»
Main Forums
»
Passions in Prose
»
The Protagonist
| Passions in Prose |
|
The Protagonist |
|
|
Joe Houck Member
since 2001-04-23
Posts 324california 
|
The Protagonist “Now remember students, the most important thing in your writing is identifying the protagonist to the reader or audience. The protagonist is your main character and focal point that moves the story along. Without a protagonist there is no story, period! Along with the protagonist there must be a conflict that reaches a climax or there is no significance or value to the story. If you do not have these elements in your story you are left with a bunch of meaningless words on paper that no one wants to read, me in particular.” Sitting slouched over in my seat, sweat starting to bead on my brow in an auditorium of 68 degrees, my eyes fixed on the seat in front of me focused on nothing, I try to refrain myself from thinking these thoughts put into my head by Mr. Blake the drama teacher. “But what if he’s right?” a little voice in my head keeps saying, “what if he’s right?” What if he is right! If everything he said is true! I certainly see now how it could be true. His words kept hammering into my head, speaking as though he was only talking to me and about my life, not about any story or screenplay. Who is the protagonist in my life? It sure as hell isn’t me. Just then my whole life flashed before my eyes. Flickering snapshots of past memories blazing a trail through my minds eye searching for something, anything. No, no, no, no, NO! NOTHING! Not one time in my life have I been the main character or focal point. I can think of times when I’ve tried to be the protagonist but failed miserably. Every step I have taken forward in aiming to become the protagonist in my own life has been unwaveringly pushed back or stepped on by either me or another more deserving person for the leading role. It is a horrible thing to realize that you aren’t smart or talented enough to amount to anything noteworthy in this world, but just smart or talented enough to be unsatisfied with your common place in life. Oh my god, my life is completely irrelevant. “But what are we forgetting here ladies and gentlemen? Perhaps something most you don’t have in your brain even to forget, is that a protagonist, the lead, main character in the movie or screenplay or whatever you are working on does not have to be a good person. A protagonist could very well be in essence an antagonist in the book or screenplay. The protagonist is simply the driving force character in your work. The leading role in your work is not limited to “the good guy” by any means. Just look at screenplays such as “Scareface” with Al Pacino and “Interview with the Vampire” with Brad Pitt. Both with leading characters that in no way constitute as being a good guy at all, and yet both extremely well written and loved characters.” I snapped my head up and sat up in my seat. He’s right! My god he is right! Maybe I’ve just been trying to be the wrong kind of main character in my life. The protagonist doesn’t have to be “the good guy”, words from the teacher himself. But what should I do and to whom? I need a climax or my story, my life is meaningless. Murder, the ultimate climax in everything. Mr. Blake would be the perfect target. He’s the one who opened my eyes to this revelation, I should involve him. After all if anyone would understand it would be him. At that moment I could almost see my old failure self drift away looking back at the new aspirant character that was now me. I smiled and waved goodbye. “Yes Mr. Thomas?” I was suddenly jolted out of euphoria. “What?”, I said anxiously as though he was reading my thoughts the whole time. “You had your hand raised, you have no question?” “Oh, umm no, sorry just stretching” “ah, well lets end on that then. Exert yourself on your work tonight and think about what I went over in lecture. You can do it, I know you can.” Yes, I can and will, I thought to myself with a slow forming grin. As I walked out of the auditorium I felt in control of my life for the first time. I was the protagonist. "The worst vice is advice" (Al Pacino, devil's advocate) |
||
| © Copyright 2004 Joe B. Houck - All Rights Reserved | |||
|
JL Member Ascendant
since 2004-04-01
Posts 6128Texas, USA |
Aren’t we all… Good story. Enjoyed. JL  She said: ”You look cute in the dark.” |
||
|
|
⇧ top of page ⇧ |
|
| All times are ET (US). All dates are in Year-Month-Day format. | ||
