“Once again, we've saved civilization as we know it."
- James T. Kirk, “The Undiscovered Country”
Most main characters in science fiction stories also are traditional heroes, or larger than characters who serve as the tale’s protagonist. Obvious examples are Luke Skywalker, Captain Kirk and Indiana Jones. Such characters become “mythic”, especially after several stories describing their adventures.
The advantage of using such characters as that they are good fun. Not surprisingly, the memorable heroes mentioned above all appear in motion pictures, which typically serves as escapism rather than high art.
But you do your readers a disservice when your main character is the stereotypical hero. Such characters, after all, aren’t real. After awhile, you have to ask, “How many times can James T. Kirk save the galaxy?” In addition, heroes often are just clones of heroes who came long before them. Skywalker, Kirk and Jones all are strong, respected, admired, clever, brave, intelligent, natural leaders and usually can have any woman. So were Theseus, Horatio Hornblower and Robin Hood. Ultimately, heroes limit your plot. One notable way is that heroes typically collect “plot coupons” in each scene. In such a plot, the hero gains some knowledge or gizmo that ensures he can solve the problem by the story’s climax. The story really is just a clever game of how he’ll gather all of these coupons, for the story’s outcome never is in doubt.
A more rigorous character – and hence a more rigorous story – should involve placing an ordinary person in an extraordinary circumstance. Ordinary people possess flaws, and the extraordinary circumstance provides an opportunity for those characters to grow and develop.
Because some of the tales involving Skywalker and Kirk do show them overcoming their flaws (Skywalker learning to control his fear and anger; Kirk sacrificing the love of his life for the future), they probably are more memorable heroes than Indiana Jones, whose only real Achilles’ heel is a fear of snakes. In short, if you do stick with a hero character, don’t make him “too cool”. He needs to be vulnerable or he’ll be too superhuman and hence not very interesting. For example, a hero shouldn’t be fearless but instead someone who performs his duties - such as protecting or rescuing others - despite his fears (which is why Indiana Jones’ fear of snakes makes him so endearing).
You Do It Create a hero character that is rigorous. Begin by writing a list of all of his heroic qualities. Now write a list of his vulnerabilities that counter each of his heroic qualities. For example, perhaps he’s physically strong (a heroic quality) but is fearful of using his strength because he once physically hurt someone close to him (a vulnerability).
Visit my Web site about writing science fiction, Inventing Reality.
(c) 2008 Rob Bignell
Tags:
character, main character, plot coupon, protagonist
Posted at: 12:48 PM | 0 Comments | Add Comment | Permalink
| 
| 
del.icio.us