Late bloomer Protagonist (moved from plot thread)

I’m having trouble with my clueless Protagonist. He starts off with a single shallow goal of simply wanting to be promoted and make more money (prestige). So, he goes on a job that ends up embroiling him in a conspiracy but it is taking him forever to catch on to something being afoot. I mean, he doesn’t even know people are following him!!

To be fair, he is quite innocent really, so he wouldn’t think that that is even happening to him.

His critical flaw is obliviousness — so it’s who he is. But, I’m having to employ extreme measures to get him to latch onto the story goal. But, it does take all of act one to get him to clue into something being afoot. At the first plot point, he becomes aware and finally starts his pursuit.

Is that too late in the book for the reader?

I do have another character who is onnit from the word go, and the difference between the two at this early part is glaring. I’m just curious to know if the Protagonist can be a later bloomer for readers.

When he finally does ‘come alive’ in Act 2, will I need to redeem him a little or is that too late for readers to be interested in what he has to offer?

 

I had a similar situation in my WIP so I moved things up to gain some traction and put the learning curve or awareness in a back story.

 

What do you mean by you moved things up?

I like the idea of making his obliviousness part of the backstory or even as part of a subplot.

 

Honestly, if you make the hints obvious enough but he still remains oblivious until it's literally shoved in his face that something is going on that's entertaining in and of itself because it's frustrating to watch someone be so oblivious but you want them to catch on so you're rooting for them to but they're just so oblivious that they don't.

Slow burn of idiocy.

 

Good point! yeah, I had to shove it in his face 3 times, lol!

Slow burn idiocy, lol!

 

My poor MC.

To be fair, he is suffering from the grief of his father’s death so there is a reason for his obliviousness.

 

That may only work if it's a comedy, and the obliviousness is an active part of the comedy. In a serious story that kind of obliviousness would make me stop reading out of frustration. But I tend to be impatient with clueless protagonists.

 

Hmm. My feeling is this is going to come down to execution. Which is something we'd need to read the actual work to know.

Since if it's executed well, it already works, I'll throw a thought out for how to handle it if it's not. If it is I'd say just keep writing and worry about this more in depth later. Possibly you could cut out a lot of the parts where the MC doesn't realize what's going on. Start the book a lot closer to when he does realize and run with it from there.

 

Yeah, I'll definately need to revise it later on down the line. Thanks for the advice

 

The biggest question to consider is why you are starting your story where you do. Do we, as the readers, need to witness his journey before he understands what's happening in order for the story to make sense? If so, then I'd keep it. If not, then follow the concept that you want to start your story "as late as possible" in order to hook readers quickly and maintain their attention. If you start the story too soon, and make your reader drag through a section of the MC being oblivious to the point of annoyance, your readers won't want to put up with it.

So ask yourself, in order for this story to work, how late can I start?

That should really help. There is nothing wrong with an oblivious character, but dragging your readers through their uncertainty is not recommended.

 

I developed my MC with all the required descriptions, but nothing happened in the story until a whistle blower sent a letter to his congressman. So I invented the two chapters and put the whistle blower first and his demise. Now you're in the story with his letter that reveals the quest of my MC and the search for the whistle blower's killer.

In another book of mine the MC was a nun and chapter 2 told all of her experiences in the convent. It was intriguing but slow so I killed chapter 2 and interspersed her experience as the story played out.