Fast Start for NaNoWriMo - Day 7 - Your Protagonist

[ladyseishou]

Who has the most to lose? Most of the time, your answer will guide you to select the character who should be your protagonist.

— Elizabeth Lyon, Manuscript Makeover



Today, we'll dig a little deeper into the personality of our protagonist (and our antagonist) by looking into his or her Enneagram personality type...

I promise that this won't be painful! All you'll need for today's exercise are the answers from yesterday's mini biography for your characters and to click on this link: Create-a-Character. The link takes you to a free character generator (a mini version of the Character Writer software) and works with the following information:

• Character's name (if unknown you can always go with TBD)
  
• Age
  
• Occupation (at beginning)
  
• Birthplace
  
• Where is he or she now?
  
• Why is he or she there?
  
• Physical description (in one complete sentence)
  
• Goal (in one complete sentence)
  
• Married? Children?

There is also a drop down menu that asks you to choose the best description for your character's personality:

• A principled person on a mission
  
• A self-denying caregiver
  
• A driven status-seeker
  
• A creative individualist
  
• A focused thinker
  
• A dependable ally
  
• Always on the go
  
• A respected leader
  
• A peaceful optimist

Here is the result for my protagonist (let's call him "Jack"):

Jack, age 15, strives to better him/herself and to achieve status, becoming, at times, a shameless self-promotor. Originally from Albany, Jack now lives in Chicago to learn how to become a great wizard and holds a job as a a wizard's apprentice. Jack is single and has no children. He's short with a wiry build and dark, lanky hair that often hangs over sharp blue eyes.

As a child, Jack connected with the mother figure, finding plenty of love there. Later, the mother had problems of her own, which interfered with the her ability to continue lavishing love on the child. Jack's reaction was to become whatever person he/she had to become to impress and recover the love of his/her mother. Combine this with a more recent loss or disappearance of a loved one, and you get an overwhelming urge to be accepted and take on any social issues or goals that would help achieve acceptance. Jack's flaw is that he/she is never finished improving him/herself or the world, which can lead to a breakdown. He wants to become the strongest wizard ever.

Whether or not I explore Jack's personality type with further research into his Enneagram type, the excerpt above gives me a lot of new ground to consider as I continue to discover my characters.

Questions? Comments? Tell us about what drives your protagonist!


Tomorrow, we'll continue to explore more unconventional methods to characterization by looking into the use of Tarot cards whose imagery psychoanalyst Carl Jung considered to be representative of human archetypes. Until then Nano Writer, keep writing!

Comments

[morwen_peredhil]

Jillian, age 21, is a rock: self-disciplined, righteous, and driven to do the right thing, earning love and respect from those Jillian helps in the process. Originally from Vasturii Prime, Jillian now lives in on a crippled starship in the Deep Core to find and bring home the person she can't stop having visions about and holds a job as a Jedi Knight. Jillian is single and has no children. She's small, but stronger than she looks

As a child, Jillian lived in an unstable environment. Perhaps Jillian's parents weren't there or were erratic in some way. As a result, Jillian learned to look inward for the rules of right and wrong. Combine this with a more recent loss or disappearance of a loved one, and you get an overwhelming urge to correct some social problem or to eliminate an evil force. Jillian's flaw is that the motivation to do what's right can alienate friends and family, putting perfectionism and principles above other relationships. She wants to fulfill her destiny — whatever it turns out to be.

Hmm. Her parents did (amicably) divorce when she was a child, but she saw them both regularly. Other than that, I'd say she had a rock-solid upbringing, both from her parents and the Jedi Order.

She "looks inward for the rules of right and wrong" because that's what a proper Jedi does.

The rest of it is pretty close, actually. Except there is one person who comes to matter as much to her as her principles and destiny.

[ladyseishou]

This is interesting. It may be that those born strong with the force are driven to serve as a Jedi subconsciously (given the opportunity). Does her moral compass come more from her inner dialog with the Force, her teachers or her parents?

[morwen_peredhil]

She's the daughter of a Jedi Master and a former Jedi Knight (who left the order due to family/political obligations), both of whom are Skywalker descendants, so neither she nor anyone else has ever questioned that she was born to be a Jedi. (And, yes, I think that pretty much everyone born with more than a smidgen of Force sensitivity is meant to be a Jedi in the GFFA.)

Now that Jillian is an adult, her moral compass is firmly grounded upon her own conscience and feeling the Force within. The spirit of the law/code matters more to her than the letter. Qui-Gon would approve, I think.

When she was born with Force potential on the high end of the Skywalker spectrum, her parents and the Order had to make a decision: Choose the path of mistrust and fear of her power and try to restrict it — we all know how well that turned out when the Old Republic Jedi tried it with Anakin — or choose the path of trust and love and focus on giving her the moral/emotional foundation to make the right choices in the use of it. I like a Jedi Order that learns from past mistakes.