9 Worst Protagonist Mistakes New Fantasy Writers Make

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00:00 Protagonist Mistakes
00:19 Mistake 1
01:56 Mistake 2
03:33 Mistake 3
05:32 Mistake 4
08:00 Mistake 5
08:51 Mistake 6
11:33 Mistake 7
13:46 Mistake 8
15:46 Mistake 9

[eyesfromtheabyss]

A knight with a passion for gardening is literally one of the characters I created for my dark fantasy story 😅 great video

[_Risa_]

I think overpowered characters can be great, if they make moral mistakes / struggle morally and emotionally, or if the core of their character discusses resonsibility and so on.

Also characters should contradict themselves in some ways imo, every person contradicts themselves and act "illogically" sometimes.

[MrDacat]

avoid clichés is such cliched writing advice

[schwarzerritter]

You're reading a book where the protagonist is a calm, collected strategist, always thinking 3 steps ahead. Suddenly, without warning, they turn into a reckless daredevil, throwing caution into the wind."
It is called The Hero is Overpowered but Overly Cautious.

[azula]

Great video! But some of the advice you gave are easier said than done. For instance, mistake number 8 is my nemesis. I tend to delve into my main character's inner thoughts more often than I should, and in expense of pausing an action scene. I realize I'm doing it as I'm writing but I can't stop myself. It's like I have to put those words on the page. It's going to be a pain for me to fix those scenes filled with unnecessary introspection when I start revising 😂

[Tokkidance]

I love overpowered main characters when done right, i.e. Frieren, Ains, Mob, Cid and so on

[n.c.]

I am a new listener to your channel and I need to say a huge thank you!! I am not a writer, nor thinking of becoming a writer. I rarely get to read due to a busy life as a mom so I cannot say I am an avid reader. I will let you know, however, that these videos are so fun to listen to and to consider. They are their own short stories. What makes me "most thankful" is the fact that I recently dread buying books any more. I have purchased a handful of books and found them to be "terrible". Besides the underwhelming over-played romances that I dont expect in them, I find the stories are all over the place! Your videos have really began to help me understand what it is that bothers me in the books. For that, I am thankful. I can now explain to my friend why I did not like the book she recommended.😅 I really do appreciate these wonderful insights and videos!!

[dr.jekyll]

Relevant and Supportive Comment to feed the Algorangim

[gengu]

There was a bug crawling on you 0:44 seconds into the video on your chest

[bluejayblaze]

Subvert expectations: Make my main character an anxious teenage bard with great musical skill, but poor confidence and people skills (and no horny bard stereotype). And he's from a dragon riding culture, always thinking about hatching his dragon egg, how useful having his own dragon would be in the situations he finds himself in, but his dragon only hatches after he's already defeated the BBEG.

[bartimusprime]

Great video. Can you please make a video of advice for writing multiple POV/protagonists? (Eg. Frodo and Sam/ Aragon and Gandalf) How do you make both interesting storylines, and how do you deal with potentially changing tones or timelines

[yo]

Good video man. Whatever your goal is, you can do it :)

[patrickdawson]

Tip 1 Don't write Griffith your not that good
Tip 2 write people not objects that complete scenes that you imagined in your shower (this one was one i took far too long to learn)

[kairemeriniit]

Let the protagonist do it - and then comes Gollum and steals all glory from Frodo. Same for Hobb an his royal assassin story. And, well, so much other good stuff.

[firstswordcorvus]

For the book I'm writing I have a protagonist who steps in and out of the spotlight for good reasons. Namely a sense of responsibility and another character becomes the protagonist. At least that's the rough draft of the plan, for now he's an overpowered character that suddenly has his memories blocked by magic and he thinks he's mortal again causing him to be more cautious than he's been in forever. Though he's still somewhat reckless as he saves a crying baby girl from a house fire, parents dead, and he barely retrieves a sword that he's sure is a family heirloom before completing his rescue of the child. Uncertain what skills he has besides wielding a sword he joins the city guard. And befriending a woman in the guard to help raise the girl

[SuperMetalyrics]

this why shows like Dragon ball Z always hinge solely on Goku/the protagonist?

I actually thought it would be fun to see what a protagonist would do if they weren't the only person who could do anything

[MeltyIceBlock]

Heyo! I just found your channel coincidentally and I'm a newbie writer. This video actually helped me a lot because I doubt myself A LOT when writing the story im making! Sometimes I feel like im doing something wrong, or I hate how i did a certain thing.. or if my story is introducing itself too slowly (or too boring) and my protagonist is just too cliche.. and then I just scrap the story and go off on a new idea I came up with that I like more.

But yeah, this video helped a lot! Thanks!

[CorporateCornholio]

Frodo is a bad example, he is not the protagonist. Sam and Aragorn are the protagonists. Frodo is the damsel in distress, the plot device used to give the actual protagonist something to do. Sam evolves from the friend/gardener into the real hero who is courageous, selfless and incorruptible all while having to repeatedly save/protect Frodo.

[archieperez]

I would prefer the protagonist to be the evil one instead of a hero because it's more interesting and fun to watch

[Aewon]

I have four main characters. They are children at first, but will grow up. They're students at a school that's sort of like the Jedi Order meets the Aes Sedai from The Wheel of Time meets the Conclave of Shadows from the Riftwar series.

Elkar: The only non-human of the group, he's small, sweet and timid. He's extremely intelligent, but not very brave. He has a flute that he likes to play. He's also gay, and is in love with Rikter.🏳‍🌈

Rikter: The nephew of the local king, Rikter was brought to the school at 8 because he's so far down the line of succession that he's unlikely to inherit anything. He's tall and extremely skilled with the sword. He's popular with the girls. Unfortunately for them he's as straight as Elkar.

Emisia: She's Elkar's childhood friend. Like him she's an orphan who grew up at the school. She's tomboyish and very protective of Elkar. Seriously, you do not want to mess with Elkar when she's around. She also hates the patriarchy and views dresses as a symbol of the oppression of women (keep in mind she's been raised in an environment where boys and girls dresses the same). Her feminism has rubbed off on Elkar. While they are the same age her relationship with Elkar has a major big sister little brother vibe.

Zak: He came to the school at the same time as Rikter, and the two became immediate friends. He's not that much of a friend to Elkar, whom he sees as a craven. I wanted their relationship to be less than friendly because when the group eventually splits up my plan is that Zak and Elkar will be travelling together for a while.

Of the four Elkar is the Aragorn/Jon Snow/Rand Al'Thor archetype. I thought I should point that out because he's the least like that archetype of my main four.