Putting a Personal Imprint on Your Protagonist

Ghost --- almost-feral barn cat who got in the house and can't be caught.

How do you go about making your protagonist your own? Barbara Norville, author of 'Writing the Modern Mystery' (Writer's Digest Books, 1986) has this to say:

"How do you put a personal imprint on [your protagonist]? I have been told by some authors that they (sneakily) use themselves--- their ideal selves--- as the basis for their heroes or heroines. One of them, laughing, said it gave him a chance to activate his Walter Mitty complex: 'It lets me daydream into the typewriter.'"

For a very major character such as the protagonist, I believe that's wise advice. In fact, I believe that any time an author creates a fully rounded and realistic character, the author either consciously identifies as that character, or does so subconsciously.

In fact, writing such characters might be seen as giving yourself a case of faux dissociative identity disorder (multiple personality disorder), one that manifests only when you are before the keyboard or a writing notebook. You create these characters--- as a DID sufferer creates personalities--- and you step into them when the need arises--- when you need to write a scene that includes them.

Another way to view it is to see yourself as a method actor, and the character as a role you are about to play. You find things in your own life that help you identify with the emotions your character is experiencing. If your character's only child dies, you remember the grief of losing your grandmother or losing your cat. If your character robs a bank, you remember how you stole a red pencil when you were in first grade.

In amateur writers' circles, there is an inhibiting factor toward freely creating characters this way. It's the fear of creating a character that will be accused of being a 'Mary Sue'. A 'Mary Sue', in case you are lucky enough not to know the term, is a character accused of being too much like the writer, or too 'good', or too much a wish-fulfillment character.

But real writers often create characters they identify with, or good characters (some fiction even includes Jesus Christ as a character), or that might be perceived as a wish-fulfillment character (ever hear of James Bond?).

What Mary Sue accusers really mean is either that they found your character not believable or not well-developed, or that your writing seems to be a writing down of youthful daydreams (a plot problem, in other words), or that they just didn't care for your writing, character or plot.

The key to avoiding Mary Sue accusations, if that's important to you, is NOT to avoid writing characters you identify with. That's what the best professional writers do. The key is to develop your writing skills so that your story will not have weaknesses bad enough that your readers will search around for an easy explanation--- like a Mary Sue accusation--- to justify their lack of interest in your story.

There is a character I'm developing right now. Like me, she's a woman living in the Upper Midwest who likes cats and is a Catholic. Unlike me, she's married, has artistic skills, and is renowned in a certain field. Is she a 'wish-fulfillment' character for me? Maybe. But the main thing is she's a character that I feel I can understand--- get inside her head. Now, in other stories, I'll be 'getting inside the head' of men, people from California or Germany, people who don't like cats, people who kill people.... Will they all be 'Mary Sues'? Well, since I don't acknowledge 'Mary Sue' as a legit writing term, I won't think so. And if I do my work well, others likely won't think so, either.

In what way is the character you are working with right now like you? In what way does he have skills or qualities you wish you had? In what ways is the character like the 'you' character in your daydreams, and in what ways is he different?


My Facebook writing page:
http://www.facebook.com/NissaAnnakindt