Your story needs a hero. A good guy. Almost every story has one, and that good guy is usually the protagonist. It isn't universal, but it is close enough for our purposes here. Even stories allegedly told from the villain's point of view exist mostly to garner sympathy for the villain and make them a hero in their own right. Nobody actually believes they're the bad guy, right? So let's talk a little bit about that hero.
I'll address anti-heroes before I really get into the meat of this because I don't want to pull my hair out later for omitting them. I feel that anti-heroes, by and large, are predictable characters. They're gunslinging badasses with cool one-liners and a moral code that's just a bit too recklessly violent to make them good guys. They don't care about the laws and the innocents and all that mumbo-jumbo. But they always have a soft spot. One thing that makes them relatable. Otherwise, well, they'd be the villain. It could be vengeance or children or whatever. Hell, even Boba Fett wouldn't kill women and children.
The point I want to make is that if you're character is an anti-hero, great, but the mold for that is pretty set. There isn't much I can say to help you along. You're going to spend most of your story illustrating how awesome your character is and then, somewhere toward the end of the second act, that vulnerability will have to show up. I think anti-heroes are too easy to get carried away with. Not that some writers can't do them well, but an anti-hero with real depth (I think anti-heroes themselves were created to combat complaints that the good guys had no depth), as in feeling and thoughts that conflict and all that? Well, I'd love to be shown a good one. Until then, stick with the good guys.
Anti-heroes aside, the good guys typically come in one of two styles. These are about as generalized as possible, so don't get all wound up if I'm not specific enough for your particular goblin-slaying dwarf paladin with a haunted, talking sword and a dark past who really just wants to give up adventuring for a life of cake-decorating in the South Hills, but can't because he swore a blood oath to a man he wrongly killed to find the true meaning of revenge. Hold on. Let me write that down in my notes. Uh, copyright 2012.
Anyway.
The hero of the story is very likely either The Paragon of Goodness or The Flawed Hero. Both of them are about equally cliche at this point, so really, your hero is sort of dependent on the story you want to tell. If you want a dark, complex story, well the Flawed Hero is probably your guy. If you want an epic battle of good against evil, pure unadulterated fun, the Paragon of Goodness might suit you better.
The Paragon of Goodness, as you might have imagined, is a character that always does the right thing. Not the right thing as they see it, or the right thing for the time, but the right thing period. Galad, from The Wheel of Time is a good example of this, although technically a secondary character. He consistently puts himself, and others, into danger because he can't lie, can't bend the law, can't ever do something that isn't right. But he isn't conflicted about it. See, the Paragon of Goodness knows they're doing the right thing, knows their actions have consequences, and reconciles the two by doing the right thing anyway. Typically people writing a hero like this don't give those actions dire consequences, but Robert Jordan's world isn't a soft one.
The distinguishing factor is that the hero doesn't have internal conflict, they don't (usually) have regrets from the past. The Paragon of Goodness is kind of a saint.
The Flawed Hero is, obviously, flawed. Perhaps not fatally flawed, as the heroes of Shakespeare's tragedies, but not the upright bastion of light that the Paragon embodies either. The Flawed Hero is typically more realistic because he's conflicted, he's emotional, he's got scars and issues like the rest of us. People want to see someone with the great weight of saving the world (or the girl, or the village, or the Cube of Plot Devices) thrust upon them, bow a little bit under that strain. I'd hazard a guess that the Flawed Hero is more common, at least now, because the Paragon is difficult to believe as real. We know people are good, but no one is that good.
David Bell is good at writing the Flawed Hero. His characters, whether a grief-stricken father or a conscience-laden mechanic or the genre-typical special detective are these fundamentally normal people. They've made bad decisions, made mistakes, seen and done things they regret. Those things haunt them. They're trying to stop something bad, trying to thwart some evil or find answers. They're on the Good Guys' Quest, but they aren't wholly good themselves. They're human, after all.
Either of these characters can make a fine protagonist, depending on what you do with them. The story must fit the hero, after all. You wouldn't send the Paragon of Goodness trekking through a world where he'd be forced to murder strangers to reach his goal. The character wouldn't be able to handle that. He'd crack under the guilt, or get killed trying to avoid doing what needed to be done. Likewise, you wouldn't send the Flawed Hero on a quest that would test the purity of his heart. He'd lose.
Perhaps it goes without saying, but the hero is one of the most important things to consider when you set out to write a story. Before you work on your outlines or your supporting cast, make sure you get to know the protagonist. Believe in them. See where and how they grow over the course of the story. You don't need to like them, honestly. I've written characters I'm not fond of for several reasons. Characters I would never share a drink with if we met. But you do need to know and believe them before they can come to life.
Try to highlight the subtle things about your hero. Bring out the new and exciting things. The Flawed Hero and the Paragon of Goodness have been done, show me what makes yours unique. Why should I care about his flaws or his journey? Why should I care about her struggle? The real art of creating heroes is taking something we've seen, that most basic mold, and making something extraordinary out of it. Do that, show me a hero I want to read about and put them in a story I can get lost in and you've hooked me.
There's no secret to it, there's not even one right way to do it. But when that character emerges, the one that just sinks its claws into your brain until you start spilling their life onto the page, you'd better run with it.
Characteristically Yours,
-S.R.
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