Crossroads: An Author Self-Interrogation Chapter 2 Question 1

Crossroads: An Author Self-Interrogation Chapter 2

Instructions: For this Q&A session with your favorite author (yourself), I ask you to do something very difficult. I ask you to interrogate yourself about your protagonist. This is tantamount to requesting a critique of your grandchild. I know this because I am both an autho and a grandmother. If anyone so much as suggested to me that my granddaughter required an evaluation, my back would shoot up so high there'd be vertebra imprints on the ceiling. She's perfect. She's wonder. End of story.

It's almost that hard to be objective about a character you've created. You have no doubt whatsoever that your character is strong enough to carry the burden of your story plus a couple of others. Your protagonist is perfect, wonderful. End of story.

Okay, I hear you. I acknowledge your defense of your baby, but the time has come for brutal honesty. You must push beyond your indignation. Stop telling yourself, "What she's saying doesn't apply to my protagonist. Other writers' characters, maybe, but not mine." You must get past that stubborn stance immediately and completely. Otherwise, this interrogation technique and the entire process of self-editing cannot work for you or for your story.

You must think of your protagonist as if someone else created him. Ask yourself each of the following questions. Answer each fully and honestly, as if this were somebody else's kid, not your own.

Note: Each numbered question is made up of many questions that will be answered separately. I'm going to be questioning in regards to Zy, protagonist of the unnamed science fiction mystery I'm working on.

1). What does your protagonist want in this story?

Zy wants to catch the murderer and please Murdock. He has entrusted his murder investigation to her and she would rather die than disappoint him.

Is this desire significant enough to make a reader also want it for your character?

The murderer has a way of killing people without leaving any trace of the weapon used. And he is systematically killing of heads of criminal organizations and breeding more chaos in and between the organizations. And as the murders escalate, there is the fear that he could start killing innocents.

Is this desire significant enough to make a reader want it for your character through the length of an entire book, as long as the character wants it for herself?

Solving the crime and catching the bad guy are essential plot points for the mystery genre. On the personal level, everyone has had someone that they have wanted to impress and be proud of them, usually a parent figure of some sort. Murdock is that figure for Zy.

Or--does this desire, sooner or later, pale into "Who cares?" territory for the reader?

I don't think it pales. The murders and personal danger to Zy escalate during her investigation. She also ends up with two sidekicks that she is responsible for, giving the murderer two more targets.

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The BookWorm