By Elizabeth S. Craig, @elizabethscraig
When I speak to book clubs and other
groups of readers, I’m frequently asked if my characters are like me.
And they’re really not—the books would be
boring if the protagonists were like me.
But I’m not telling the whole
truth when I dismiss the question.
Because in some ways, they are.
In particular, I have one protagonist who
behaves very much like me during social gatherings. Beatrice watches instead of participating.
No matter how much I’m aware of this
issue, it constantly creeps into my writing.
I know it’s the way this character is.
It’s in keeping with her personality (and no, her personality isn’t like
mine). It means that I’ll rewrite a
handful of scenes in each book in this series—either completely rewrite them,
or change the dialogue and action around.
Beatrice is content to watch and listen
to others. She’s gathering information
and thinking thoughts. Neither of these
things are good for a protagonist to do.
Unfortunately, her sidekick is a scene
stealer. This doesn’t help. Meadow makes witty observations and sometimes
generates conflict through her plain talking.
These things would be all right—if the protagonist was on center stage
with the action.
Fixing the problem isn’t too
difficult—it’s mainly just important to be aware
of the problem. Readers, who usually
identify closest with the protagonist, aren’t going to be excited about taking
the back seat in the story’s action. Who
wants to watch a watcher?
Fixing it: If there is a scene where the
protagonist isn’t really doing anything,
or is listening/watching when someone else is doing something, I’ll rewrite the
entire scene.
If there are scenes where it’s mostly a
dialogue problem—the protagonist is listening as someone else is ruminating
about the mystery or asking questions of cops or suspects—I’ll change the
dialogue so that the protagonist is spearheading the investigation.
There are
people like this. I’m like this. But this trait doesn’t fit the protagonist job
description.
We should push our introverted
protagonist. They can be curious,
adventurous leaders who like to take charge and fix problems and save the
world. They’re proactive people. They can and should have flaws…but hanging back to
observe and react shouldn’t be one of them.
Not on a regular basis, anyway. They’re the ones who need to actively
observe—to take what they see and run with it.
Do you ever have to spur your main
characters to get in the front seat?
Image: MorgueFile: Jusben