Protagonist
"A hero is an ordinary individual who finds the strength to persevere and endure in spite of overwhelming obstacles" - Christopher Reeve
Thane said something the other day that caught me off guard. We were sitting in her driveway when she turned to me with a peculiar look in her eye and said:
"You'd make a great character"
Understandably, I wasn't entirely sure what she meant. I don't think any of us would consider ourselves book character material. But she kept talking,
"Like, I'd read a book about your life. You have enough weird things happen to you and you're an interesting enough person that I think it'd be really cool."
So it made me think, whats the definition of a protagonist?
Protagonist
noun
the leading character, hero, or heroine of a drama or other literary work.
a proponent for or advocate of a political cause, social program, etc.
the leader or principal person in a movement, cause, etc.
Often times when an author creates their hero they first start with their plot, and then fit a character into the protagonist shaped hole. So let me ask you this:
Why is the story more important than the character?
This is a legitimate question. Most plots can not function without a very specific main character. So what would happen if you took that character away? Would the rebellion crumble? Would the evil be defeated? Would the cure be found?
Without your protagonist it is very likely that your plot would fail to function.
To overcome this rather nerve-wracking discrepancy, many people resort to creating a 'chosen' or 'special' character to somehow try and convince the reader that the plot is supposed to be unable to support it's own weight.
Now by no means am I saying that having 'chosen' or 'special' characters is a bad thing. J. R. R. Tolkien chose Frodo to carry the ring to Mordor, J. K. Rowling chose Harry Potter to defeat Voldemort, and Marvel has no end to the amount of special characters that are needed to save the world. But here's the thing, if you take away those characters the story would still continue. Someone would have taken the ring to Mordor, Neville would have fought against Voldemort, and eventually the ordinary people would have risen up against the threats. Would any of them have been victorious? No one knows. But the story continues on.
You are the protagonist of your own story, but so is your character. They have a life, they have dreams, hopes, and fears. Your protagonist has just as much fear and insecurity as you do. Maybe they're not strong enough to defeat the villain, maybe they don't know how. That's what your plot is for, to bring alongside them both friends and enemies that they must encounter along their journey.
Your protagonist doesn't have to be anyone special. Maybe in any other novel they would have been a side character, but you're telling their story. Not the plot, and no matter how amazing that plot might be it's your characters that make it memorable.