come across one of these four common mistakes writers make when crafting their protagonists.

1) The protagonist has no goal
As Kurt Vonnegut deftly puts, your protagonist needs to want something.

“Make your characters want something right away, even if it’s only a glass of water. Characters paralysed by the meaninglessness of modern life still have to drink water from time to time.”
Kurt Vonnegut

Whatever your hero wants, make sure their goals are made clear. In ‘The Great Gatsby’, for example, all Jay Gatsby wants is to be with Daisy Buchanan. In A.M. Shine’s ‘The Watchers’, Mina first wants to deliver the bird and later, she wants to escape the bunker and get away from the Watchers. In Gillian Flynn’s ‘Gone Girl’, Nick Dune wants to find his missing wife, Amy.

Perhaps your protagonist wants a fulfilling relationship, a better job, a different life, a very rare book or a brand-new car. Whatever it is, make sure it’s clear from the start. Knowing the protagonist’s goals orients the reader as to where the story is going. While the protagonist might not get what they want and their goals might change, the reader will still enjoy following them on their journey. It’s not just your protagonist and your villain, either. Every character in your story has a goal, so make sure you account for that.

2) The protagonist’s motivation isn’t clear
Sometimes, the character has a clear goal, but it’s not clear why they want it. For example, against the advice of their close friends, your protagonist accepts a difficult job that pays close to nothing. This isn’t the most intuitive move, so the reader will wonder about the reason. Is your protagonist in a tight spot? Do they owe something to their new employer? Are they trying to prove something to someone and if so, what and to whom?

Writers often have all the answers, but forget to put them on the page. Having said that, there’s no need to provide a detailed explanation or insert a long monologue in which the protagonist explains it all. Subtle clues are enough. The reader will pick up on them and build a picture. Characters without clear motivation can feel whimsical and hard to understand, so make sure you show what is driving your protagonist.

3) The protagonist has no agency

Your protagonist won’t always make the best choices, in fact it’s better if they don’t. In the first third of your novel, things will often happen to them, forcing them to react. However, they shouldn’t mostly be reacting. As the story moves on, your protagonist will begin to change and take control of their story. The reader not only expects this change, they come for it. If your protagonist isn’t driving the story, they’re primarily reacting to whatever comes their way, which makes them a passive character who lets others fight their own battles. I don’t know many readers who’d invest hours into following such a character’s story.

Make sure that your hero claims a stake in their story and that the events happen because of their actions, not despite of them.

4) The protagonist doesn’t change

Every good story is about change, whether external or internal. This is even more true for your hero, whose life is turned upside down pretty much from the start. They’ll go through challenging and sometimes harrowing events. They might lose loved ones and their truths and beliefs might be proven wrong. They might be betrayed by those they trust or plunged into despair by cruel circumstances. Whatever the external events, they will affect your hero, causing them to change. Yet so many protagonists have a flat character arc and end the story more or less unchanged. This not only takes away from their credibility, it also flattens the entire story and diminishes the reader’s emotional pay-off.

For example, a hero who is betrayed by their partner and needs to rebuild their life will not likely make the same choices and mistakes they did at the beginning at the end again. That’s because they’ve learned from their experience. They’ve grown and changed. The change might be minor or symbolic, but make sure it’s on the page.