Who is your protagonist?

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Whippet
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Who is your protagonist?

Post by Whippet »

I've been reading a bit through the forums here and realised something about my stories. The protagonists in the ones I work most seriously on are based not on myself or family or friends, nor are they complete fiction ... Rather, I've picked out people I know distantly in some way to base them on, people I either admire or feel a little jealous of.

For example, a beautiful girl (or boy, at that) who doesn't know it, with few friends but appears not to need many friends. This kind of person I'll write about at length. I love this type of character and though they're never the same in each story, this initial description applies to each of them and I have a clear idea of who in particular it is that I've based them on with an envious eye.

Curious to know how others come to create their protagonists? What's the inspiration, or do they pop up out of nowhere, fully formed? Do you pick and choose from reality or mould someone completely from your imagination?
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h2ojones
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Post by h2ojones »

Because I like to suffer and work on 7,000 things at once... I have one completely fantasy MC who isn't human and so her personality is largely shaped by the wild and feral world she lives in. Another, a human with magic in a separate book world, is based very loosely off of me, physically, but that's about it. I find it easiest to have a blank slate and mold them continuously rather than base them off of a real person because then I get stuck goiing "Well, so-and-so wouldn't say that, and the character is based off of them, sooo..."
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KS Crooks
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Post by KS Crooks »

In my current works I have four MC none of which are consciously based on anyone I know. What I have tried to do is give them a similar set of core values, but different approaches to how they act in given situations. Ex. If they were in a tavern and two people were going to begin fighting character 1 would probably step in and help the person they thought deserved their help, character 2 two would try to make them laugh with a funny story, character 3 would try to appease each person with what they would want more, and character 4 would tell each person how stupid they are being and how the consequences of their actions would be even worse.

I do sometimes use someone I know as the basis for a secondary or minor character. This saves me time in not having to come up with a unique personality. I don't like doing this with MC because I want to feel free to have something bad happen to the characters or even have them die. I figure it would be an awkward situation to base a character on your close friend or family member and then have them read the dramatic way in which they die. Choosing someone from my past might would probably be another option I could use without any hard feelings.
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Carmel Bachelor
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Post by Carmel Bachelor »

With the current book that I'm writing, I've made my main protagonist Irish, not because the story is based in Ireland or uses Irish Mythology, but because I'v always liked to make some connection to my own heritage or origins. Physically, she is nothing like me, and her personality is quite a lot different too, she's very hot-headed and has led a very troubled life with estranged family members and addiction. I've no experience with any of that, but I've always made a point to put at least one thing of myself, or of my life, into my protagonist, something that doesn't interfere with how they would naturally react.

To answer directly, I take one, tiny thing from myself or my life, and let my imagination and fictional world do the rest. For me, that's perfectly fine, but I think it also depends on the story you're wanting to write.
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Arrigo_Lupori
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Post by Arrigo_Lupori »

There are currently no protagonists in my stories, only concepts and ideas to be shared with others. I am looking forward to writing a work of fiction based on these concepts though.
"The abstract sensation of living a lifestyle that hasn't been fully understood."
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clint_csperry-org
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Post by clint_csperry-org »

In the current work, A fourteen - fifteen year old girl filled with magical abilities and a near perfect memory. (Haven't figured out yet how that "near" part is going to manifest.
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ElizaPeaks
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Post by ElizaPeaks »

I like to use a little bit of everything when creating a new character! I've never invented a character because of a friend, but I have designed some aspects of characters off of friends. I personally think that this is a good practice because, as long as the character isn't meant to be the friend, it gives me the freedom to create whoever I want with a reference to go back to for the fine rendering of a character. For instance, Character A is an unhappy mom who has been letting her youngest kid, well past the age of moving out, run all over her. Then, I might decide to base some of her characteristics off of my friend "Peter". I already have a character with a history and a general personality, but then I take little parts of "Peter's" speech pattern and his personality (e.g. his obsessive attachment to his phone, his ridiculous hatred towards a particular state, how particular he is about having his clothing folded just so, etc.), maybe modify them to suit Character A, and fuse them with her! Basically, it's important to create a character that is yours! But it's impossible to achieve that level of realism in a character without having some sort of real-life reference.
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Inkroverts
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Post by Inkroverts »

I like writing a villain as the protagonist. One of the characters I wrote is a very cold-hearted girl who does cruel things to her peers. The others are trying to find out why she's that way and how to help her.
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