Writing the Messy Protagonist

By Annette Cole Mastron, Communications Director for Southern Writers Magazine

I recently flew through, The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian. The story was quite turbulent from the first page. I was attracted to Bohjalian’s writer rule breaking of telling the story without much dialogue. This “writer rule-breaking” I’ll save for another blog post.

I was intrigued by Bohjalian’s flight attendant protagonist. Flat out, she’s without a doubt one of the messiest protagonists I’ve read about. Her risky behavior paired with her alcoholic promiscuity does not present as character traits that would appeal to readers as a protagonist. 

After reading Chris’s book, I decided she made for one of the most interesting protagonists, I’ve read recently. There were times I hated the stupidity of this character, but I stuck with her and she won me over. After all, everyone in real life is flawed, so why wouldn’t our characters in a book be flawed?

Some author’s protagonists have problems they resolve throughout the book’s story. Often, a weak protagonist is saved by another character which I find a yawner and not authentic. I’m not a fan of reading about the “knight saving the day on a white horse.”

Kristen Kieffer writes on the blog, Well-Storied and has a great article on “33 Ways to Write Stronger Characters.” You can view the article in its entirety at this link. 

Here’s Kristen’s character list is:

“-GIVE THEM A GOAL

-GIVE THEM A MOTIVATION

-GIVE THEM PURPOSE

-GIVE THEM A FEAR

-GIVE THEM A FLAW

-GIVE THEM A HISTORY

-GIVE THEM A PRESENT STORY

-GIVE THEM A PERSONALITY

-GIVE THEM INTERESTS

-GIVE THEM A QUIRK

-GIVE THEM A NAME

-GIVE THEM A DESIRE

-GIVE THEM A LOVE

-GIVE THEM AGENCY

-MAKE THEM COMPLEX

-MAKE THEM UNIQUE

-MAKE THEM RELATABLE

-MAKE THEM FAIL

-MAKE THEM SUFFER

-MAKE THEM SWEAT

-FIND THEIR IDENTITY

-FIND THEIR PERSPECTIVE

-FIND THEIR TYPE

-FIND THEIR LANGUAGE

-FIND THEIR ATTITUDE

-FIND THEIR HAPPY PLACE

-FIND THEIR SUPPORT

-FIND THEIR GUT

-FIND THEIR BANE

-FIND THEIR REFUGE

-FIND THEIR REDEMPTION

-FIND THEIR GLORY

-FIND THEIR STORY”

It’s not a surprise that Chris Bohjalian’s, flight attendant protagonist had each one of these attributes for his character. She’s just a mess, who you loathe one minute and sympathize with the next minute. 

So what do you do to keep readers interested in your protagonist? How messy are they?