What can I do if I hate my own protagonist?
So I'm writing a fantasy novel, and I have my plot fairly fleshed out, and I have my main players, my world is built, and now I've started to really flesh out my characters more. The only problem is, I've already fleshed out about 5 of my secondary characters, and it's really starting to feel like my main character pales in comparison. I'm not quite sure what to do.
For the purpose of the book and the plot, the main character the way I've imagined her, is a shy and unsure girl who is actually quite determined. She's thrown into a new world she doesn't really know much about (as YA protagonists frequently are, y'know...), where she kind of feels inadequate and out of place (obviously). I want her arc to be that of overcoming her own self-doubt and fear, and doing the things she needs to do in spite of her fear. Only, I feel like every time I put her next to my other characters, she comes across as annoyingly shy and mousy. She's more of a secondary character than my secondary characters, and at this point the way I feel about her is, if I read a book with a character like this, I would hate the hell out of it. I think this is because she's not fleshed out enough but I just don't know how to build her up while keeping her personality consistent.
I feel quite stuck and I was wondering what tools/ideas/techniques/things could help me see her in a different light?
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It seems to me that you might have begun to over-construct your characters (and maybe other parts of your narrative as well).
Many aspiring writers look for rules and guidelines in how-to books or on the internet and attempt to apply those principles in a very rational manner. As a consequence, they have no emotional connection to the characters and plot that they assemble.
This is what you experience. Your protagonist is meaningless to you beyond the fact that you have defined her as your protagonist.
What you need to do is to begin with a protagonist that you care about. Create her in the way that you feel most strongly for her.
Many writers put (a part of) themselves into their protagonists. Their heroes are their alter egos: who they are or who they want to be or who they are afraid to be. Other writers write about characters that they desire: the men and women they want as lovers or friends or in some other capacity in their lives.
If you have a character like that, a character that you deeply care for, then it no longer matters whether or not other characters are more "interesting". There are many persons more interesting than myself, and yet I would never write a novel about them, because it does not really interest me how they live their lives and do what they do.
What makes good books exciting and intriguing is the emotional investment of the author in their protagonist. That is what makes a fictional hero come alive.
I always like to compare writing to drawing. If you stupidly follow some schema of human proportions, your drawing will look technical and dead. But if you forget about the rules and just draw what you see, then the proportions of your figure may be off, but your linework will be vigorous and alive.
Mastery, of course, achieves both perfect structure and vivid emotionality, but I have found that as a consumer I value emotion over perfection and as an artist I manage structure best subconsciously and "from the gut".
This post was sourced from https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/30055. It is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
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You may have story problems, too. As Mark says (I have to say that a lot) she needs to want something, bad. You say she is "quite determined" but mousy: She can be usually mousy, but when it comes to taking a direction that does not lead to what she wants, she needs to show some steel. Bravery. A willingness to go it alone. A willingness to defy others. A willingness to fight, to be injured, to risk her life, to intentionally choose horrific pain over safe failure.
Whatever her brass ring may be (and it should be uniquely hers, not something everybody wants), her pushover, shy, unsure exterior better have a lethal warrior underneath it, or (and this is a good story telling strategy) your story must gradually develop it. (e.g. Luke Skywalker is an unsure farm kid, but a series of harrowing and painful story events turn him into a consummate warrior.)
The arc of a shy and mousy girl can end with a confident and battle tested adult ready to take on the world. After your setup, when you introduce what she wants more than her own life, you need her to take the first steps on that path and not by accident. She needs to make a hard choice and choose some sort of hardship over the wrong direction. It can be minor, and it doesn't even have to hurt. The reader needs to see she has her own mind, and when it is important she will risk danger over "going along", even if the danger does not materialize and harm her. The reader needs to see the glint of steel in her soul, and be looking forward to more of it later in the story.
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You don't build a character around a psychological profile. The primary driver of character is desire. Do you know what this character wants? Do you know why they want that thing enough to overcome their shyness to strive for it? No one comes out of their shell except under the compulsion of desire.
Create the occasion of desire and you will have your character and your story.
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