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Persistence. That is the only personality trait that seems essential to a main character. They don't give up; at least not permanently. Their goals may change, they may face the inevitable and eve...
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#4: Attribution notice removed
by
System
·
2019-12-19T22:13:39Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41412 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#3: Attribution notice added
by
System
·
2019-12-08T10:37:59Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41412 License name: CC BY-SA 3.0 License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision
# Persistence. That is the only personality trait that seems essential to a main character. They don't give up; at least not permanently. Their goals may change, they may face the inevitable and even die in the end (like in some cancer stories), but whatever they defined their problem to be; they don't give up. They solve it. Perhaps for a dying mother, her problem is, before she dies, she will reconcile with her daughter. The problem to solve is not that she is dying, it is to accomplish something before she dies. Likewise, a story may end with the MC sacrificing themselves to accomplish something greater; but then they solved their problem. An ending in which the MC just gives up is not satisfying (unless he has made a choice on what he wants; i.e. he has to give up A to get B or vice versa). So while we all DO give up on things in IRL, that is not good fiction.
#1: Imported from external source
by
System
·
2019-01-18T16:37:48Z (over 5 years ago)
Original score: 2