Creating or identifying secondary protagonists
First of all, this is my first time writing more than a short story, and I am quite new to writing in general, so pretty novice. I am currently in the process of outlining the story for a novel I am about to write, and I have problems adding main characters/protagonists.
I have the protagonist—let's call him Mike—down in detail. He is the one most of the narration follows. In the beginning of the book, he will be all by himself, but will find the secondary protagonist—call her Abby—later on at the end of Act 1. He will need her abilities later to access a special location (he does not know of her abilities at that moment though, he will find out over the course of the story). This location is the thing he craves for, his ultimate goal.
So, main story wise, I am struggling to find another protagonist to at least get the group to 3 people, as all essential main story components are already there. Mike is the brawn, Abby the brain, but I fear only having 2 people in that party is a bit too few to have enough interesting dialogue etc.
Is there a good process to designing more main characters, in general, and especially in my case? Should I just "add more obstacles along the way" and design protagonists that are able to overcome them?
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1 answer
Like @Rasdashan, I am a discovery writer. My characters take shape as I write. You might find that this approach works for you too.
That said, since you wish to write about a group of characters, you might want to look into group dynamics, and various party structures. Here is my answer to a question about writing a story about a team. You should find it useful.
The thing is, you are not writing about several stand-alone characters. You're writing about a group. Think of the group as a unit. This unit interacts with outside challenges together. The choices the unit can make are dictated by what kind of characters are in the group. It's not just "this special ability is needed to pass that trial". It's "we have a curious character who will poke things he shouldn't, we have strong character who will save the curious character from whatever he has unleashed, and we have a smart character who will figure out what on earth happened", for example. Consider what kind of interactions with the environment you'd want your group to have, what kind of challenges they would face, and make sure there is someone in the party who could naturally take the action you'd want them to take.
At the same time, of course, there is the interaction within the team. Those are the bread and butter of a team story. There, you want a measure of conflict. You want contrasting characters, because the contrast makes each shine the brighter. You want different viewpoints, so they can disagree, and learn from each other. If all characters in the group are of the same mind, they might as well be one character.
If you struggle to find your second character, look at your first: what character traits does he lack? Where is he perhaps "too strong"? Balance him out with the second. Adding a third character, consider what is still missing, and what traits are so polarised that you might want a balancing character in the middle. Or try to create a (relatively) balanced group right from the start. Whatever way of thinking of it works better for you.
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