When your main character is not the hero

When I was writing The Jewelry of Grace, most of the storyline appeared on the screen as it did in my mind. Some parts were created spur of the moment during the first draft or the first round of edits, but the majority of the story appeared as I first envisioned it.

Yet, the story felt different to me than I anticipated. Neither better or worse than expected, but different. I could not figure out why, and for a while, I attributed it to writing a more romantic story.

But as I came to the end of the editing process, I realized why this story fell different to me. My main character, Adam, is the protagonist.

But he is not the hero.

Adam is not the villain, either. But as the story progresses, some of Adam's flaws show the reader that Adam is not the hero of the story.

I think we often expect the main character (who we spend the most time with), the protagonist (who drives the action of the story) and the hero (who does the most good for the most people) to all be the same person. This is often true. But some very successful stories have divided these roles differently.

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series had Arthur Dent as the main character. He might be considered the hero in that he is the only human character the reader follows in all five books. But he is in no way a protagonist. The events in the series - like Earth being destroyed a few chapters into the first book - are too large for him to have an impact on. But the story is engaging and funny because Arthur cannot impact the events around him.

It works in non-comedic stories as well. Many Batman fans (myself included) believe The Dark Knight movie is the best of the stories about the Caped Crusader. But Batman is not the protagonist. Neither is the Joker. Harvey Dent is. So while Batman is still the main character and hero, the story is told differently than most hero stories because Batman is rarely in a position to act, but instead, react.

In Infinity War, a different division of roles takes place. All the Avengers split the hero role, but none of the heroes is the main character or protagonist. Thanos is both of these. So while he may be the biggest bad guy the MCU has produced so far, he drives the action with his villainy.

None of these exactly describe what I did with Adam's character in The Jewelry of Grace, partially because it is not a comedy or a comic book. But in the context of the romance and the search for the titular jewels, Adam is the main character and the one who drives the action. But ultimately, the reader will see the hero is someone else.

Did this approach work in telling the story? I'll leave that for my readers to decide.

But if you are writing your own story and feel that it is best told with the main character, hero and protagonist separated, don't be afraid to take the less conventional route.

Next week: Writing, the second time around