Choosing Your Main Characters

British novelist and literary critic David Lodge has said, "Character is arguably the most important single component of the novel. ... Nothing can equal the great tradition of the European novel in the richness, variety and psychological depth of its portrayal of human nature. Yet character is probably the most difficult aspect of the art of fiction to discuss intechnical terms."

Probably one of the easiest jobs you will have as you write your novel is that of choosing your main character. In fact, it is likely that the main character is an inseparable part of your original idea: "A young man becomes dissatisfied with his working class life and leaps at the chance to receive a gentleman's education." Your main character is the young man. "A woman fights for custody of her daughter after her ex-husband accuses her of neglect." Your main character is the mother.

Your main character may even have been in your mind BEFORE your story idea: You want to write about someone who's like your feisty Aunt Sally, or base a character on a famous person--or on yourself.

Besides the main character (also called the PROTAGONIST), a novel must have a minimum of two more characters: the ANTAGONIST (the person in conflict with the protagonist) and a SUPPORTING CHARACTER with whom the main character can interact and reveal his thoughts and plans. (Note that in some novels the antagonist is not an actual character. It may be a force ofnature, an oppressive culture or society, or a conflict WITHIN the protagonist, but there must always be someONE or someTHING set in opposition to the main character.)

There is no upper limit to the number of characters you may include in your novel. How many you need will be a function primarily of the plot, as well as of the length and scope of your novel. Use as many as you need--but don't clutter up your novel like Penn Station. Since each character must be distinct and memorable, if you use only as many as you need, you make your job much easier, and in the long run, your novel more powerful.

--from the "Focus On The Novel" Workshop