What Do *You* Want from a Protagonist? (Finally I figure it out.)

Oh a high today, as The Toronto Star (Canada's biggest newspaper) has compared me to Agatha Christie!  If I could have dreamed of anyone to be compared to, that's who. Now back to our regularly scheduled post…)

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I don't know why I should have to be over 60 before I learn what I truly want from a protagonist.

Taking into account that I've read at least 30 books a year for 50 years, that is a hulking number of books to read before figuring it all out.  But figure it, I finally have, and I'm keen to share, to see if others feel the same.

This goes for the books I write myself, but more particularly, it goes for books I pick up to read for pleasure.  Back to that at the end of this post.

1.  A protagonist I can trust.

I was the first to admit this among my set, and I'll continue to say it:  I HATE unreliable narrators.  

I want to root for the protagonist.  I want to be their friend. When I find out the protagonist has been lying to me, it feels like a friend has betrayed me. Yes, I'm talking about Gone Girl, and others of the like.  While I admit The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is clever,  it is my least favorite book by Christie, and I don't want to read another like it.  It's been done.

I don't like being tricked by a protagonist. I don't want to become part of an author's experiment.

2.  A protagonist I can enjoy becoming, while I read.

This perhaps is the most important thing.  I read to escape.  I particularly like first person books because I can slip myself into the skin of the protagonist and become that person for the length of the story.

For this reason, I need to respect the protagonist.  Yes, they can be flawed, but I don't want to be forced into the skin of someone who is lacking in the morality I think is so important in life.  For the same reason, I want that person to be the sort where I can find what they think about intriguing, with knowledge that interests me.

I discovered this recently while reading the first book of a current series that is doing very well, which features a young, naive maid (current day) who solves crimes by noticing details.  Lovely premise, and I did respect the protagonist, but I found being in the mind of such a gal for three/four hours to be somewhat limiting.  In a short story, I could manage it.  But in a long work, I need the protagonist to be someone I want to *be* for a time.

 3.  An ending for the Protagonist that isn't going to make me cry.

This is why I write the sort of books I do.  I find the world a scary place.  If you have watched the person you love the most, die painfully far too young, it does something to you.   I want to know - that at least in my fiction - my beloved protagonist is going to survive and overcome the things that threaten them.

How does all this manifest itself in my own writing?  If I am writing a novel (I've written 20) then there is going to be humour as well as crime in the story, and the outcome will not be a bad one for my protagonist.  

There is enough dark in our world today. I want to add light.

So readers can pick up my books knowing that they won't read for 4 hours, only to find the character they have come to care about has kicked the bucket.  Instead, they will live to tell another tale.  And the reader will hopefully leave the book smiling.

Finally:  my husband just asked me what I was writing about for this blog, and I told him the topic, being what I want from a protagonist.  He immediately said: "Sales."

How about you?  Do you relate as strongly with a protagonist?  Or do you like to get into the skin of someone entirely different, no matter their morals? 

Compared to Agatha Christie by The Toronto Star, Melodie Campbell writes capers and golden age mysteries. Now available everywhere! Book 18, The Silent Star Murders

"The pacing is brisk, the setting is vivid, and the dialog is sharp. The Silent Film Star Murders is an enjoyable read with a conclusion that—even though I should have—I simply did not see coming."   

--Greg Stout , THE STRAND MAGAZINE