Do you often find yourself losing direction in your novel?
Do you often have to rewrite your manuscript because your protagonist is wandering aimlessly?
Guess what? If your protagonist’s primary objective and focus are unclear, you will lose your readers.
When agents and editors appraise your manuscript, they want to ensure a story answers three fundamental questions. Failure to secure all three of these will result in not knowing what direction your story is heading.
1. What will your protagonist learn at the end?
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Firstly, do not confuse protagonists to be good and likable people. Not all protagonists need to be versions of Harry Potter who save the day against the worst person in all of humanity. Instead, protagonists may be anti-heroes who lack conventional heroic attributes, such as Alex from The Clockwork Orange, written by Anthony Burgess - love the intriguing character with questionable morals, if any. Alex is a fantastic protagonist, but I wouldn’t want him as a friend in real life!
Below are some of the unconventional protagonists:
Patrick Batemen from American Psycho; Betty Sharp from Vanity Fair; Alex from A Clockwork Orange.
Regardless, good novels often have a central character with a clear primary objective or a group of major characters with a defined goal they want to achieve, perhaps via different methods.
This primary objective is what I’d like to call the Golden Thread of the story that drives your characters. Of course, it doesn’t mean that your protagonists must always win and achieve that primary objective; your characters may win some but lose other essential things. At times, your primary goal may change or layer with dilemmas throughout your characters’ journey. But, ultimately, your characters would have grown and learned something at the end of the story. That is the question that you must answer to have a clear direction for your novel.
So, to answer this question, you can:
a) Make a list of objectives for your protagonist that is meaningful to you as well.
b) Distinguish these objectives into Primary, Secondary and Tertiary goals.
c) Focus on the primary goals, and choose the one you wish the readers to understand by the end novel.
2. What does the protagonist know at the beginning?
A: OMG. Don’t look now, but there’s a ghost from your past at the bar.
B. Darn it. It’s my ex-boyfriend, Jared. Argh. I will never date someone with that name again.
Everyone has ghosts of their past - note the plural. Wouldn’t it be awesome if all of us can throw away our past baggage and move on with our lives? Yet, that may make a pretty dull story.
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The ghost is an issue from the protagonist’s past that still haunts them, and it often causes an internal struggle for them. This particular issue, such as abandonment, would’ve created a reality that is unique to your protagonist. The past experiences form their understanding of the world and how they think they should navigate their lives. It is similar to looking at the world through colored lenses.
So, to answer this question, you can:
a) Make a list of past issues/pre-conceived ideas your protagonist has.
b) Rank the issues or ideas into Primary, Secondary or Tertiary importance.
c) Focus on the primary issues that contrast with what your protagonist will learn at the end.
3. What is the protagonist wrong about at the beginning?
George Orwell once marvelously said:
When I sit down to write a book, I do not say to myself, ‘I am going to produce a work of art.’ I write it because there is some lie that I want to expose, some fact to which I want to draw attention, and my initial concern is to get a hearing.
Courtesy of Mohammed Hassan
Your protagonists are also the authors of their lives. Like most of us, they may hate it when someone or something challenged their belief systems, such as religion or political views. Nevertheless, they have been navigating their lives the ways they thought worked for them all these while despite, perhaps, feeling an underlying tension that something wasn’t right. Hence, an inciting incident forces them to challenge their belief systems, which drives them into a journey to expose more lies and draw attention to some facts.
So, to answer this question, you can ask yourself these questions:
a) What is the world like in your story - external belief system? What rules are there?
b) What does your protagonist feel about the world - internal belief system?
c) Does the protagonist’s internal belief system align or clash with the external belief system?
A good story takes readers on an engaging emotional journey through the eyes of the protagonists or a group of protagonists. When you answered these questions clearly, the direction of your story will be apparent to the readers, taking us on a journey of discovery.
If you have any questions, feel free to send us an email at admin@medleypictures.com. Alternatively, if you have a manuscript you want professional eyes to have a look at, email the first two chapters to us for free or have a look at our list of manuscript critique services on www.medleypictures.com
Happy writing!
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