Communities

Writing
Writing
Codidact Meta
Codidact Meta
The Great Outdoors
The Great Outdoors
Photography & Video
Photography & Video
Scientific Speculation
Scientific Speculation
Cooking
Cooking
Electrical Engineering
Electrical Engineering
Judaism
Judaism
Languages & Linguistics
Languages & Linguistics
Software Development
Software Development
Mathematics
Mathematics
Christianity
Christianity
Code Golf
Code Golf
Music
Music
Physics
Physics
Linux Systems
Linux Systems
Power Users
Power Users
Tabletop RPGs
Tabletop RPGs
Community Proposals
Community Proposals
tag:snake search within a tag
answers:0 unanswered questions
user:xxxx search by author id
score:0.5 posts with 0.5+ score
"snake oil" exact phrase
votes:4 posts with 4+ votes
created:<1w created < 1 week ago
post_type:xxxx type of post
Search help
Notifications
Mark all as read See all your notifications »
Q&A

Post History

60%
+1 −0
Q&A How ordinary must my protagonist be if the book is written from his/her point of view?

What I've found in most books I've read is that the protagonist is "normal" and/or "average" (at least in the beginning). I believe this is because most readers should be able to relate to the prot...

3 answers  ·  posted 9y ago by Niffler‭  ·  last activity 4y ago by System‭

#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T04:04:10Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/16324
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar Niffler‭ · 2019-12-08T04:04:10Z (over 4 years ago)
What I've found in most books I've read is that the protagonist is "normal" and/or "average" (at least in the beginning). I believe this is because most readers should be able to relate to the protagonist and if (s)he was superior or simply weird it wouldn't be as relatable. I also read somewhere that your characters can be as weird/crazy/superior etc. as you want them, the only exception is the protagonist who should be more normal/average.

Imagine a work of fiction (classic fantasy/scifi) where **the protagonist is the healthy good guy hero** (and not an 'American Psycho' or anything like that).

1. Would the story work if it was written from the protagonist's point of view and (s)he was: 

2. How different from the average can I make my protagonist (if the story is from his/her point of view) without making him/her unrelatable?

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2015-02-25T13:56:53Z (about 9 years ago)
Original score: 12