SFA 064 – Creating a Protagonist that Readers Will Love

We return to the craft of writing for this week’s show, because good craft makes it a lot easier to sell books! The topic for the show is protagonists. How do you create the kind of heroes that readers fall in love with and will continue to read about book after book, no matter what is happening with the plot?

We start off sharing some of our tips, then answer listener questions on protagonists.

Notable news:

Amazon KDP has added a series manager to the dashboard, so you no longer have to email and ask for help getting wayward books to show up. For now, you can add prequels and ancillary material to a series, but they won’t (at this time) show up on the series page on Amazon.

What we covered for the main topic:

• Definition of a protagonist.
• Why worry about creating a likable protagonist or one that the readers root for?
• Our tips for creating a protagonist that your target audience will identify with and care about.

Listener questions:

• Dominik: Can readers ever root for a writer protagonist?
• Stephan: What is your view on protagonists who are their own obstacle, as in a story that doesn’t really have a villain, but instead the protagonist has to overcome themselves? (E.g. The Catcher in the Rye)
• Kaycee: I’d like to see some commentary about ensemble/multi POV juggling of making your protags more enticing. I tend to do ensembles a lot and I just love having different attitudes and perspectives and I know that people won’t jive with every single one but they all bring something to the story.
• Lettie: How do you make each of your protagonists have a distinct voice so they feel like different people to the reader, whether it is in a multi POV book or in the next book?
• Alexa: Any hints on how not to write unlikable heroes? I write romance and constantly have to go back over the second and third drafts to add in redeeming characteristics.
• Dale: I have an ensemble cast series. The male “hero” keeps getting himself in trouble and the female members keep rescuing him. Problem or pro?
• Brent: How do you write a great antihero?
• Robert: Slightly off topic (I hope this adds to, rather than distracts from, the discussion), but is it even necessary to create protagonists that readers really want to root for? Can a great plot carry the story, even if readers don’t necessarily love, or even like, the protagonist? I say this because no one is universally loved by all, and some readers won’t like the protagonist no matter how you craft them.
• Peter: How do you come up with credible flaws for your protagonist that impede them on their journey without sounding cliche and overused?

That’s it for this week. Thanks for listening to the show, and thanks to Joshua Pearson to producing it.

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