Lame reader surrogate

Antilles

Hey,

does anyone have any advice for dealing with a dull reader surrogate? I've done a snowflake outline for my novel, and when I went thrugh the backstory with my First Reader, her eyes lit up and she was really into it. But when I got to describing my main character, the down-to-earth "every man", she totally deflated. This character is my protagonist, so how do I make him more engaging while at the same time allowing room for the reader to project him/herself into the role?

RickBockwinkle

You could try giving them an interesting hobby unrelated to their everyman job. Alternatively they could have something in their past that prompts a particular idiosyncracy to their character. Perhaps they could have a friend outside of the story that they meet with, discuss things with that aren't 100% related to the plot. everyone has a friend they hang out with that they don't tell their intricate personal details to, so including them might give more depth, but is something that readers can relate to.

Blush_01

You need to know your protagonist like the back of your hand, but people can't project themselves into a character if they know too much about them.

Does an everyman fit the expected profile of your protagonist if your backstory is so strong?

pickarooney

Think about what you're asking here - all we have to go on is the reaction of one person to a brief description of a character who has yet to be written. The most extraordinary things can happen to the most ordinary people and everyone is interesting in some way. As long as you believe in the character that should be enough, IMO.

Antilles

RickBockwinkle wrote: »

You could try giving them an interesting hobby unrelated to their everyman job. Alternatively they could have something in their past that prompts a particular idiosyncracy to their character. Perhaps they could have a friend outside of the story that they meet with, discuss things with that aren't 100% related to the plot. everyone has a friend they hang out with that they don't tell their intricate personal details to, so including them might give more depth, but is something that readers can relate to.

Hrm, I'm just concerned that while my protagonist is off flying gyrocopters or chatting with his unrelated friend, my readers will start skipping pages

Antilles

Blush_01 wrote: »

Does an everyman fit the expected profile of your protagonist if your backstory is so strong?

Well the idea of the novel is to explore how an everyman gets into a specific situation, so its a required part that he is who he is.

EileenG

Give him a hobby or profession which affects how he looks at the world. For instance, a bodybuilder, even an amateur, will tend to obsess about food, and can't order in a restaurant without doing a mental calorie count first. A dermatologist is going to look at every new acquaintance in terms of their skin and what it says about them. So you don't have to give pages of his doing this stuff, just show how it changes his world view.

Antilles

EileenG wrote: »

Give him a hobby or profession which affects how he looks at the world. For instance, a bodybuilder, even an amateur, will tend to obsess about food, and can't order in a restaurant without doing a mental calorie count first. A dermatologist is going to look at every new acquaintance in terms of their skin and what it says about them. So you don't have to give pages of his doing this stuff, just show how it changes his world view.

Thanks Eileen! That clicked as soon as you said it. In American Gods, Shadow's obsession with coin tricks is key to the plot but at the same time isn't (at least obviously) directly related to anything else. Thanks so much

Hrududu

I think a lot of main characters are everyman characters. People are able to put themselves into their shoes more easily. But I think its hard to describe a character like this to someone. Because nobody is going to get excited about a normal person. But once they read the book they'll begin to relate to the character and get taken along for the ride.

So I wouldn't be too disheartened by your friend's reaction. If they read the book and still felt the same way then that would be a problem, but its all in the execution.

Inari

I'm an individual, just like everyone else.

People relate to situations, and common ground. This is where the connections are drawn. Create a real character - the readers will connect in their own way

RickBockwinkle

Antilles wrote: »

Hrm, I'm just concerned that while my protagonist is off flying gyrocopters or chatting with his unrelated friend, my readers will start skipping pages

I think EileenG's post explains what I was trying to say. As for the unrelated friend thing, you could think of how Shadow's cellmate in American Gods ties into the story as an example of what I mean.

davyjose

I think a good protagonist needs a dark side. S/He needs to be almost as dislikeable as he is likeable. His dark side has to push through every now and again. They need to be flawed.

ultimately the plot and the main character are like a chemical reaction. The plot is what happens to them. and how s/he reacts is exactly how intersting they will be. JMO.

pickarooney

davyjose wrote: »

I think a good protagonist needs a dark side. S/He needs to be almost as dislikeable as he is likeable. His dark side has to push through every now and again. They need to be flawed.

This is definitely my personal favourite type of protagonist. The balance is particularly hard to strike but when done well...

Knight990

From my experience with writing (and i know this advice might be a little redundant compared to the fantastic advice you've been given so far, but hey i'll try anyway), it's good to deal in fears, etc.

A good way to set forth the character as a believable person is to begin with what they fear. What are they scared of happening in life, if anything? How does this fear impact on them in how they go about their lives. A person can be defined by how they react to situations in which they are most uncomfortable, so in your mind try to put your character in difficult positions, and work out their reactions.

It seems like the person you were explaining the story to was taken in by the depth of the story, but this depth has to be shared by the characters, or else the creation is missing its balance.

Basically, try not to make your character too perfect. Readers want flaws, they want vices, things that make the character interesting. Even in an Everyman type character, there can be flaws. Maybe he smokes? Maybe he has a habit of spending slightly more on alcohol than is good for him (not necessarily being an alcoholic, just things like spending a tennar more than he should), etc. They dont have to be terrible things about the person, just enough to make the reader believe that the character is human, and can have depth of character (no pun intended) and flaws.

Let me know if any of that helps