It is a problem if your main character is boring, especially if you are writing an adventure story.

When I first started out, I was worried that my main character would be boring. I usually don’t have this problem. I am usually pretty good at creating characters that are not only interesting, but are realistic–characters you can ‘feel’. This time is no different, except there seems to be an annoyingly long ‘ramp up’ process to where my main character becomes interesting.

What kind of character should star in an adventure? This is an easy question to answer. A main character that is a shoe-in success for practically every adventure story is the plucky, good-hearted character with a destiny, a character that (if he or she only knew) is both powerful and fated to be an answer to some major problem that is part of the character’s world.

This main character is often a farm boy or a shepherd or a slave or a poor waif, but is actually a prince or wizard or prophesized savior of the world, and often the child of someone famous and powerful (and possibly evil). That’s a decent opening right there. Some people don’t like to do anything that is ‘unoriginal’ but when it comes to popular fiction, I say ‘don’t mess with story outlines that work!’

However, you can (and should) put an original spin on a tried and true trope.

The rags-to-riches story can get kind of dull if you see it repeated in the same old way every time. It is boring if it happens too predictably or too easily. If the character’s power is given to them rather than earned, for example, or if the character protests the whole way yet somehow ends up with a kingdom, the princess, and power no one would mess with.

This kind of story is a bit limp because it is utter wish fulfillment. A nobody becomes a Somebody through no effort of their own? Lazy. Why should that character conquer evil and get everything they want with no sacrifice?

I like the idea of a nobody becoming a Somebody, and I like the idea of conquering evil, but I wanted my character to work for it, and to choose it, and for it to go wrong in some way, particularly where ‘villains’ are concerned.

To have this make sense, I needed to take my character on a journey. She needed to start out as a passive, fulfilled character who loses everything and has to choose to become something quite different to achieve a destiny she’s not sure of. Unfortunately, I was little uncertain of the details of this journey, and so I wrote my character as a ‘blank’ when I started.

Oops.

It’s okay, though. It’s fixable. However, I will need to go back (after I have finished the first leg of the journey to see what she needs…) and make her fit her own story a little better. Rather than write a character who is ‘predestined’ to do what she’s going to do, I would rather her be ‘uniquely suited’ to the task. All the components are there. I just need to make certain parts shine.

I didn’t hit my personal deadline of finishing the manuscript for my first novel by my birthday. I didn’t even get close. I am still stuck in the middle section where my heroine’s life gets turned upside down.

I know WHY I didn’t hit my deadline. I was busy. I moved. I had to plan my own birthday party. I was depressed at being in my ‘late twenties’ already (lol). I bought eight fish and two kittens.

But the truth is that I didn’t really want to finish. I was feeling uninspired by some problems I was having in the story (all solvable with a little creativity and hard work) and the fact that no one is driving me to finish this. It is tough when you are your only motivator!

The kittens have been a wonderfully horrible distraction of course. I got them last weekend and the little dears have certainly kept me occupied. One of them chewed through my laptop charger in the first hour of taking up residence, forcing me to write at my desktop until I could replace it. This was perfectly acceptable except that the chair is rather uncomfortable, but I managed to write through the end of a chapter in that chair with both kittens sleeping on my lap. Not disturbing them was a challenge (but so worth it, as that was their first lap nap).

Anyway, I am ‘back at it’ again, and I actually have some new ideas that may help the story. Sometimes it is good to let things stew for a little bit, as long as a ‘little bit’ doesn’t drag out.

I won’t let it! I will finish!