Protagonist, Antagonist and others

As a writer, the person whom you think of before even thinking of the story of him, about him, surrounding him is a protagonist. He or she may be a hero or a common man. Don’t get confused with Hero as your protagonist. A protagonist may or may not be a hero. Hero possess some extra ordinary qualities however a protagonist may not. Consider in Mahabharat, Arjun was protagonist however Krishna was a hero.

Recognizing your protagonist beforehand is crucial as you have to build your story around it. We all have read Julius Caesar and a popular question - who was the protagonist, Cassius or Brutus?

The answer is simple - Caesar. The story kept revolving round him only; even after his death his spirit was driving the story. There was no time in the story when Caesar did not create an impact. Brutus was a good character misguided by Cassius and later by Antony. He had created an impact on story but never was the center point.

Focus on your protagonist and strengthen him with at least one quality. It could be mental or physical or even spiritual. Demonstrate his quality and associated power in the initial few pages of your story.

Do find some flaws also to make him human, more real and interesting. Create a conflict and grow him with the story. Demonstrate the flaws also in initial few pages of the story.

Write about his values, beliefs and reasons to have certain conflicting beliefs. It is not necessary to make your protagonist great. He could be a common man. 

There might be other great character in your story having an impact on your protagonist. Create that great character carefully. Make his greatness having an impact on society and therefore visibly respected. Create a conflict with his greatness and protagonist beliefs or values in some part of your story. Challenge his greatness for that he might have lived his life in a certain more disciplined way. For instance, Bhism was great character but he was also challenged for not having an objection at Dropadi's traumatic insult at the royal court. This great character might be teacher, saint or friend.

Write about specific places, time and include the dialogues. Create scenes to demonstrate their actions forced by their qualities and beliefs.

Now is the time to focus on antagonist. Antagonist should not be wrong always. Don’t make him stereotype evil; try to make him real with a mixture of good and bad qualities. Justify his conflict with protagonist. Create a time when his views and beliefs are right. Raise his character and create good competition with protagonist. Create a case for ever conflicting debate on right and wrong sides of both. Observe the character of Ravan or Duryodhana from Indian Mythology.

Don’t treat others as ordinary characters while penning them down. Most of the successful stories have strong sidekicks. Despite having less role to play, create scene to have a great impact because of them. Have these ordinaries influence protagonist’s actions and change their beliefs. 

A lot depends on POV (point of view); there are broadly 3 points of view stories are written using:  protagonist’s POV, A character's POV already there in the story, Omniscient’s POV.

No matter what POV you follow, follow consistently in the entire story. Don’t change the POV randomly. POV can turn a protagonist to antagonist and vice versa. I will elaborate on it in the detail. 

Seeds of thoughts:

Write a love story of a student where the girl is the daughter of a peon. Create a scene where peon has beaten the student with iron rod. His friends have taken him to hospital. Doctor there tries to kill the student because he wants to marry his mother who is also willing but the student is opposing. Boy’s father had already died many years ago and mother is nurse in the same hospital. Grow the story and decide your protagonist, antagonist and others.

 

- Amit Roop