Make a protagonist live

by Vivian Zabel  

         Every plot needs a protagonist, a hero or heroine, maybe one of each. How do we make them real, not caricatures?

          All stories and novels, even many poems, have a hero or heroine. More and more heroines fill the bookshelves, too. What characteristics do we want in our protagonist? For what do we search when we read, use when we write? Let’s examine creating a hero (I’ll just use the term hero for the rest of the editorial, but everything applies to a heroine, too).

         A hero needs to be believable.

         "Okay, fine," someone says. "How does a writer make a hero believable?"

         One way is to pay attention to the small stuff, the details. That doesn’t mean as writers we have to include everything possible in the story or novel, but we should have the hero so developed, in our minds, that he or she lives.

          Natashya Wilson, www.aresix.blogspot.com, as well as numerous composition books and my notes from writing classes, workshops, and clinics include the following information when examining the components of a hero:

1. The hero should be appealing and should inspire.

         Reading about him/her should give readers a feelings that they, the readers, too can achieve their goals. The hero should help readers to find courage and the will to continue. Any hero needs to be strong and intelligent, as well as be human with flaws that readers can understand, but with the ability needed to succeed.

         No matter what, the reader must be able to relate to the hero on some level.

2. The writer needs to develop the hero completely.

         I noted earlier that the heroes should be developed in our minds until they are real. We should have a background, childhood, friends, family, home, and likes and dislikes all in our mental files. We need to note his motivations, phobias, the people he respects. Not all the information will go into our stories or novels, but the details are there, making our hero real. If we made our heroes live for us, they are more likely to live for readers.

3. Every hero needs a special skill or quality.

         We should ask ourselves what gives him an advantage over the bad guy or guys, and why he doesn’t give up? Then we use those answers to enhance our hero.

4. The characters around the hero need to be interesting and fully developed, too.

         Those around our hero should be worthy of him. The love interest and the villains should have depth, be realistic and believable. The hero should have a reason to love the other person; the heroine should be in love with someone worth loving. The villain should test the merit of the hero.

5. The plot should grab the reader’s attention and challenge the hero.

         Readers have to care what happens and want to continue reading.

6. Make sure the hero has an emotional stake in the outcome.

         Another way to help the reader care is to create an emotional stake for the hero. He shouldn’t want to “win” just because it’s his job or is the “right” thing to do.

7. Add a touch of romance.

         A bit of romance enlivens the plot and makes the hero more human. The romance should not be the main focus or just thrown it, but it should be a natural part of the story.

         Many of today's stories and novels throw in romance and/or sex scenes without ryhyme or reason (used a cliché, I know). Anything inserted in a story, including romance, needs to add to the plot, move the story on, and/or enhance our interest in the hero or another character.

8. Write for your audience.

         Who do you want to read and enjoy the story or novel? The plot and characters should appeal to those people.

9. Make dialogue believable.

          Nothing ruins a hero, or a story, for a reader faster than stilted or contrived dialogue. Practice what you write. Speak it aloud. Try it out. Is there unnecessary profanity? Do characters “talk” so that readers understand as well as other characters? Listen to people talk, and then clarify for readers.

          The tips above will help make our protagonists live in our writings.

4RV Publishing  
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Wackiest Writing Advice I’ve Gotten

by Laurie Boris

Over the many years I’ve been writing, I’ve gotten some excellent advice from teachers, editors, publishers, literary agents, and other writers. But some has been, well, not as helpful. Here’s some of the wackiest advice I’ve gotten. (Note: your actual experience may vary.)

1. Write what you know. Pretty much every writer has been hit with this one. Yes, writing about people, places, and situations with which you are intimately involved might make your writing more immediate and more powerful. (How could Mark Twain have pulled off so many of his great novels if the Mississippi didn’t course through his veins?) But this type of dogma can limit your creativity by forcing you to focus solely on what and whom you’ve been exposed to. What about science fiction and fantasy writers, who imagine worlds so palpable it’s hard to believe they don’t exist in “real life”? How could Gene Roddenberry have created Star Trek or Frank Herbert written the haunting, sandworm-infested world of Dune if they’d stuck solely to writing what had passed by their eyes and ears? Perhaps we could tailor that phrase, as many have suggested, to read, “Write what you want to know.”

2. Comedy doesn’t sell. Augh! And me, a (mostly) comedy writer! Yes, comedy is subjective. This may be why some in the publishing industry are reluctant to take it on. But there sure are a lot of people buying Carl Hiaasen, Janet Evanovich, Sophie Kinsella, Rita Mae Brown, Nick Hornby, and Dave Barry.

3. Adults don’t want to read stories with teen protagonists. A literary agent told me this, as I shopped around a novel with a sixteen-going-on-thirty-year-old protagonist. I think it’s ridiculous. Had she never heard of Holden Caulfield? Or maybe Bella Swan? Twilight readers aren’t all teens. Many of them are mothers of teens.

4. The novel is dead. Are you kidding me? We could argue about the possible passing of printed novels underneath the wave of e-book sales, but story itself? No. We want to read stuff. Sales figures show that. Categories may shift in popularity (vampires this month, cheeky British singletons the next, telepathic zombies after that) but novel sales—especially romance and YA—are not horrible.

5. Women can’t write male POV characters (and vice versa). This is a fascinating bit and I could probably write a whole blog (or two) about it. A teacher of mine, for whom I have nothing but respect and admiration, regularly lectures women writers to stay out of men’s heads. That we couldn’t possibly know how men think, and if we asked one, he’d lie. I have a problem with this. Yes, I’ve read many stereotypical, cardboard or just plain WRONG female POV characters written by men (Steve Martin’s Shopgirl in particular disturbed me), and I imagine you guys could give me a few examples of off-key male characters written by women. But have you read Memoir of a Geisha? Arthur Golden did his research, interviewed geishas, and even made himself up as one so he could get closer to the characters he wrote so brilliantly about. Jonathan Franzen took some heat for writing female POV in Freedom. NPR’s Terry Gross asked him if, as a man, he’d found it challenging to write Patty, his female POV protagonist. Franzen merely replied that he’d grown up around women. So, what’s not to know? I grew up with a father, two brothers, and later, a whole bunch of stepbrothers. And mostly (judging from the feedback of guys who’ve done my crits), my male characters are authentic. Unless they’ve been lying to me.

I hope you won’t lie to me. What is the wackiest advice you ever got about writing, or about anything else?

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Laurie Boris is the author of The Joke's on Me, a contemporary novel NEW from 4RV Publishing. She also blogs about writing, books, and the language of popular culture at http://laurieboris.com.