Write Great Characters

In Part 1 you will be getting to know your central character, also known as the protagonist (from the Greek ‘the first to suffer’). We’ll begin with the basics—physical appearance, age … through to the more fundamental—beliefs, flaw, paradox and desires.

(Though you might have more than one central character (protagonist) in your story, in the following I’ll be referring to the protagonist in the singular, for ease of communication.)

Before we begin:

Imagine that you’re travelling on a train. You’re bored with your phone (yes, really!) and decide, instead, to just observe the others sharing your carriage. You notice that the most occupied seats are those next to the window and facing the direction of travel—in fact, you were rather miffed when the person who is sitting next to you got to the window seat first. You wonder why these seats are prime real estate and perhaps all sorts of philosophical questions arise about the things we, as human beings, share.

It’s good to ponder the commonalities of human nature; it will be important as we travel together.

Although you acknowledge the similarities between us all, you know that there are a lot of differences too. You notice the middle-aged woman dressed conservatively reading a book on serial murderers. Facing her is a young man whose face has almost disappeared into his hoodie. Despite the earphones his music is still audible, and you can tell that it’s rap. Further on, a father in a business suit is softly reading to his daughter who is nestled into his lap. Each of them is the hero of their own journey, a story you can only speculate about, or not.

We don’t usually think too much about other people on the train, or perhaps anywhere else, unless we become involved with them in some way. In fact, often you might not know what the person sitting next to you looks like, and it’s of no real interest anyway, unless...

Their phone rings—the bars to a heavy metal song—and when they answer you hear that their voice is young and agitated. You don’t want to listen, but you become quickly drawn into the conversation. Something seems to be wrong—perhaps somebody is in hospital, and you suspect that the person at the other end is trying to calm them down. When they end the call, you notice that the hand closest to you is trembling. You could ignore their distress. After all, you’re getting off at the next stop and will probably never see them again, but you ask, ‘Are you okay?’