Let’s face it. We’re selfish story consumers.
We crave stories for what they do to our soul. We want to be changed by the stories we experience. We want to vicariously experience tales that rip us from comfortable homes, or permit us to escape unpleasant ones. Stories help us wrestle with truths and grow beyond what individual experiences alone can teach us.
With the plethora of stories available to us 21st Century story-lovers, not any old tale will do. We want stories whose characters clutch our hearts, tightening the grip until their journey is complete.
If you’re reading this, I’d wager it’s because you have an un-quenching desire to tell tales as equally as bold as the stories which changed your own life. To craft memorable characters who root deep within the hearts of your readers.
Creating unforgettable characters is a noble venture indeed. It is also mind-numbingly challenging. And while there is no formula for doing so, there are a few tried-and-true elements that all great protagonists have. I hope these principles help you on your journey of bringing to life characters who change the lives of not only your readers, but yours as well.
1. The protagonist must have a strong desire that forms the backbone of your story.
Think about this: every action in our lives is predicated on desire.
We eat because we’re hungry (desire = get rid of hunger pains), or because lunch tastes good (desire = satisfy our taste cravings), or be polite (desire = maintain social status). I’m sure you can think of a few more reasons, too.
The same is true for our characters. Every good story follows the journey of a main character (let’s call him “the hero”), who is seeking to fulfill a desire.
Every great story follows the journey of a hero who is willing to give up everything in pursuit of his desire.
These are the stories that inspire generations. We read and watch and listen to great story because they inspire us with the journey’s of normal people – people like us – who follow their passions and desires to the ends of the earth and (hopefully) back, making decisions we wish we could make.
We believe that this inspiration will translate into our own lives, because we believe in the journey’s of the characters we love so deeply. We believe in the journey because we believe in the honesty of our hero’s desires and the actions they take to get there.
The desire is the backbone, the spine upon which your entire saga is constructed. But if your hero doesn’t have a desire, your story simply collapses.
Your story starts shortly before your character sets-out to fulfill his desire, and it concludes shortly after he either achieves his desire, or fails trying.
And in the best stories, your hero’s desire is a matter of life and death. Maybe not physical death, but the death of something he holds dear.
In Toy Story, Woody desires nothing more than the love of his owner, Andy. When this love is threatened, Woody will stop at nothing to reclaim Andy’s love. Every scene in Toy Story is supported by this desire, and the narrative doesn’t conclude until Woody achieves his desires.
In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Jack Sparrow has one, driving desire: to reclaim his beloved ship, the Black Pearl, which was taken from him a decade previous. All of Jack’s crazy decisions and actions are put in motion for a sole purpose: to reclaim his lost ship.
2. The Protagonist’s actions must drive your story and plot forward.
Every great story is riddled with push-and-pull moments between the protagonist and the forces seeking to stop him. While your antagonist is going to make several plot-altering decisions that your hero must certainly deal with, it is ultimately your hero’s choices and actions that make the story chug along. If the protagonist gives up entirely, or simply fails to make decisions, the story either ends, or worse, becomes a stale tale.
In Toy Story, Woody’s choices and actions are centered around his ultimate desire of being loved by Andy. Does he make poor choices? Does some of his choices nearly eliminate all possibility of ever seeing Andy again? You betcha. But all of his choices, good and bad, are directed towards one thing: being loved by Andy.
In Pirate of the Caribbean, Jack Sparrow has one focus: regain sole possession of the ship he loves so dearly. Like Woody, Jack makes more than his fair share of questionable choices, but in every scene he is making specific decisions and taking actions towards reclaiming his ship, even during scenes where there aren’t a lot of options….like being locked in prison.
Story Tip: Ask yourself, “What is my hero doing in this scene towards achieving his goals?”
If the answer is “nothing”, keep re-working the scene until your hero has a scene goal that helps him on his quest towards achieving his desire.
A common technique for scene design involves thrusting characters through these two cycles:
1. Goal > Conflict > Outcome
2. Reaction > Dilemma > Decision
While these two scene structures may seem fairly basic, they are powerful tools for not only “getting unstuck”, but providing a driving focus for each of your scenes.
3. The Protagonist must react to a Shake Up his world, and then choose to do something about it.
The Shake Up
Every story’s gotta start somewhere.
