#45: Four Critical Nuances to Incorporate When You Have a Selfish Protagonist

One of the things that comes up often in the work I critique is a main character who is fundamentally selfish. This happens because we try to make our characters flawed (which they should be), but we haven't thought through the implications of this particular character trait.

To this end, I want to unpack four critical elements that you need to include in your story if you're going to give your main character the character trait of selfishness. Because the truth is, your main character cannot ACTUALLY be selfish. If he is, he's irredeemable. Unlovable. Unworthy of our emotional investment. And yet, sometimes, we need them to appear selfish for whatever reason. To that end, you must incorporate four nuances, or include the following qualifiers to be able to make the characteristic of "selfishness" work in your story.

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UP NEXT - Next week we continue on our character discussion where I give you 10 Tips Every hero needs to move from being passive, to active.

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