PROviding a PROtagonist

The first Friday of the new year. Time certainly has not slowed in 2014, that is for sure. Everything is moving forward at full speed. For some, the lethargy of the long holiday break is starting to wear off, with the preparation for returning to work now just a weekend away. For us, though, lethargy was something we left in the starting blocks well back in 2013.

With the release of Necromancers’ Pride – Quest for Elderstone just a few days away, I felt like this was a good time to touch on one of the main and most vital elements of the story, the protagonists. It is through these main characters’ eyes and emotions that we get to filter the world of Tarune in all of its enchanting, frightening and unique aspects. The protagonist to whom I would like to introduce you today is the young Corwyn Du’Serradyn.

Corwyn

Corwyn is perhaps the one character apart from Velladriana (more on her in a later post) that we took the most time constructing. The main protagonist needs to end the book in a different place than he or she began. If by the end of the story’s three acts you feel as though there was no growth in the journey of the main character, then there was no story. That is about as point blank as I can make it.

Corwyn took a long time to develop as a person because D.W. and I wanted him to be completely real in his motivations and drive. The problem is in falling so in love with the construct of your lead character that you make him nearly invincible. I call it the Superman Complex. You want your hero to be such a hero that he is unstoppable from the first word on the first page.

Disclaimer: I have not copy-written the term, “The Superman Complex,” I just coined the phrase. If any of you DC Comics fans has a problem with it, I will from now and ever forward refer to it as “The Corwyn Complex.” Thank you.

I wanted Corwyn to be the stellar, unstoppable, martial force that I had envisioned him being when I first began thinking about the character. I ultimately saw him as the hero I would want to be, were I to inhabit this world. The problem was, as D.W. was so quick to point out, that Corwyn had nowhere to go. How can you, as readers, grow to care about Corwyn if we, as writers, cannot give you a journey of discovery on which to accompany him? The simple answer is, you can’t.

So we gave him flaws. We gave him foibles. We gave him his humanity. In so doing, we created a character far richer, more vulnerable and ultimately more interesting than the godlike being I was ready to unleash on Tarune. Can Corwyn one day become that hero of legend … maybe. I say maybe because he grows and the series does. As we write, D.W. and I honor the characters by giving them lives and directions of their own. You see, by honoring them, we honor the story. By honoring the story, we ultimately honor you.

Happy reading!

Who are some of your favorite fictional heroes and protagonists?

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