How do you decide on a protagonist?

[Devouring Wolf]

This seems like it should be a simple enough thing, but the reason my story is a mess and doesn't work is because I love all my characters too much. After working on it for so long, they've almost all become too developed.

The original version of the story (which is unsalvageable nonsense) had only one POV, that of Death himself, but Death doesn't make a very good protagonist being pretty much invincible and somewhat apathetic to his own existence so in subsequent drafts I had him as a minor character and tried to find a suitable new protagonist.

The story I'm trying to tell needs two POV's, three at most. One of the POV's has to be the antagonist since this is actually his story, but the nature of the plot requires a protagonist to balance out his parts of the story and I have four character to decide between to fulfill that role. Every time I start a draft I start hating it and wonder would it be better if I told it from the perspective of the undead fisherman, the bounty hunter, the stuck up noblewoman, or her cousin?

All of them have such great perspectives that it could be written from any one of their viewpoints. None of them jump out at me as the right one. It's really frustrating because I'm certain I could actually finish this thing if I could just make a decision.

Has anyone else had this problem and how did you overcome it?

 

[ChasingSuns]

Are you wanting this to be one book, or a series? The reason why I ask is because the longer the story, the more room there is for multiple POVs. Also, you can have multiple protagonists, but I'm guessing that you are more wondering who the primary one should be, right? If that's the case, then I would maybe take a look at the characters and what they have to do with the overall plot of the story. Is there one that stands out as more significant to the plot? Is one of them more present in the story than the others? I personally have several protagonists with their own POV chapters, but my main character is the piece that fits a lot of it together. The other protagonists get introduced (for the most part) in his chapters, so he's kinda the constant thread weaving the plot together as the story moves forward.

 

[Penpilot]

For myself, the protagonist comes to me about the same time as the story, or I develop the protagonist to fit the story.

When I have to develop the protagonist, they're the ones who have the most to lose emotionally if the plot results in failure. They're the ones I can kick in the emotional teeth when failure happens.

If you're still interested in using Death as the protagonist, find a way to hurt them, not physically but emotionally.

As a small aside, you probably already know of this, but check out Neil Gaiman's comic, Death the High Cost of Living. Death is the protagonist in that series, and it might give you some ideas on directions you could go.

 

[goldhawk]

Your protagonist should be the personification of your theme and your antagonist, its counter-theme. An bad guy is your protagonist, then it is an anti-hero.

So, what's your theme? Perhaps, "Life is futile," or maybe, "Death is just another adventure." Or it may be easier to identify your counter-theme first. Perhaps, "Life is glorious," or "Death is final."

 

[Devouring Wolf]

Are you wanting this to be one book, or a series? The reason why I ask is because the longer the story, the more room there is for multiple POVs. Also, you can have multiple protagonists, but I'm guessing that you are more wondering who the primary one should be, right? If that's the case, then I would maybe take a look at the characters and what they have to do with the overall plot of the story. Is there one that stands out as more significant to the plot? Is one of them more present in the story than the others? I personally have several protagonists with their own POV chapters, but my main character is the piece that fits a lot of it together. The other protagonists get introduced (for the most part) in his chapters, so he's kinda the constant thread weaving the plot together as the story moves forward.

It's meant to be a single book and while I'd love to let more characters have POV's I tried it and it simply doesn't work for the story I'm trying to tell.

I've thought it over a lot since my initial post and I've been toying with the idea of using three POV's to tell the story. The antagonist and the two "hero's" followers. On the one hand it'd be interesting to have the story from everyone's perspective except the guy that would've been the main character except that he's one of those character's who's better if they stay something as a mystery.

 

[Devouring Wolf]

Your protagonist should be the personification of your theme and your antagonist, its counter-theme. An bad guy is your protagonist, then it is an anti-hero.

So, what's your theme? Perhaps, "Life is futile," or maybe, "Death is just another adventure." Or it may be easier to identify your counter-theme first. Perhaps, "Life is glorious," or "Death is final."

This is a really interesting take on the whole issue one I've never heard before.

The counter-theme would be "people can change" so I guess the theme would be that "people can't change no matter how hard they try" which just added a new level of irony to the story I hadn't even considered since everyone in the story is trying to change while he's desperate not to.

Doesn't quite solve my problem though since everyone in the story except the antagonist struggle to improve themselves but its definitely something I'll keep in mind for future stories.