A guide full of tips and tricks that hopefully doesn't recount the same old stuff in every other writing book under the sun, Wattpad and published alike. Covering everything from helpful resources like Susanna's Pacemaker to treating setting like ch...
One thing I can't stand, and what I imagine most people can't stand, is boring characters. Unfortunately, this is a problem that often seems to plague main characters. There are a couple reasons why this happens.
We Live in the Main Character
The main character is the vehicle in which the reader navigates the story terrain. Watch any movie or read any book and the zaniest, most out there characters are never the main character. Imagine trying to live with one of those wacky, comic relief characters who chews obnoxiously or has the most nerve-grating catch phrase. You'd kill them, or at least leave them passive-aggressive sticky notes about leaving their heart-print boxers hanging to dry on the balcony. The point is, the other-worldliness that is acceptable in minor characters just doesn't fly as well in protagonists. Protagonists have to be believable. They (usually) have to have fairly likable qualities. The readers spends most or even all their time with the main character. And sometimes they're too normal, too average.
We Live with the Main Character
Because the main character is the reader's vehicle, it is often really, really useful for the extraordinary events of the story to be new to not just the readers, but the main character as well. Think of Harry Potter or Bella Swan or Neo. They're normal, every day kind of folk at the beginning of the series. They're like us. Until they're introduced to the mythology that surrounds their stories. It is much less awkward for another character, like Ron or Alice or Morpheus, to explain the intricacies of the world than it is to stop the action in order to update the reader on some backstory. Let's pause the action to dump some political exposition or else this scene won't make sense.
Experiencing the new is much easier when the reader isn't in it alone. It's a much easier pill to swallow if they protagonist is just like them until they aren't.
We ARE the Main Character
The blank slate, a Mary Sue of sorts. The everyman. These kinds of characters run rampant in action films. There are actors that make a living being the ideal, self-projection robot. They are the backbone of video games, a medium where you literally control the everyman. These types of characters allow views, players, and readers to imagine themselves blasting baddies. The downside is they lack personality for that very reason. A strong personality gets in the way of self-insertion. And still, Keanu Reeves, Bruce Willis, and Jason Statham continue to play shoot-'em-up characters with singular motivation and scant personality. (A drinking problem is not a personality trait, unfortunately).
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
These are all very common reasons why protagonists are so plain Jane. James Bond, the spy everyone wants to be, was intentionally created to be sort of... boring. His very name was chosen specifically to be ordinary, bland. But he does exciting things, making James Bond 1) an ever changing role, because James Bond is truly more of a role than a person and 2) a pop culture icon.
