A Guide To Creating Protagonists

Summary of "Story" by Robert McKee

C.S.M.

Mar 27, 2024

📚 There are tons of great books that will help you level-up your writing.

🕒 I’m saving you countless hours by summarizing a new one every single month.

✍️ Story by Robert McKee will teach you the eternal principles of crafting compelling narratives. It is one of the most valuable books I’ve ever read.

My summary is broken into four posts:

Part 1: The Writer And The Art Of Story
Part 2: The Elements Of Story
Part 3: A Guide To Creating Protagonists
Part 4: How To Design A Story

Here is Part 3:

Protagonist - The main character in a story

Generally, the protagonist is a single character.

But a story can also be driven by a:

Plural-Protagonist - Two or more characters pursuing the same desire and facing the same consequences in the process (like in Thelma & Luise & The Seven Samurai)

Multiprotagonist - Characters pursuing separate and individual desires (like in Pulp Fiction & The Breakfast Club).

Multiprotagonist stories are multiplot stories. They weave together a number of smaller stories (each with its own protagonist) to create a portrait of a specific society.

Qualities Of A Protagonist:

1. A protagonist is a willful character.

A story can’t be told about a protagonist who isn’t able to make decisions.

2. The protagonist has a conscious desire.

The protagonist has a need or goal, and knows it.

If you pulled your protagonist aside and asked “what do you want?” he would have an answer: “I’d like X today, Y next week, but in the end I want Z.”

The protagonist’s object of desire may be:

External
- Jaws: To kill the shark
Internal
- Big: Maturity

In either case, the protagonist knows what he wants.

3. The protagonist may also have an unconscious desire.

The most memorable characters tend to have a conscious AND unconscious desire.

What he thinks he wants is the opposite of what he actually wants.

Although these complex characters are unaware of their subconscious needs, the audience senses it, perceiving in them an inner contradiction.

4. The protagonist has the capacities to pursue the Object of Desire convincingly.

The protagonist’s characterization must be appropriate. He needs a believable, combination of qualities in the right balance to pursue his desires.

5. The protagonist must have at least a chance to attain his desire.

A hopeless protagonist doesn’t interest us. Give him at least the minimum ability needed to achieve his desire.

6. The protagonist has the will and capacity to pursue the object of his desire to the end of the line.

A story must build to a final action beyond which the audience can’t imagine another.

The audience wants to be taken to the limit, to where all questions are answered, all emotions satisfied— the end of the line.

This doesn’t mean that your story can’t have a sequel; your protagonist may have more tales to tell. It means that each story must find closure for itself.

7. The protagonist must be empathetic; he may or may not be sympathetic.

Sympathetic means likable. We’d want them as friends, family members, or lovers. For example, Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan in their typical acting roles. The moment they enter the story, we like them.

Empathy, however, is a much more profound response.

Empathetic means “like me.” Deep within the protagonist the audience recognizes a certain shared humanity. In that moment of recognition, the audience suddenly and instinctively wants the protagonist to achieve whatever it is that he desires.

They see the protagonist as themselves.

The audience must empathize with your protagonist, even if there are more than one (plural-protagonist/multiprotagonist).

If not, the audience/story bond is broken.

Empathy for “Bad” Characters:

If the storyteller fails to fuse the bond between audience and protagonist, we sit feeling nothing.

The audience’s emotional involvement is held by the glue of empathy.

In the hands of the greatest writers, even the most unsympathetic characters can be made empathetic.

Macbeth Example:

Macbeth is a monster, ascending to the throne through ruthless murder.

Yet, in Shakespeare’s hands he becomes a tragic, empathetic hero.

Shakespeare achieved empathy by giving Macbeth a conscience.

As he wanders in soliloquy, wondering, agonizing, “Why am I doing this? What kind of a man am I?” the audience listens and thinks, “What kind? Guilt ridden… just like me. I feel bad when I’m thinking about doing bad things. Macbeth is a human being; he has a conscience just like mine.”

How Character Impacts Story Structure:

There’s a difference between character and characterization:

Characterization - The sum of all observable qualities of a human being, everything knowable through careful scrutiny.

Example: sex, age and IQ; style of speech and gesture; choices of home, car, and dress; education and occupation; personality and nervosity; values and attitudes.

Character (or “True Character”) - Revealed in the choices a human being makes under pressure.

As he chooses, he is.

Character is choice, but pressure is essential.

Choices made when nothing is at risk mean little. The greater the pressure, the deeper the revelation, the truer the choice to the character’s essential nature.

Character = Choice = Structure

Story structure is created out of the choices that characters make under pressure and the actions they choose to take.

If you change one, you change the other.

A changed character would make different decisions, thereby changing how the story unfolds.

Character Revelation:

The revelation of true character in contrast or contradiction to characterization is fundamental to all quality storytelling.

People are usually not what they appear to be. A hidden nature waits concealed behind a facade of traits (shadow self).

Example: Walter White vs. Heisenberg (in Breaking Bad)

No matter what your characters say, the only way we can ever truly know them is by their choices under pressure.

When characterization and character match, the character becomes a list of repetitious, predictable behaviors.

The revelation of deep character in contrast or contradiction to characterization is fundamental in major characters. Minor role may or may not need hidden dimensions.

James Bond Example:

Characterization: Posh lounge lizard
Character: As the story pressure builds, he becomes a thinking man’s Rambo

Character Arc:

The best writing not only reveals true character, but arcs or changes that inner nature (for better or worse) over the course of the telling.

First, the story lays out the protagonist’s characterization.

Second, we’re soon led into the heart of the character. His true nature is revealed as he chooses to take one action over another.

Third, this deep nature is at odds with the outer countenance of the character, contrasting with it, if not contradicting it. He isn’t what he appears to be— other qualities wait hidden beneath his persona.

Fourth, having exposed the character’s inner nature, the story puts greater and greater pressure on him to make more and more difficult choices.

Fifth, by the climax of the story, these choices have profoundly changed the humanity of the character.

Continue reading the other parts of the Story summary: