To write a protagonist who carries the story, give them something they want, let them make the decisions that drive the plot, and make sure they have the most to lose. Supporting characters you shape from their purpose. Every important supporting character should help the protagonist, hinder them, mirror them or show them something they couldn’t see on their own. So that they don’t feel like tools, they also need a small goal of their own.
This page is about weighting: what sets a protagonist apart from the rest of the cast, which jobs supporting characters take on, how much development each role needs, and what that looks like in an example. How to develop a single character from scratch is covered in How to develop characters.
What makes a protagonist
The protagonist, or main character, isn’t simply the character who shows up most often. It’s the character whose path the story follows. How to recognize them:
- They act. The important twists come from their decisions, not just from what happens to them.
- They have the most to lose. If the central conflict goes wrong, it hits them hardest.
- They change or are tested. Their inner journey is tied to the outer plot. More on this in Character arcs.
- They are the yardstick. Readers measure the other characters by where they stand in relation to the protagonist.
The protagonist is often, but not always, the point-of-view character, the one through whose eyes the story is told. A narrator can also stand beside the protagonist and report on them. The options are described in Point of view in fiction. Novels with several protagonists work in a similar way: each one needs a storyline with a goal of its own, and the storylines have to touch.
What supporting characters do
Supporting characters aren’t simply less important characters. They do jobs the protagonist can’t do alone. You’ll meet the following roles in many stories, often in combination:
| Role | Job in the story |
|---|---|
| Confidant | Gives the protagonist support and someone to talk to. Makes thoughts and feelings visible through dialogue. |
| Mentor | Has knowledge or experience the protagonist lacks. Opens doors, often literally. |
| Ally | Pursues a similar goal for reasons of their own. Brings skills the protagonist doesn’t have. |
| Antagonist and henchmen | Create resistance. More on this in Writing a believable antagonist. |
| Foil | Faces a similar question to the protagonist and answers it differently. |
| Catalyst | Sets something in motion with a single action, often without seeing the consequences. |
| Background character | Brings a place to life: the innkeeper, the gate guard, the merchant. Rarely needs more than one striking trait. |
These terms are planning tools, not fixed categories. A character can start out as a pursuer and end up as an ally. What matters is that you know, for every character, why the story needs them.
How to write main and supporting characters in five steps
- Identify the protagonist through the conflict. Ask: whose decision decides the story? If a supporting character is more active than the protagonist, it’s worth checking whether you’ve put the right character at the center.
- Give the protagonist a gap that others fill. What can’t they do, or what don’t they know? The most important supporting characters almost grow out of that gap by themselves: someone who can read what they can’t, someone who remembers when they forget.
- Give every important supporting character a goal of their own. It doesn’t have to be big. But a character who exists only to help the protagonist feels like a tool.
- Scale the development. The protagonist and the antagonist need the most work. Important supporting characters need a goal, a motivation and a relationship to the protagonist. Small roles get by with a sentence and a quirk. A character profile can be long or short accordingly.
- Check whether every character is needed. Two supporting characters with the same job can often be merged into one. That makes the combined character stronger.
An example: a small cast with distinct jobs
This example uses an invented suspense novel: ferrywoman Rika maintains additional supply runs for her island. Her childhood friend Hauke advances repair costs and has her carry drugs without her knowledge. When she discovers them and tries to quit, he threatens her. The characters have different jobs in this conflict:
- Rika, protagonist: She accepts Hauke’s offer, discovers the drugs, refuses further shipments and devises the trap out of fear of him. Her choices change the course.
- Hauke, major antagonist: He wants the cargo to keep moving. His aggression after discovery turns a money problem into a personal threat.
- An island shopkeeper, possible supporting role: She needs reliable deliveries. A question can expose Rika’s financial trouble without giving the shopkeeper an investigation of her own.
- A person conducting the check, minor role: They act on the anonymous tip. A private history with Rika is unnecessary.
Weight follows decisions. Rika needs space for fear, deliberation and resistance. Hauke’s behavior must establish his shift from friend to blackmailer. Added roles serve specific functions without requiring complete subnovels.
Common mistakes
- The passive protagonist. Others make the important decisions while the protagonist is dragged along. Give them choices whose consequences they have to bear.
- The supporting character steals the story. A supporting character is so much more interesting than the protagonist that readers would rather follow them. Either sharpen the protagonist or swap the roles.
- Helpers without a life of their own. The best friend has no worries of her own and is always available. A goal of her own that sometimes collides with the protagonist’s makes her more believable.
- Too many characters with the same job. Three mentors, two best friends, four interchangeable henchmen. Readers mix them up, and none of them gets enough room.
- Small roles built too big. An innkeeper with an elaborate backstory who only rents out a room once is a distraction. One striking trait is enough.
Practical tips
- Next to each character, write one sentence on why the story needs them. If you can’t think of one, the character is a candidate for cutting or merging.
- Let supporting characters disagree with the protagonist. An ally who always agrees creates no spark.
- Give small roles a telling quirk instead of a description: a way of speaking, a gesture, an object.
- After the draft, check when each important supporting character last appeared. Long absences rarely stand out while writing, but they do while reading.
- How the characters work together as a whole is described in Character constellations.
Using Faustica
In Faustica’s Compendium you give every character a role, such as “Protagonist,” “Confidant,” “Mentor,” “Supporting character,” “Antagonist” or “Love interest,” and you can create custom roles like “Historical figure.” You can filter by roles and keywords. Each entry gets as many custom sections as the character needs: many for the protagonist, one or none for the village elder.
In the Plot Planner you assign the characters involved and a point of view to each scene. “Highlight character” shows you which scenes a character appears in, and hints point out characters who haven’t appeared for a long time.
Frequently asked questions
Can a novel have more than one protagonist?
Yes. Many novels alternate between the viewpoints of several characters or follow a group. In that case every protagonist needs a goal and a storyline of their own, and the storylines should cross at important points so that they add up to one novel.
How many supporting characters are too many?
There’s no fixed number. It’s too many when readers mix characters up or when two characters do the same job. In novels with a large cast, it helps to introduce new characters gradually and give each one a distinct trait.
Does the protagonist have to be likable?
No, but they should be interesting. Readers will follow difficult characters too, if they understand what drives them or want to know where their decisions will lead. Being understandable matters more than being likable.
What is the difference between the protagonist and the point-of-view character?
The protagonist is the character whose journey the story is about. The point-of-view character is the one through whose perception the story is told. Often they’re the same, but a story can also be told from the viewpoint of a supporting character who observes the protagonist.