Watching television or movies means following characters through a story, specifically one character in particular, the protagonist, or the main character of the story. The protagonist is the most important element of the story, because without them, there is no story, no reason to watch at all. So, as an audience member, we must want to follow the protagonist, otherwise the story is not a success.
Let’s discuss how we can convince the audience to follow our protagonist. There are many methods and characteristics that work for this, and finding the one that works best for your protagonist is important. We mustn’t make our characters do anything outside of their character for the convenience of the story, so let’s begin.
Wants/Needs
Every character needs to want something, but there’s always something that they need as well. We will dive into the needs, but let’s first get into what a character wants.
The “want” is typically the main goal of the story, this is usually set in motion by an inciting incident, something that takes the protagonist out of their normal world and forces them onto this new journey towards their goal. The thing that a character wants is what drives the story, they keep going because they haven’t yet achieved their goal. Or on the flip side, they achieved their original goal, and a new one has now arisen that they must follow for the remainder of the story. (This is a great tool to keep a story rolling, especially for tv series, or it can be utilized with a plot twist in features as well). There are often protagonists who don’t necessarily want to go on this journey, but they don’t have much choice either. While this pushback is great for growing tension, the protagonist still needs to want something in order to convince them to go. An example could be something internally driven, a character doesn’t want to fight these bad guys, but they killed his father so he must avenge him. This will be a great segway into a character’s needs.
The “need” is usually what the protagonist will learn along the way while trying to reach their goal. Oftentimes this is in the form of the lesson learned along the way, but can take many forms. People don’t typically realize what they need until they walk through fire and learn the hard way. Back to my example from before, the character fighting bad guys to avenge his father. That is what he wants; to avenge his fathers death. But along the way, he learns that what he really needs is to accept his fathers death. This is one example of how the goals of a character can help temp to realize what they really need, which drives the story and also allows for the character arc, or the transformation of the character into a better version of themselves.
They must be likable
I have read many scripts where the protagonist is a terrible person or has a bad attitude with no qualities that redeem them; they simply just suck. So I immediately stop reading and lose interest, because I have no reason to root for this character and I don’t even like them. A protagonist can have bad qualities, but they will still need good qualities to balance the character so that the audience has reason to follow this character throughout the entire story.
Now, you don’t have to like everything about a character, the audience just needs to see some quality that they’ll like in the character that will make them interested. Sometimes it’s that they’re funny, they’re good with children, or even that they’re protective of the people they love; it could really be anything. Ask yourself, because the audience will be asking too, why do we want to root for this character? Why do we want them to succeed? This will help you to develop your protagonist into a well rounded, complex character, that people will root for throughout the entire story.
They need a flaw
Nobody is perfect, and your protagonist is not exempt from that. Although the protagonist is the hero of the story, and they’re supposed to win in the end, the story wouldn’t be entertaining if everything was perfect and predictable. So we need something that holds the protagonist back from being able to reach their goal, aside from the antagonist. This is more of an internal struggle. This could be something like the character is grieving a death, they’re clumsy, some sort of physical or mental illness that holds them back. None of these have to necessarily be bad things, but they will make the protagonist have a more difficult time achieving their goal, making their drive a lot stronger, which ultimately makes the audience root even more for the protagonist.
Relatability
The final important quality of a great protagonist is that they must be relatable. If the audience does not see the protagonist as a real person, and instead just a fictional character, then they won’t be able to relate to the story or even have any interest. People like to see a little bit of themselves, of their world in the world you are creating with your story, real people have real issues and real emotions, so your protagonist must have that too. They cannot just be perfect for the convenience of the story, it would be too easy if that were the case, and everyone would be a writer then. We must create real characters that are believably real people so that the audience feels the sense of escape from the real world and steps into a new world that feels just as real as ours; this all begins with the protagonist.
In summary, if you want to have a good protagonist, you must give the audience good reason to root for them to achieve their goals. And those goals must be made very clear, so that the story is able to be followed from beginning to end without losing the interest of the audience halfway through. The way we keep the audience intrigued is by creating a complex, realistic protagonist that people relate to. They must have strengths and weaknesses like any normal person, but they also need to grow and change like anyone else would too. People evolve and are constantly becoming better, stronger versions of themselves. Throughout your story, your protagonist should also go through this arc in order to show human development as well. This will help you to build a strong story around a protagonist that is strong and complicated in the most effective ways for your story.
