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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37996
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37996
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Yes, it will be disappointing, but that disappointment will not likely occur at the end, but much earlier when the reader begins to get the sense that the character they are following has no arc. Once they realize that, they will stop reading and never reach the end.

A story is not a history. A history can have multiple players who come and go as much by chance as by design. Story is precisely a rejection of the randomness and purposelessness that history presents to us. (So much of history, and news, is falsified precisely to give it the shape of story that it does not have by nature.)

A story is about one person (though a novel may weave together several stories). It follows that person through some disruption in their life (which may come from within or without, may come through desire or loss) which leads to a moment of decision in which they must face up to who they are and what they are willing to do. This decision may be faced on the battlefield or in the drawing room, before the mast of a storm-tossed ship, or in the heart of an uncertain lover, but it is always there, and it is the pivot on which the story turns.

What draws the reader on is the sense that this character is likely to have to face such a decision, and a desire to see them face it. The sense of the coming crisis may be faint at first, but it must grow stronger as the story progresses. The tension around the character must increase as they are led towards the point where the decision must be made. It may build quietly or it may build loudly, but it must build.

But none of this can happen if we don't know who the main character is. The main character is, by definition, the one whose life is leading them towards such a moment. The reader is looking for that person, and either they will find them and continue, or they will not find them and will abandon the work.

If you provide no identifiable main character, they will be disappointed early and bail early. If you provide a false main character, whose life seems to be heading towards this moment of decision, but isn't, then the disappointment will come as soon as the reader recognizes that they are on a false trail, and then they will bail.

Original score: 4