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How to Write a Novelby Stewart Ferris

Lesson 02 of 08

Characters — people the reader will follow

Build a protagonist with a want and a wound, an antagonist with reasons, and names that mean something.

In this lesson

  • Protagonist: goal, motivation, wound, and the lie they tell themselves
  • Antagonist as a person with a job, not a moustache
  • Supporting cast who change the temperature of a scene
  • Names whose etymology fits the grain of the character

Readers remember people, not diagrams. Give the protagonist a want they can act on this week, a wound that explains the want, and a lie they will have to stop believing before the last chapter. Goal, motivation, conflict is enough machinery. The rest is how they take a cup of tea when they are afraid.

The antagonist is the reason the story happens. They should want something that cannot coexist with the protagonist’s victory — and they should be right, from where they stand. A lazy protagonist who waits for the plot to collect them will bore a reader who has a bus to catch.

Supporting characters are not furniture. Each one should have a distinct way of speaking and a job in the book: to tempt, to witness, to refuse, to love inconveniently. If two of them could swap dialogue without anyone noticing, merge them.

Names do quiet work. A name that means the opposite of the person can be a joke or a prophecy; a name that fits can save you a paragraph of explanation. Do not invent a phone book. Choose with intent — then let the character outgrow the label.

Open a companion studio

Tools by Stewart Ferris, on grok.me — for the part of the job this lesson names.

Character namesNominaNames with meaning. Choose a grain — origin, temper, element, role — and receive given names and surnames whose etymologies fit the character you are writing.CharactersDossierA literary character workshop. Build round characters with nine sections of lists — class, accent, desire, trauma, politics, and the lie they live by.

Exercises

  1. 01

    One page of lists

    For the protagonist: age, class, accent, a private desire, a public face, a wound, the lie they live by, a habit that betrays them. Then write a short monologue in their voice — no name tag, just the sound of them.

  2. 02

    The barn

    Your character has recently survived a private disaster. Describe a barn (or a kitchen, or a station platform) without mentioning the disaster. The feeling should still be there.

  3. 03

    Names with grain

    Take the character to Nomina. Set origin, temper or role, and shortlist names whose meanings you could defend to a sharp editor.

Common pitfall

Cookie-cutter leads: beautiful, gifted, and vaguely sad. Flawed people are readable. Perfect people are advertisements.

Milestone

A protagonist dossier, an antagonist with a genuine case, and names you will not change in chapter twelve.