Back to Basics #1: How to find your main character
Figuring out what your character wants and what they actually need.
I’m going to tell you a secret: you don’t need a twenty page outline to start writing a book, you don’t need a detailed spreadsheet or fancy software. What you need is an idea.
We’ve already talked about ‘the hook’ and how to find it when you’ve already written your book, but most people start with that idea and then struggle with what on earth they should do with it. So I’m starting a new series on going back to basics and what to do with that idea that you have. For the purposes of this series, we’re going to assume you already have that vague premise kicking around in the back of your head that you want to write, but don’t know how to get out of your head and onto paper.
Here is a standard disclaimer: everybody works and writes in different ways. There is no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do this. This isn’t necessarily about plotting vs pantsing, but working out how to get the creative juices flowing and getting to the stage where you can actually start plotting or writing.
At this stage, the idea you have is probably about a situation. It’s probably your ‘inciting incident’ – the event that kicks off the story and the journey your characters will go on. Perhaps you have an idea for a rom-com about two flatmates, or a crime novel about a body found in a local park. Perhaps your idea is more abstract than that and you’re starting with the idea of a dystopian society or a fantasy world. But how do you get from ‘idea’ to 80,000 word novel? You’ll hear a lot about different methods: Save The Cat, the Snowflake Method, the three act structure, but if all you have is this basic idea, then you’re not there yet. If you open up a Word document or notebook and start trying to think of what your midpoint is going to be right now, well… you’re not going to get very far. Because you don’t know who any of this is going to happen to.
You start with a character.
We might pick up a novel because we’re interested in the premise (‘the hook’), but we stay for the characters. I’m a firm believer that characters are what make a book. Everything that happens in a book should be a direct result of a character’s action or reaction – they should drive the plot, it shouldn’t just happen to them. What are we reading about if not to see how a person acts and reacts in this specific situation? Why do we care?
Here’s the thing: a lot of online character questionnaires will lead you to believe that you have to know the name of their childhood pet and their best subject at school and their favourite colour before you start writing, but you don’t. In fact, I think this often leads to thin, underdeveloped characters who end up being little more than a bunch of surface-level facts in a trench coat.
What your character needs is a goal.
They need to want something.
At this stage, their hair colour and birthday doesn’t matter. What matters is that your protagonist has a clear, tangible goal that they think is going to solve all of their problems. Maybe the detective who finds the body in the park is desperate for a promotion, or your dystopian hero just wants a quiet life, or your protagonist is a single dad who wants to make money.
Their want is a superficial, often external desire that they pursue throughout the story. It’s what they think they want. What they believe will bring them happiness.
But here’s the thing: it’s usually not. What they want often isn’t what they need.
Their external want is often in opposition to their need, which is driven by a misbelief they need to overcome. This is what drives the internal conflict of the book.
Let’s use one of my favourite books I read this summer as an example: Carley Fortune’s One Golden Summer. Sorry for the slight spoilers.
Following a break up of a seemingly ‘perfect’ relationship, Alice wants a break from her demanding photography career and to care for her ailing grandmother at the magical lake where she spent summers in her youth. Her Nan’s accident is the catalyst for the trip that allows her to confront what she truly needs: to reconnect with her love of photography without pressure and take risks with her career, and her heart .
Do you see how what Alice wants (a break from the photography career she’s fallen out of love with and to overcome a break up with someone who didn’t truly see her) ties into what she actually needs: to take control of her own career by regaining her creativity and to be with someone who encourages her to take risks and truly understands her in the form of love interest, Charlie?
Let’s take some other examples:
Katniss Everdeen wants to protect her younger sister, Prim, and survive the Hunger Games. But this evolves into a deeper need to fulfil her purpose as a revolutionary symbol and overthrow the government of Panem, contrasting against her want for a private, quiet life.
Scrooge wants to amass as much money as possible, but he needs to learn the true meaning of love and compassion.
In Rebecca, the protagonist wants to be glamorous and loved like Rebecca and to belong at Manderley, but needs to identify her own self-worth and independence.
Do you see how the character doesn’t usually get what they want (they get what they need)?
Over the course of your book, the character’s need comes to the forefront. They’ll shift their way of thinking and it’ll probably be horrible for them because we all hate realising things about ourselves and changing our opinions, and this need is probably something they’ve had buried deep inside them for a long time that they’ve been ignoring. It’s probably developed from something in their past or childhood. And crucially, their need will start to really unfold in the final stages of the novel and it should be tied to the solution of the plot – Katniss needs to embrace her position as a revolutionary to overthrow the government, Alice needs to learn to take risks with her career and her heart etc.
So now go back and look at your idea.
Say you’ve got a body in the park. Who finds it? What do they want? Yes, they want to solve the case and find the killer, but that’s a given. We need to go deeper than that. Who is the protagonist of this story? Perhaps they’re an eager young recruit who always plays by the rules and is desperate for a promotion. That’s what they want on the surface, but maybe they need to learn that teamwork is more important than personal gain. Or maybe you have a jaded detective who hates playing by the rules but needs to learn that the rules are what is essential for justice to be done.
Maybe your single dad wants money to give his kid a better life so dedicates all his time to working, but needs to learn that being there emotionally for his child is more important than material goods.
Perhaps you have an idea for a fake-dating romcom. Maybe the protagonist wants a fake relationship to take to a family event, but needs to learn to let go of other people’s opinions and expectations and that the only route to happiness is living for yourself.
The want is often, though not always, directly opposing to the need. Usually your character is lying to themselves about how they feel and doing everything they possibly can to run in the other direction from their true need.
Here are some ideas to help you find your character’s want and need:
Brainstorm several different ideas.
Take your initial idea for a book and think about who would fit into this story – what would that character want?
For example, a fake dating rom-com about overcoming family expectations is probably more likely to be about characters in their twenties than their fifties. (Though maybe you’re determined to change that perception! If so, that’s where you’re going to start. Ask yourself why your character is struggling with these expectations, Who are they? Who are their family?).
Your detective is probably going to be curious and driven, but they could be young and eager or older and jaded. Which appeals to you more?
Make a note of your favourite books, films or TV. Are there any common themes or overlapping ideas that you’re drawn to exploring?
Make a list with two columns: Want and Need.
Write down what your character might want, and what the underlying, contrasting need might be. Try and come up with a few different options.
Think about how they’ll get from ‘want’ to ‘need’. What is the character arc and journey they’ll go through to make this transformation.
You don’t need to have specific scenes right now, just a vague picture of who they are at the start of the novel vs who they are at the end. What have they learned about themselves?
Keep brainstorming. Next time, we’ll start thinking about how to take these wants and needs and transform them into characters.