And somewhere usually means that your character is living a “normal life” (if you read parentheticals, please, please, please note that it’s okay if your hero’s notion of “normal” is completely outrageous to you, as long as it is normal for your hero. Like Woody. He’s a toy that talks and thinks and has emotions and does stuffs. That’s not normal….or is it?).
But Then…something changes. This is a BIG moment that jump starts the plot for your hero. Something changes or, at the very least, threatens to alter your hero’s world in an irreversible manner.
Woody is lovin’ life as Andy’s favorite toy, But Then…cowboys are out and space rangers are in. In an instant, Buzz Lightyear swipes Woody’s status as Andy’s Favorite Toy, and Woody’s world is rocked.
Jack Sparrow is commanding the seas at the mast of a dingy that Titanic Jack’s wooden door would put to shame. But Then…Jack’s old ship and old crew and old treacherous first mate “randomly” show up, blasting apart the town where Jack is awaiting the gallows.
The Decision
Your character’s world is rocked. So what? In real life, people’s worlds are altered every day. What makes made-up stories so different?
This is what separates most of our lives from the lives of our characters (and is what makes us want to read stories): our heroes decide to do something about it.
Your hero may want to give up right then and there, but something…necessity, a sincere longing, even the promise of adventure…gives them the nudge they need to do something about the change that was just thrust upon them.
Here’s the key, the decision to take action must always be interwoven with your hero’s desire.
Once Woody is “demoted” and experiences the oh-so-horrible suffering as Andy’s not-favorite toy, Woody decides that the best option is kicking his new pal out of the house, via the window.
With the Black Pearl nearby, Captain Sparrah’ decides to enlist the services of a blacksmith (who also has a strong desire of his own), and commandeers a vessel to hunt down his ship.
4. The protagonist must face a gut-wrenching truth and/or life altering conflict midway through the story, then redirect his course and takes action.
This moment, often known as the your story’s midpoint, is the most vital points in your hero’s journey.
The midpoint is where your hero begins to understand the gravity of his journey.
It is the second rocking of your hero’s world, the scene where he realizes that he might not achieve his desire. That victory is not certain, but that he also cannot turn back. And (most importantly) that some of his long-held beliefs might not hold up under pressure.
At the midpoint, your hero gains a clearer picture of what’s at stake, and is forced to reconsider his steps towards achieving his desire.
During the first half of the story, your hero is fumbling about and learning vital skills and lessons, all building towards this point: the moment where his focus sharpens and he realizes (albeit imperfectly) what must happen next if he is to have any chance of succeeding.
In Toy Story, Woody is forced into the one place all toys (at least those in Andy’s room) fear: the home of toy-torturing Sid. This is the moment where Woody subconsciously begins to understand that his selfishness is the catalyst which led him to Sid’s house, even though he isn’t yet ready to accept the truth.
Woody’s previous jabs and attacks at Buzz are useless in Sid’s lair. Woody must now alter both his way of thinking and his actions if there is to be any hope of escaping Sid, much-less returning to Andy.
The first half of Jack Sparrow’s journey, while certainly filled with near-death escapes, is relatively light, compared to the trial of being captured by his arch-nemesis and traitorous former first-mate: Captain Barbossa.
At the midpoint, Jack’s seemingly well-laid plans completely fall apart, and he loses his best-kept secret (Will Turner), his newly stolen ship, his crew, and his freedom. It’s here where Jack realizes that he is committed to retaking his ship whatever the cost, and begins to rework his strategy accordingly.
5. The protagonist must descend to the most hopeless part of his journey, then choose to either take what he’s learned and go-on to victory, or reject what he’s learned and suffer defeat.
Up until this point, your hero has encountered some troubling and trial-ridden conflicts and obstacles, but now he is facing the doorway to death itself.
It doesn’t matter if the death is literal or figurative, this is the lowest moment your hero has experienced yet. The things he’s learned, the actions he’s taken, the obstacles he’s overcome, the decisions – good and bad – he’s made have all lead to this point.
Which means your hero has no choice but to take all that stuff he’s gone through and learned and use it to make the most important decision of his life.
This is final fork-in-the-road moment for your hero. The result of his choice in this scene either place your hero on the road to victory, or spirals him through the funnel of defeat. The outcome of your hero’s choice in this scene will change his life forever.
In Toy Story, Woody is trapped under Sid’s crates, awaiting a certain – albeit unspecific – death, while Buzz is strapped to a rocket awaiting a certain – and specific – death. This is the moment where Woody comes to terms with the fact that he’s been a jerk to Buzz and ridden with selfishness.
