Heroes

My topic today isn't Tim Kring's epic television drama although I've read that the show chronicles the lives of ordinary people who discover they possess extraordinary abilities, and I think that point may be relevant. My topic is what makes a character a fabulous protagonist.

At her online writing workshop with Bob Mayer, Jennifer Crusie writes

Your protagonist is the character who owns your story, your main character, the character your reader follows through the narrative. He or she is not necessarily “the heroine” or “the good guy,” the protagonist can be Macbeth or Scarlet O’Hara or the Fiend from Hell. What the protagonist must be is fabulous. Somebody the reader cannot stop following around because she’s so smart or so funny or so fascinating or so good at what she does or in so much trouble that the reader can’t stop worrying about her.

But the protagonist isn’t just interesting, the protagonist is also in need of something, she or he has a goal, something that she wants that is so important to her identity, so important to her sense of self worth, that her pursuit of that goal moves the story. Note “pursuit.” As in “action.” As in “not sitting and thinking.”

Both Bob Mayer and Jennifer Crusie state that there should be only one protagonist, although I think that may depend on the type of story that you're writing.

Anyway . . . that got me to thinking about what makes a protagonist fabulous. Is my protagonist fabulous? People typically like my characters. Is that fabulous enough?

Maybe what makes a protagonist fabulous, I thought, is their journey, their road to discovering their extraordinariness.

I read an article by Karen Marie Moning, one of Macy's and Katrina's fave authors, and then immediately went out and picked up a copy of The Writer's Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers by Christopher Vogler. It's filled with archetypes and other cool story teller stuff which makes it right up my alley.

According to Vogler the psychological function of the hero relates to the ego's search for identity and wholeness. He writes

In the quest of becoming complete, integrated human beings , we are all Heroes facing internal guardians, monsters and helpers. In the quest to explore our own minds we find teachers, guides, demons, gods, mates, servants, scapegoats, masters, seducers, betrayers and allies, as aspects of our personalities and characters in our dreams. All the villains , tricksters, lovers, friends and foes of the Hero can be found inside ourselves.

I loved that! It is so intertwined with what Macy and I are exploring in our The Care and Feeding of the Girls in the Basement Class, and it provided validation that we ARE doing something vital, something important, something that will benefit our current WIP's and our writing in general-- in not so subtle ways, I believe. Macy just came up with a truly awe-inspiring new opening scene. I'm having daily epiphanies about my characters, main plot, subplots, conflict, scenes and sequels. It's been so much more valuable than some of my more focused "craft" workshops. Anyway, back to heroes . . .

The dramatic functions of a hero are audience identification, growth, action, sacrifice and dealing with death. Vogler writes

At the heart of every story is a confrontation with death. If the Hero doesn't face actual death, then there is the threat of death or symbolic death in the form of a high-stakes game, love affair or adventure in which the Hero may succeed ( live) or fail (die).

Heroes show us how to deal with death.

I was thrilled when I read that, because I have that one covered from a couple of angles. I also thought that perhaps that's why death has come up a few times now in our writing group chats and here. Because we're storytellers. It's an interesting aside to think about.

Vogler acknowledges in the preface to his book that there are several questions and criticisms regarding various aspects of the hero's journey. For example Germany and Australia are herophobic cultures-- which is tres interesting to me because two of my main characters are Australian. This notion was confirmed in our Girls in the Basement chat today by two Australians, and a woman who lived in Australia for many years. "Tall poppies" are quickly cut down to size.

Another potential problem with the form of the hero's journey is gender related. Men's journeys may be more external and linear, while women's journey's may spiral inward and outward. Vogler actually cites Women Who Run with the Wolves by Clariss Pinkola Estes as well as Jean Shinoda Bolen's Goddesses in Everywoman, a book that was used as the basis of a guided meditation for finding your inner goddess by my yoga/meditation teacher.

Since it's still Saturday (barely) I decided to do a Saturday Sixteen like I did a couple weeks ago at my Alys on Love blog. Here's the sixteen most fabulous female protagonists, in my humble opinion. They are not in any particular order.

1. Anne Shirley of Anne of Green Gables by Lucy Maude Montgomery
2. Jo March of Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
3. Elizabeth Bennet of Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
4. Emma Woodhouse of Emma by Jane Austen (and similarly Cher of Clueless)
5. Hermione Granger of the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
6. Stephanie Plum of the Plum series by Janet Evanovich
7. Anita Blake of the Anita Blake series by Laurell Hamilton
8. Taylor Greer of The Bean Trees & Pigs in Heaven by Barbara Kingsolver
9. Scarlett O'Hara of Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
10. Morgaine of Mists of Avalon by Marion Zimmer Bradley
11. Daphne Bridgerton in the Duke and I by Julia Quinn ( I like all her heroines!)
12. Sidda Lee & Vivi Walker of Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood by Rebecca Wells
13. Claire Randall of the Outlander series
14. Gemma Dante of Total Rush by Deirdre Martin
15. Elizabeth Swan in the Pirates of the Caribbean movies
16. Rose in Titanic

Okay, I cannot believe how hard that was. As you can see I had to resort to pulling a couple from movies-- and technically, Hermione isn't a protagonist, but I just love her. Why haven't more heroines stayed with me? Hmmm. I'll have to ponder that. Feel free to weigh in with yours, and any other thoughts you may have. What makes a great female protagonist? A few adjectives I'd toss in about those on my list are that they are intelligent, brave, survivors, vivid, lively, endearing in some way, easy to identify with . . . oh, and none of them drown themselves, waste away, drink poison or throw themselves under train tracks.

Cheers and happy writing, Alyson

p.s. I swear it was just before midnight in Chicago when I posted this!