So now you have some idea of how this character arc and the story arc fit together, and how important the main characters are to your novel. In fact, if your main characters are not well crafted, described, and how fully developed characters, your novel will fail, because the reader will not identify with them and will not care what happens to them. Normally we have a main character who has a protagonist someone trying to succeed or beat the opposition and the antagonist, a person or a group that is trying to stop him or her. But there are other terms and other kinds of characters that we see novels. In this video, I'm going to take a look at the different types of main characters, and also minor characters, and what are their characteristics and fun Have a look at a special case, the foil, a character that often becomes attached to a protagonist or antagonist.

The first type of character that you absolutely need is, of course, the protagonist. This man or woman is the main focus of the story. The whole plot revolves about what they're going to do, what they want to do, their desires, their secret fears, and their struggles against obstacles. To get some insight into this character, the reader needs to know quite a lot about them, either directly or implied. This is the character arc discussed in the last lecture. On the other hand, an antagonist is a person maybe more than one person or a group or an organization such as a good moment that is set against the protagonist.

The antagonist puts obstacles in the way of the protagonist so that it cannot achieve his aim. The aim of our novel is to show how the protagonist continuously overcomes these obstacles, which become more and more difficult and dangerous as the story progresses. Now, the antagonist may not always be downright evil. Maybe he's not too intelligent, or a little misguided. Or just ignorant of all the facts, I'm confused. Because the antagonist is also a complex character.

He could also change internally. A flat or static character doesn't change throughout the story. They don't learn lessons, they don't become aware they don't have insight. science into their condition. They are one dimensional characters with no capacity for internal growth. They have no emotional depth, because the author has not rounded out the character.

Round characters on major players. These are the protagonist and the antagonist. The protagonist round characters experience internal growth by beating the challenges placed in front of them. They have fully developed and detailed personalities. The author develops personalities by using the analysis and the character profiles that were discussed in the last lecture. These characters are lifelike and realistic.

We can believe them. They have conflicting emotions and complex personality traits. Put dragoness all rounded characters. A dynamic character is one that undergoes significant changes joining the story, changing their belief structure, insights, or their understanding. Things change internally. protagonist is a dynamic character.

They can learn important lessons and change their outlook on life completely. The foil is often presented as an acquaintance or a colleague or a friend of the protagonist. He may not be too friendly. He's on the same side, but he's different, either physically, by their attitude, or other traits such as intelligence. They represent a contrast to the main character, helping to reinforce his place in the plot. Think of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.

Sherlock Holmes is thin and tall. Dr. Watson is shorter and fat. Sherlock Holmes is intellectual. He's very sharp and intuitive. Don't to Watson although intelligent, after all, he's a doctor. He doesn't have the same level of wit or insight.

So he's often asking Sherlock Holmes about a case and how he deduced a certain result. The idea of the foil in fiction is very common and very effective. Often we have a pair of heroes or heroines, but usually it's one of the pair that is the real protagonist, and the other is simply there as the foil to help him move along the plot.