Four Protagonist Criteria: Deciding on your MC

You've built your world, now you need to write your story.

But wait, you've got all these juicy characters and all of them seem like they would make fascinating MCs.

How do you decide?

Let me tell you how I did it. I didn't worldbuild, I just dove into the bulk of the story and suddenly I had two MCs. And that was about 7 years ago.

This year I found out that only one of my MCs was the actual protagonist.

Well, how did I find that out?

What to do with Antagonists (in general)?

Every hero story has a bad guy in it. The villain.

Harry Potter vs Lord Voldemort
Frodo Baggins vs Sauron
Luke Skywalker vs Darth Vader...you get the idea.

Watching them from afar is okay. You're not the writer, you don't need to worry about how the villain plays a role in the MC's plotline.

But when you're the writer, you have to think, who are my bad guys? Or,

Character Crisis: Same-gender characters talking together

(This post is based on personal experience. Take away from it whatever you can.)

OMG! The same-gender characters have to talk to each other! How the heck am I going to distinguish one from the other?

I have trouble with that in my novel. My MC is a guy, his best friend is an old guy, his neighborhood enemy is a guy, he has an older brother, he has lots of guy friends and they all have a drink together in the village they live in!

Sheesh!

I have to distinguish them without having to say,

"How are you?" asked Belome (my MC).

"I'm fine," answered Velodis (his best friend).

"Me, too!" said Iyar (his drinking friend).

"It's a good day today," remarked Belome looking up at the sky.

"Sure is," said Iyar.

"Great day," nodded Velodis.


SOUNDS LIKE a children's book.

How do I make it not sound like a children's book?

How Many Characters is Too Many?

I have wondered just as you have. After how many characters will my reader flip and have to be sent to a psychiatric hospital? *blowing things up here yep*

The most I tampered with is two MCs and let me tell you even two is hard. Especially if they are of the same gender.

I read a book called, "These Things Hidden" by Heather Gudenkauf (which will make you want to cry if you read it...in other words, it was a good book) and she switches between same-gender characters constantly and I do remember that at first it was hard to understand why there were so many and to remember who was who and how they were related or not related. She switched between four different characters.

Four. And I have heard from other writers that FIVE is probably the limit. Six is pushing it and seven is a no-no.

But