The First Element: Someone to Care About

(Disclaimer: I use ‘him’ to describe the potential protagonist of a story, but that doesn’t mean you’re limited to a guy. I promise. You can exchange any ‘him’ for a ‘her’ and be just fine)

What would it be like to read a story without a protagonist? Pretty boring right?

Any story doesn’t exist without the protagonist. Of course, there are lots of other story elements that would cause the story to not exist, such as a plot, setting, and conflict, but if there’s no main character to follow the plot, interact with the setting (and/or other characters, but it is possible to write a story with just one character; look at Castaway. I know there are other characters in the movie, but the majority of the film is just one guy and a volleyball. A volleyball. Named Wilson.)

(I digress.)

Anyway, the point is that you can definitely write a story with only one character, but there has to be at least one character, preferably someone likeable, that we can follow through the story with. Returning to my Castaway example here, imagine if the movie showed us the island with no characters. Just shots of the island, and that’s it. Snoozefest, right? (Please tell me you said right)

But let’s get to the nitty gritty of a protagonist.

Protagonist is a big fancy word that means “Main character.”

Very frequently, the protagonist is subject to unjust suffering. It makes him seem more relatable and not on that  high horse we all know and hate. 

Very frequently.

Very.

Very.

Very.

Very.

Frequently, protagonists are orphans. Of course I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, I just think it’s far too overused. You can make your protagonist suffer in thousands of other ways.

Make him have asthma.

Or give him allergies he can’t seem to control.

Maybe he has skin problems he can’t seem to clear up that he’s horribly insecure about

Or you know, make him a redhead. He’ll get all three!

Anyway, the point is you need to make him relatable. If he’s super talented and does everything right on the first try, we won’t be able to relate to him. It won’t be fun to read about him if he doesn’t have flaws.

So make him flawed, make him relatable, and make him exist.

Because there is no story without someone to care about.