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

[way2dawn]

Shinji, age 15, is a very perceptive and intellectual person, interested in understanding the world. Most consider him/her a genius, but Shinji knows he/she has a lot to learn. Originally from Tokyo-3, Japan, Shinji now lives in the beach outside the city. He is taking care of Asuka and holds a job as a Student. Shinji is single and has no children. He is an average height for his age, but is a bit on the skinny side, with short, straight brown hair and blue eyes.

As a child, Shinji lived among others with incredible skills, perhaps his/her father or mother was a brilliant scientist. Shinji's parents were probably neglectful. As a result, Shinji learned to look to the outside world for answers. Combine this with a more recent loss or disappearance of a loved one, and you get an overwhelming urge to understand and correct some social problem or to eliminate an evil force. Shinji's flaw is the belief that experiences are for learning and not for fun. He/she may not have a lot of fun, but secretly wants to. He's been told that finding the Awakened will restore the hearts in the ocean back to normal.

It's almost scary how right some of these parts are. Looking forward to the Tarot cards.

[ladyseishou]

Cool, a continuation of Neon Genesis Evangelion? Your character bio is pretty much spot on. Hope that the tarot also provides some additional info about your characters!

[way2dawn]

Yeah, and it's actually going to be a crossover with Kingdom Hearts and Gundam Wing. Everything is going to be in the Kingdom Hearts universe, though. And thanks :)