Main Character

[Ann]

Who is your main character and why did you choose them to lead your story?

[Cem]

I have two:

Fenton Wendell middle aged experienced wizardy type and reluctant teacher to Stacey Trampler 27 year old bisexual kindergarten teacher in a poly relationship, all girl thrash metal band lead and roller derby queen; although Ms Trampler is the intended MC.

I have two because Stacey becomes an apprentice of sorts to Fenton. I didn't want her to have this power she suddenly discovers, "Ooh I'm special" moment.

The people that she joins do what they do because they all fell into like she did, by getting attacked and infected by demon like creatures that they protect the world from. And of course because her BF and GF go missing.

It also creates a good dynamic-at least I tried to-as they're opposites, but without any BS love interest stuff in the way. Neither have any interest in each other other than as student and mentor while being chalk and cheese.

I'm working on getting Stacey's voice into my manuscript more because she kind of takes a back seat for the most part, which was totally not what I intended... Le sigh.

[Cem]

I just realised I forgot the all important why:

The story was supposed to be some dude steps on a paving stone and gets transported to... etc etc. It felt boring so I changed it He to She. Then I saw some stuff online about polyamorous relationships and thought: What if she was and both her lovers go missing. And it went from there. It necessitated the secondary MC as mentor because of what I described above.

[[deleted user]]

I have two main characters in my WIP.
One of them, Reese Carter, is a 44 year-old WASP. He's sexist, cynical, and a bit vain.
The other one, Juliana Farrell, is a 36 year-old woman of mixed origin. She's very clever and outsmarts Carter a few times in the story.

I chose those characters because they are so different (almost perfect opposites) that their interactions are never boring. They're always arguing, and their reactions to the other one's comments can be used as implicit criticism of society. For instance, Farrell is a strong woman living in a sexist world (which is the sad truth for most women), but she manages to get the better of Carter.

(You might have guessed I'm a proud feminist.)

[Deb]

My initial main character is Llew, a girl who can transfer life between people and things. She developed as organically as my first book did (because I didn't set out to write a book, but merely entertain myself while bored at a dull job). Her power comes from a male character I created when I was a teenager. She got it because I thought it could be fun.

Jonas began as simply "the love interest" to Llew. But part way through writing that first book, I realised he had a past, and some "issues" worth exploring. So, I have him a slightly more central role on book 2 (although, Llew was still with keeping Centre stage, too, so they Co-host).

So, for the "why?"... It just kind of happened that way.

[Neil]

My MC is Augustus Baltazar. I chose his supernatural ability before building him up, and I wanted to give him a cool and memorable name.

In some ways he has parts of me in his background, but solely because I can speak from experience and make him more lifelike.

[Shannon]

Eira Rysrin is my FMC and Raikidan is my MMC in my trilogy but the books are set in Eira's POV and follow her experiences.

Eira is a human war experiments and former assassin. She's smart, very creative, and keeps to herself most of the time because she's damaged mentally from what she was forced to do during her time of service and how she was treated by other people.

Raikidan is a shapeshifting dragon who is rather mysterious. He doesn't like to give away much about him or his kind (who are also rather secretive) but he is caring towards those he likes and very overprotective of Eira.

I chose to focus on these characters because...of a song I listened to. That song basically created them and their relationship (that changes as I wrote the book) but I stuck with them because of how different they are from everyone else. They're pretty much outcasts and feel a little like underdogs that you want tot root for. Especially Eira. She's had such a horrible life you want her to get that better one she's striving for.

[Kevin]

My main character is Wil Driscoll. He's a pilot who learned how to fly in the First World War and now uses his skills to bootleg booze in the American South. He's a loner who's jaded about his lot in life and a bit of a drunk. He's kind of a personification of my cynical side. (minus the drinking...and bootlegging)

My supporting character is Albert Crow. He's an odd duck for the 1920s: 1/4 Native American, wears his waist-long hair in a pony tail, and he's a teetotaler. He doesn't even smoke. Albert is a bookish historian who's not content to do archaeological research, but wants to find treasure and become filthy rich.

These two figure out they complement each other pretty well. I really wanted to write an action adventure story and I love the 1920s. I originally started writing the novel with just Wil, but he seemed incomplete pretty early on. Since adding Albert, it's been a lot of fun to have these opposing personalities working together as antiheroes whose moral compasses don't exactly point due north.

[Brian]

I feel like my characters choose me instead of me choosing them. I have a few stories I am working on.

For Virtual Wars Miri Stapleton is the main character. He's an inexperienced sheltered youth whose father had died at an early age. The only thing he has left of his father is an obstacle course in the back yard (Think American Ninja Warrior). He is coming up on the age that academies begin recruiting for their Virtual Wars teams.

Grim follows Thomas Bjorn who died hundreds of years ago. He is now a grim reaper. Following around a grim reaper's adventures is cool enough isn't it?

[G.G.]

My main character, Lutnalind Zhendar Xavelk or LX (Alex), is a navigator from another planet, an alien to us. He ends up on Earth, his ship needing repairs after a strange storm encountered in space.

Kind of like Brian and his MC, LX didn't give me much of a choice. He bugged me to be the voice of the POV until I realized he was right. The brat had all the answers to my questions. His biggest argument won me over. He knew I needed a scapegoat and who better than him to save the day? My birth language isn't English, neither is his so his narrative didn't need to be perfect. I had a good excuse for any mishaps.