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The problem you face is common for authors who identify with their protagonist. You look at your story from the eyes of your main character, and everyone else is just defined in relation to the pro...

posted 6y ago by System‭  ·  last activity 5y ago by System‭

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#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:45:19Z (almost 5 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/35940
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:45:19Z (almost 5 years ago)
The problem you face is common for authors who identify with their protagonist. You look at your story from the eyes of your main character, and everyone else is just defined in relation to the protagonist's needs. If this were the real world, we would say that you _objectify_ the other characters. You don't consider them indepentend thinking subjects, but merely tools for the story of your hero.

As an author, what you need to do is take on the perspective of each of your characters. No matter how small the role of a character is and how little screen time they get, for that short moment you have to stop looking at them from the hero's perspective and write their part of the story from theirs.

As others have mentioned, what you need to do now is develop your antagonist. And as he's the antagonist, you have to develop him to the same extent that you develop your protagonist – they have to be on equal terms for their conflict to be engaging, and they can only be that if you flesh them out equally.

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-05-06T07:16:40Z (over 6 years ago)
Original score: 6