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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28051
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/28051
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Short answer: you can't. Stories are about emotions and they are about choices. Groups don't have emotions and they don't make choices. Only individuals do.

Stories about groups of friends are, of course, very common. But in such stories, each person in the group has their individual story arc. Those arcs all share a common history -- their arcs are punctuated by the same set of events, more or less -- but they are different arcs because each person has their own particular issues, desires, and goals.

You will notice that it is not uncommon in group stories for one member of the group to get separated from the group at critical junctures. (How often does Bilbo get separated from the dwarfs in _The Hobbit_? Consider how the group containing Sam and Frodo changes and splits over the course of _LOTR_. All this is because there own particular story arcs require different events to animate them, and therefore they must split from the group.)

Not every member of a group necessarily has a fully developed and resolved arc, but they should at least have an implicit arc so we know why they are there and what motivates their actions.

Our lives are worked out in concert with other people, and so stories often feature groups working together. But the groups are not characters, and only characters -- individuals -- can be protagonists, at least in a classical western story.

Original score: 7