Before you start writing, it’s a good idea to invest some time and attention into the creation of your protagonist(s) and your villain. This is how you do that.
First, you will typically have one protagonist per story. Some complicated romances have two*, but almost every book has only one. You will also have only one villain per story. This has nothing to do with point of view characters and everything to do with structuring your story properly.
The protagonist, sometimes called the hero, is the character whose arc drives the story (see Character Arcs for what a character arc is and what kinds of arcs there are). The plot is inextricably tied to the character arc. Major characters such as love interests, buddies, relatives, etc. may also have character arcs and may be crucially important, but they are not the protagonist because they are not the person whose dreams and life drive the story.
Likewise, there may be quite a number of antagonists, or villainous people, in a story, but the villain is the person whose actions block the protagonist and who sets up the major source of conflict that the protagonist must overcome to win the day. Even sympathetic and significant characters who love the protagonist may be antagonists for a scene or two, but they aren’t the villain. For example, the Cowardly Lion in The Wizard of Oz begins as an antagonist but becomes a significant secondary character and ally of Dorothy. The Wizard is also an antagonist until he becomes an ally at the end.
Your protagonist must have the following traits figured out before you write:
- The Inner Wound or Big Lie
- What the character Wants
- What the character Needs
Your villain should have these traits figured out as well. Sometimes, especially if you are writing a series with important and recurring characters, it’s useful to figure those out for the necessary secondary characters, but not always.
We’ll look at The Wizard of Oz, because many people have seen it, and because it’s so much in our cultural setting that even people who haven’t seen it still have a basic understanding of who the characters are.
Dorothy
Big Lie: That her life in Kansas is stifling, that she is in danger there from relatives who don’t love her and a neighbor who wants to kill her dog Toto.
Want: She wants to leave Kansas and go on adventures, and maybe find familial love and acceptance.
Need: She needs to realize that she has everything she needs to be happy in Kansas, and to accept that.
The Scarecrow
Big Lie: That he has no brain and that people with no brains are not valued.
Want: He wants someone to give him a brain.
Need: He needs to understand that he is intelligent and valuable even with a head stuffed with straw.
And so forth.
Can we do this for the Wicked Witch of the West? Not as easily, because often the villain doesn’t come out and say “This is what I fear, want, and need.” We know she wants the Ruby Slippers, but we don’t know why, and that’s fine. The person who reads the book or watches the movie doesn’t always need to know what makes the villain tick, but you, as the writer, should.*In a romance with two protagonists, the protagonists must each have complementary Wants and Needs so that they can work together to make each other whole. This requires a lot of delicate set-up. In many romances, one character prompts the other to change; for example, in A Civil Campaign, which I described in “Character arcs,” Miles is the protag. He does all of the changing. Ekaterin, his love interest and a significant POV character, doesn’t significantly change. She has no arc in that book, and her actions don’t change the story. Instead, her actions prompt Miles to change. If A Civil Campaign were a two-protag romance, then Miles would also have to affect Ekaterin to the point where she changed enough to become a better version of herself. This is difficult to do.