Questions

The main or lead character in any story is a lynchpin and has very definite qualities. Miss one of these and your story may well grind to a halt! This article takes a look at three crucial aspects of the main character.

The main character in any work of fiction is the one around which the entire story revolves. He or she must possess certain values or abilities if your story is to work, yet many aspiring writers miss one or more of these vital points and become frustrated when their story fails to work as it should. Let’s look at these three key ingredients to our main character:

1. The main character is the one who suffers most as a result of your story’s events.

2. The main character is the one who has the power to change things within the story.

3. The main character is the one with the freedom to change things if they so wish.

In more detail:

1. Let’s say that your main character, Jake, suffers most in your story. He has the freedom of choice to change this suffering but not the power to make it happen. Pretty soon your readers are going to realise that Jake is inept and weak, can’t change a thing and that he must, in the end, surely fail.

2. If on the other hand Jake is the one who suffers most and possesses the power to make it stop but lacks the freedom to do this, the story will fall flat on its face because Jake cannot act and the plot can go nowhere.

3. Finally, if Jake has both power to change things within the story and the freedom to do so but isn’t in jeopardy or doesn’t suffer, the story will lack any form of tension. Jake will also lack any real motive to make any changes you have him perform as he isn’t under any threat or duress. In this scenario the reader is left wondering why Jake has to do anything at all and usually gets bored pretty quickly!

What does this tell us as writers? Answer: that the main character must have a truly proactive role within your story - or he simply cannot be the main character! However, does this make the main character the protagonist? Usually the answer is yes, provided that the main character also acts in a proactive manner.

The protagonist must make things happen. If in your story you merely let the main character react to what his adversary, ‘the opposition’ (the bad guy) is doing, you risk the bad guy becoming the protagonist and your main character slipping into what is essentially a secondary role. This is a danger if the bad guy is particularly charismatic or has very powerful dominating character traits.

The danger here is that the bad guy becomes the lead character, an ‘anti-hero’. This is a very, very difficult line to follow and I would not advise beginners to go down this route. The anti-hero can work if handled expertly - think of Paul Kersey in ‘Death Wish’ or Lestat in ‘The Vampire Chronicles’. Both are anti-heroes but both work due to the expertise of the author. If you have any doubt as to your abilities to pull this off, stick to a good guy hero!

Therefore the main character must seek his story goal, overcoming the bad guy who seeks to thwart this. He must call the shots as to what happens in the story, driving it by being proactive. Incidentally, the bad guy isn’t there just to cause your hero trouble - he has to have his own goal that, to him, is just as valid as the one your lead character has or he risks becoming a ‘cardboard cut-out’ villain whose only role within the story is to give your hero trouble.

This set-up, with main character as the good guy and also acting as the protagonist, is the most popular in fiction simply because it works so well. All other types of main character require a much greater effort to make them work well (if at all) and so seldom work effectively unless handled by a very skilled writer.

In conclusion: for beginners, choose the easiest set-up for your main character as descried above. Learn to do the simple things well - after all, a straightforward plot with good, strong and conventional characters will for a beginner ultimately produce a better finished work than trying to manipulate character types and work with a difficult, laborious storyline. Keep it simple and write it well!


- Steve Dempster

A career in fiction writing or as a creative writer is really difficult to get off the ground - there is a lot of competition out there.

True, there is an insatiable demand for fresh stories, but at the same time, there are a lot of hurdles to be overcome by those who want to meet that demand.

If you need any proof, check out the best seller’s book list for any given week, and then compare that to a list of books that were released that same week. The ratio is staggering.

There are thousands of excellent writers who are working themselves into obscurity, because they are yet to achieve any kudos for their work. They don’t have a big enough presence in the industry to get noticed.

So, how do you get your creative writing out to the people?

Well, a good first start is to make a website.

Creating a website is a breeze nowadays because of the huge advances made in web design software. Something that in the not so distant past would have required programmers working for days, now gets done by complete amateurs in just a couple of hours.

Also, is you pick a really good web design program, you’ll have numerous professionally-designed templates to choose from that will make the process even quicker and make the final product look that much better.

Creating the website is the easy part, however. Fiction writers who have become really successful have be able to get their names ‘known’ and their work has got people craving more.

If you write short stories, then post a few good ones on your website. There won’t be a great financial return for the story (except by using advertising features from your web design program) but you will be getting your work published.

Creative writing web-rings abound. In return for posting a link to somebody else’s website on your home page, that person will add a link to yours.

By sharing traffic like this, you can make sure that a lot more people see your work, and once you have that recognition, it is a lot easier to segue into having your work published in a more traditional venue.

Investigate building a website for yourself - that way you will have full control over the content, and have the ability to update it in a flash.


- Kerry Finch

Does the name Andaerin (An-day-rin) sound like a good masculine name for a piece of fantasy short fiction I am writing?
- Neaphus

Does the name Andriar sound like a good masculine name for a piece of fantasy short fiction I am writing?
- Neaphus

e.g. fiction writing, novel writing, getting started.
- TJL

I’m writing, or about to begin writing, a science fiction story where androids are the main characters and are their own civilization. I’m wondering if, perhaps, since humans seem to prefer using inorganic technology and organic only to aid us rather than as tools, should/would it be more interesting if inorganic androids used organic technology as tools, and inorganic technology just to aid them? Or would that be too weird, using organic material as we use inorganic material in technology?
- scameter14

Does Andric sound like a good name, masculine name for the main character of a work of fantasy short fiction I am writing?
- Peter M

Does the name Andaeras (An-day-ras) work well for a male Human in a piece of fantasy short fiction I am writing? Is it masculine?
- Neaphus

When writing fiction, is it better to refer to characters by their first or last names? Are there special rules for if they’re high ranking government or military figures? What about soldiers?
- stk1990

I’m writing a book about a monarch in the far future, and while it takes a backseat to romance and drama, the futuristic technology still makes an appearance. Does this mean the book would be classified as a science-fiction story?
- Dani B