Woody could cling to his selfishness and keep looking out for himself (the pathway to defeat), or he could reject his past way of thinking, choose humility, and forge a friendship with Buzz (the pathway to victory).
Captain Jack is much more sneaky about his worst moment. As a pirate, he’s not willing to show his hand quite to the extent that Woody did, but things have never been worse for him. On one side, he’s trapped by the Royal Navy with the certainty of execution awaiting the moment the pirates are defeated. On the other side, Barbossa and his crew have a similar fate planned.
With death imminent, Jack is forced into taking action and makes two moves that he previously would never have considered: forging an alliance with his arch-enemy and willingly taking the curse upon himself by stealing a cursed coin. Both actions contain incredible risks, but are his only options towards potential victory.
6. The protagonist must have a culminating encounter with the antagonist.
Contrary to the climaxes of most Hollywood action flicks, “culminating encounter” does not necessarily mean a knock-down, to-the-physical-death duel with a human antagonist (such as in Iron Man). However, your hero must have a final face-off with his nemesis, with an ultimate victory or defeat on the line.
Other types of culminating encounters include:
- A dual with words (12 Angry Men)
- Surviving and escaping non-human forces (The Martian)
- Persistence (Zero Dark Thirty)
- A Conversation (Pride and Prejudice)
In Toy Story, Woody spends the second half of the film desperately trying to avoid the toy-torturing Sid and return home. While Sid isn’t the overarching antagonist of the story, he is a major obstacle that Woody must overcome.
But based on how Woody’s character is designed, simply escaping from Sid’s house would not have been emotionally fulfilling enough. We need to see Woody put aside his fear of Sid and literally come face-to-face with the force seeking to destroy him.
This act allows Woody to grow in more ways than one. He quits hiding, and (much more importantly) he pus his life on the line for Buzz – showing a new friendship – rather than taking the easy way out and escaping to Andy, alone.
In Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack faces his ultimate antagonist, Barbossa, many, many times. However, Jackie knows that he has one and only one chance of defeating his arch enemy: as soon as the curse keeping Barbossa immortal is lifted. In order for the story to be emotionally fulfilling, Jack must be the one to defeat Barbossa, since Barbossa betrayed Jack and stole his ship, thereby jump-starting Jack’s character journey.
The deep history between these two characters means that defeating Barbossa is an essential step that Jack must take towards reclaiming the Black Pearl. Our hero must take this action himself.
Note that the Culminating Encounter with the antagonist is (usually) not the climactic moment of the story, but is an essential steps towards getting there.
7. The protagonist’s journey must lead to transformation in himself and/or the world around him.
Sadly, this is where many otherwise great stories fail.
Remember what we said at the beginning? We read books, watch movies, go to plays, and generally experience stories however we can because we want to be transformed – changed by the experience.
But if our hero 1) isn’t changing, or 2) isn’t inspiring change in the world around him, what is the point of the journey?
If we’re merely returning to status quo, then what we really experienced is a forgettable sequence of events that meant little to nothing to the characters (us included) involved.
And if a story’s forgettable, why waste the time experiencing it in the first place? It’s like eating at Subway when it’s bookended by Jersey Mike’s or Firehouse Subs.
But if your character changes…or if he inspires change…or, better yet, does both, then you’ve crafted a tale worth remembering. Change is the capstone of your story, the culminating result of all your carefully-crafted scenes, clever twists, witty dialogue, heart-wrenching moments…
Your hero’s journey to fulfill his desire is really the vessel by which you – the author – inspire transformation.
Transformation is the heartbeat of every great story, and is what your audience will remember long after the curtain closes and final pages turn.
In Toy Story, Woody changes from a self-centered individual toy one who finds great joy in “being there for Andy when he needs us”, regardless of his status.
In Pirates of the Caribbean, Jack Sparrow inspires change in quite a few ways, the most memorable being changing the mindset of Governor Swann, who softens towards Will Turner – a character he had previously looked down upon. As the audience, we love this transformation because it blesses the relationship between Will Turner and the Governor’s daughter. Jack is the catalyst that made this change possible.
If you found these elements useful, check-out the Sleeping Beauty Story Study, where we delve into these elements further!
SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS!
Which other elements of great protagonist’s have you found useful?
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