How to Write a Main Character: 5 Tips for Writing Strong Main Characters

The main character is a central character who serves as a gateway through which we see the world and the protagonist. Your main character can be the hero, the narrator, the best friend to the protagonist—as long as they’re a major character who’s involved in the story, interacts with the secondary or supporting characters, and is personally impacted by the plot’s main conflict.

The main character can be a more relatable entry-point to the story if the audience is not able to relate to the protagonist. For example, in Tim Burton’s adaption of Charlie and the Chocolate factory, Willy Wonka is the protagonist and drives the plot, but he is also misanthropic and too kooky to be relatable for the audience. Instead, Charlie serves as the audience surrogate, giving us a more relatable human being to empathize with as we watch him experience the eccentric mannerisms and behavioral quirks of Wonka’s dynamic character.

The main character and the protagonist are often, but not always the same character. Although they are both central characters, the protagonist drives the plot forward while the main character is impacted by the plot. While the protagonist is technically a main character, not all main characters are protagonists:

• In J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter series, Ron Weasley, the best friend to the protagonist, is a main character, as we often see his own story, character arc, and various subplots are impacted directly by the protagonist’s (Harry Potter) actions. Harry Potter, the lead character of the series, is both a main character and protagonist. Harry is the direct opponent of the antagonist (Lord Voldemort), and the progression of the plot relies on his character needs and the actions he takes. Although Ron is an important character, it is Harry’s character development that matters the most throughout the course of the story.
• In Harper Lee’s novel To Kill a Mockingbird, honorable patriarch Atticus Finch is the protagonist of the story, as the central plot revolves around the trial of the innocent man he is tasked with defending. However, the story is narrated through the first person point of view of his daughter Scout. Scout interacts with many different characters throughout the novel, and her internal conflicts and progression throughout the storyline are impacted by her father’s behavior and the lessons he teaches her about the world.

Learn more about the difference between main characters and protagonists in our comprehensive guide here.

Whether you’re creating fictional characters for screenwriting, novels, or any other literary work, your main character is a necessary component for any story. They can be all different types of characters—the good guy, the bad guy, or any alignment in between (like an antihero).

Here are some tips to ensure your main character is a great character the audience cares about:

1. 1. Establish where they came from. A backstory may not be important to the plot itself, but it will help you define a character’s personality traits and give them depth. This is integral to getting inside their mind in order to understand their beliefs and how they will justify their actions. For example, a main character who nearly drowned as a child will have a much different reaction to sailing on the open ocean than one who didn’t. The audience may not actually see this incident, but adding it to your character’s history can give you an additional, complex layer, which makes for a more interesting character. Learn more about writing round characters in our guide here.
2. 2. Figure out where they’re going. You may not know exactly how they’re going to get there yet, but plotting out the general beats of their arc will help you establish a main character’s purpose and evolution. This will give you more round characters and interesting characters. You can better visualize where these people exist in your world, and what will become of them.
3. 3. Make them believable characters. Figuring out what is at stake for them and what they have to lose helps define your character’s motivations, which will make their reactions more grounded and believable. In George R.R. Martin’s Game of Thrones, Cersei Lannister is a strong character who is loyal to her family above all else, and demonstrates fierce, unconditional love for her three children. However, each child’s death causes her to become increasingly ruthless and protective—which are readily believable character traits to the audience because they are in line with her emotional setup.
4. 4. Have them interact with supporting characters. Main characters don’t just exist inside a vacuum, waiting to be impacted by the protagonist. Having them interact with secondary and more minor characters will make them feel more like real people, like they still exist in the world even when we’re outside the central storyline. Secondary characters are often the more flat characters (also known as stock characters). They are usually two-dimensional archetypes that exist to provide other characters with alternate skill sets, or give the hero a sounding board or emotional support. They may get themselves into trouble so that the hero must rescue them, and even provide comic relief.
5. 5. Give them an internal monologue. One way to create intimacy with your reader—and to get them to care about your main character—is to use internal monologue. This lets the audience see a character’s thoughts as they happen, which exposes that person’s motivations, opinions, and personality. Internal monologue not only reveals character, it’s a neat way to convey information about your setting, events, and other characters. This also gives the main character a more active role in their universe, and seem less like a reactionary prop to the protagonist.

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