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mbarkerWriting Excuses 13.1: Hero, Protagonist, Main Character
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2018/01/07/13-1-hero-protagonist-main-character/
Key Points: Hero, Protagonist, Main Character? A Venn diagram? Main character, aka narrator, relates the story. Protagonist takes action, and undergoes the most change. Hero saves the day. Emotional beats and character arc go with protagonist, while heroic action goes with the hero. Don't forget the maintagonist! Whose eyes do we see the story through? The main character! Who takes action to move the story forward? The protagonist. And who gets to do all the cool stuff? THE HERO! Some stories, grimdark and antiheroes, do not have heroes. Some don't even have protagonists. Sympathetic? The reader wants to be like that, or feels like they have experienced that. Likable, on the other hand, is active, doing heroic acts or protagging! Or show someone liking them. Heros are admirable. Plucky sidekicks are likable too. These roles are structural functions, as well as whatever you are doing with character sliders. Antagonists stand in the way, are obstacles, while protagonists go over the obstacles. Audiences like characters who are proactive. Knowing the different roles lets you combine or split them to serve the story. Letting someone else step up can add depth to a story. Knowing the roles also can help you see what's wrong when a story is broken or not working.
( When you want to read the rest... )
[Brandon] All right. I think we're going to wrap it up here. I actually have a bit of homework for you guys. One of my favorite storytelling methods, and we've given some homework like this before, but I really love it. It's when you tell the same story from multiple viewpoints. So I want you to design for yourself a story that has three characters in it. One who is the hero of that scene, one who is the protagonist, one who is the main character. Try to make this a short scene. Then I want you to write the same story three times. Once through the eyes of the person doing heroic action, once through the eyes of the person being the protagonist who is moving the story along, and once through the eyes of the main character. That's going to be very hard to do, because naturally, you're going to be whoever's eyes we're through is going to be the main character for that moment. But I want to give you this challenge, and see if you can pull it off and make it happen. So this has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
From http://www.writingexcuses.com/2018/01/07/13-1-hero-protagonist-main-character/
Key Points: Hero, Protagonist, Main Character? A Venn diagram? Main character, aka narrator, relates the story. Protagonist takes action, and undergoes the most change. Hero saves the day. Emotional beats and character arc go with protagonist, while heroic action goes with the hero. Don't forget the maintagonist! Whose eyes do we see the story through? The main character! Who takes action to move the story forward? The protagonist. And who gets to do all the cool stuff? THE HERO! Some stories, grimdark and antiheroes, do not have heroes. Some don't even have protagonists. Sympathetic? The reader wants to be like that, or feels like they have experienced that. Likable, on the other hand, is active, doing heroic acts or protagging! Or show someone liking them. Heros are admirable. Plucky sidekicks are likable too. These roles are structural functions, as well as whatever you are doing with character sliders. Antagonists stand in the way, are obstacles, while protagonists go over the obstacles. Audiences like characters who are proactive. Knowing the different roles lets you combine or split them to serve the story. Letting someone else step up can add depth to a story. Knowing the roles also can help you see what's wrong when a story is broken or not working.
( When you want to read the rest... )[Brandon] All right. I think we're going to wrap it up here. I actually have a bit of homework for you guys. One of my favorite storytelling methods, and we've given some homework like this before, but I really love it. It's when you tell the same story from multiple viewpoints. So I want you to design for yourself a story that has three characters in it. One who is the hero of that scene, one who is the protagonist, one who is the main character. Try to make this a short scene. Then I want you to write the same story three times. Once through the eyes of the person doing heroic action, once through the eyes of the person being the protagonist who is moving the story along, and once through the eyes of the main character. That's going to be very hard to do, because naturally, you're going to be whoever's eyes we're through is going to be the main character for that moment. But I want to give you this challenge, and see if you can pull it off and make it happen. So this has been Writing Excuses. You're out of excuses, now go write.
