Heroes & villains: PART 1: Heroes

Characters are the beating heart of a story. They are what make us care as we read about a sequence of events. We see the story through their eyes, we feel it through their feelings. Yet sometimes, characters are not used and developed to the greatest effect. They can feel generic, undeveloped, or lack agency.

Asking key questions about your protagonist and your antagonist will help create stronger, deeper and more believable characters. This list is just the tip of the iceberg but you can use it as a starting point. This month we focus on the protagonist – the ‘hero’ – and next month we look at creating fantastic villains.

1 Why this character?

One of the key questions to ask, is why this character? What is special about your main character which puts them in a unique position to tell this particular story? Why is this protagonist telling this story, instead of any other character being the protagonist?

When you create