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?
