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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/43810
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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?

Original score: 3