Star Wars has Luke Skywalker, Pirates of the Caribbean has Jack Sparrow, and John Wick has…Well, John Wick. Point is, a well written protagonist is crucial to a successful script. Keep in mind that this is the character that your audience will spend 90-100% of their time with, and they can truly make or break the story you’re trying to tell.
So, the question remains, how do you write a protagonist that helps, not hinders, your script? Well, today I’m going to go over a few tips that I personally use in my writing, as well as some mistakes you may not even know you’re making when creating your protagonist. Because, after all, a strong protagonist is the driving force behind your story, and not something that should be overlooked!
TIP #1: Opt for active, not passive, protagonists.
This is something I struggled with a lot when I first started writing. Many of my protagonists simply had the plot HAPPEN to them, instead of actively making choices that affected the story.
Now, that’s not to say your protagonist has to be in control every step of the way, absolutely not. Many great inciting incidents are things that our protagonists have no control over whatsoever. Let me use an example to better illustrate this point.
I assume you’re all, somewhat, familiar with the film franchise Harry Potter. If you’re not, stop reading this and hit up Wikipedia (or go binge watch all eight movies, whatever floats your boat.)
Harry starts out as a boy that is forced to live under the staircase of his evil aunt and uncle, it’s all very doom and gloom. Until one day, he discovers he’s a wizard! Plot twist! This is something Harry has no control over, this is a ‘passive’ event and it totally works.
But, the story would be pretty uneventful if Harry got to Hogwarts and just did whatever everyone told him to do. No, Harry CHOOSES to defy rules and snoop around this new magical world. And good thing he does! Or else the series would end up being incredibly, incredibly short.
Your protagonists need to be actively making decisions that will either make your audience applaud, or cringe (both are good)! This is not only what helps push your story forward, but keeps the person reading your script engaged. We want to see protagonists come out on top because they fought for it, not because it simply just happened. So, don’t be afraid to let your protagonists get into some trouble! It’ll make your script all that much more interesting.
Speaking of trouble, that brings me to my next point.
TIP #2: Perfection is not perfect.
You may have heard the term “Mary (or Gary) Sue.” used to describe a character. It is like poison to any writer’s ears. That means people think your protagonist is, for lack of a better term, boring! And no one wants that! Not you, not your audience, and not me, I don’t want thatt for you.
Many times we feel the need to write our protagonists as these amazing heroes who will do anything to help save the day, and everyone loves them because they’re just so great! And while that’s all fine and dandy, it ends up taking away the part of your protagonist that makes them so likable to the audience, their humanity.
Your protagonist is a human (or like, human-esque if you’re writing about talking dogs or something). Every human being has a flaw. There are things that we’re all bad at. You know those people in your life that seem so well put together, guess what? They’re not. And that’s alright! Even Superman can’t touch kryptonite!
Figure out what your character's weaknesses are and include it in your story. Let’s say you have some really righteous, do-gooder, crime stopping character, okay? How about he also has a crippling fear of heights? Maybe it stems from some untreated childhood trauma? And maybe, just maybe, you include a scene where he has to take a bad guy down while he’s on the rooftop of a fifty story building? What would that scene look like? How would he overcome that fear?
Another example, you have a hardened detective who’s been ten years sober from alcohol. Perfect! Now, you find a way to work that into the current case he’s taken on. Perhaps the stress has caused him to relapse? Uh-oh! Now he’s got to get back on the wagon, while still trying to solve the case.
What I’m trying to get at here is that struggle is good. It makes for a much more dynamic character, and allows the audience to relate to them even more.
One thing that really helps me with this, and character building as a whole, is fleshing out a character’s backstory. Now 95% of that will end up in your notebook, never to be read by another set of human eyes again, but it helps you really humanize the people you write, and understand where their motivations, fears, etc. are all coming from.
TIP #3: Give them an arc!
Now that we’ve learned to make active protagonists who aren’t one dimensional, what do we do with them? Send them on a life changing journey!
Your protagonist should not be the same person they were on page one as they are on page ninety. Having a protagonist grow throughout the course of your story is so essential when it comes to screenwriting.
Ask yourself, why does this character need to go on this adventure? What do they need to learn?
It can be a small change, or something drastic, there just has to be some shift in them before you type out ‘FADE TO BLACK’.
And the fun thing is, the change doesn’t even have to be a positive one! Your character can actually leave the story worse off than they started! That’s just as interesting.
Let me give two examples, one positive and one negative, of how a character has changed throughout the course of a script.
(Spoilers for ‘X’ and ‘Pearl’ ahead.)
I recently watched Ti West’s ‘X’, and its prequel ‘Pearl’. Both protagonists, played by Mia Goth, undergo a serious transformation by the time the end credits start to roll.
In X, we have Maxxine, a young woman who dreams of becoming a star, but is instead stuck acting in a low budget adult movie. By the end of the film, Maxxine, single handedly takes down the killers that have been knocking off her friends, and escapes to freedom as the sole survivor. Maxxine does a complete 180 from the sort of timid, ‘go with the flow’ girl we first meet, into a determined fighter who drives off to Hollywood in order to really take control of her destiny.
On the flip side, we have Pearl. The titular character has the same dream as Maxxine, to be a star. However, after one bad audition she loses it, going on a killing spree that results in the deaths of her loved ones. By the end of the movie, Pearl has come to terms with the fact she will never be a star, and will live out the rest of her days as nothing more than a farmer’s wife.
This is a great usage of how a protagonist can be changed for the worse. We were genuinely rooting for Pearl, as an audience we wanted her to achieve her dreams. So, it’s all that much more heartbreaking when she loses her drive and completely gives up (after chopping up human beings that is).
When you all start drafting up your stories, be sure to keep these tips in mind. Remember, your protagonist is your audience’s view into this world you’ve created, they are going to be stuck with this person for the duration of your script. So, it’s incredibly important they’re either someone we relate to, root for, or just plain like watching! The protagonist is the soul of your story.
I hope you all found these tips helpful, now go out and write some awesome protagonists! Happy writing!
