Every character has a reason for their actions, but we generally only know about the protagonist’s history and what drives them. The more we know about a character, the more we may be drawn into their story. Even if that story involves fantastical elements we would never experience. The history and the desires of the protagonist can make us care about them. Even an anti-hero, who may not be a good person, can care about something other than themselves.
I can think of many stories I’ve read with protagonists who are more anti-hero than good people, but they end up caring about something. Even in my current work in progress, I have really tried to flesh out the characters. It became really important as I outlined the book and realized, for the story I’m trying to tell, I need more than one point of view character. In my mind, for a character to be the point of view, even if they are not the protagonist or antagonist of the story, they need their own reasons and motivations. They need their own fears and desires, or their viewpoint won’t contribute much to the story.
While thinking through that and writing my current work in progress, I find myself thinking about the interactions I have outside that story. Just like the characters I’ve worked hard to develop better than my last book, the people around me all have their own fears and desires that motivate them. I believe, for most everyone, they try to do what they see as the right thing. That’s what makes characters and life so interesting. Just like characters in a story, everyone has their perception of the world. Everyone has their own fears and desires that drive their actions.
I’m working to have my next book ready and on Amazon by the middle of April, if not sooner. But check out some of my other Science Fiction and Fantasy books.
My fantasy, A Map, a Mage, and a Sacrifice, is set in a world with limited technology, but where sacrifice is a necessary element to magical power. The greater the pain and suffering, the greater the magical power generated. The few mages in power use voluntary sacrifice of the citizens to generate power they use to protect and defend the empire. But their rule may be coming to a close.
Malignance, my third book in my time travel series that began with Resonance and Dissonance, is on Amazon as a kindle and a paperback. That was a fun series to write, and for now, it is completed. I have also placed all three books from that series into one volume titled The Machina of Time.
If you’re looking for a science fiction story, try my book The Promise of Dust, which takes place in a cloud city floating in the atmosphere of Venus. Or Progenitor’s Legacy: Deceit, which takes place many years in the future on a tidally locked world that orbits a red dwarf and has been reached by humanity in their search for the alien progenitors who seeded the galaxy with nano machines.
If a young adult science fiction is more to your liking, check out my series This New Earth, that starts with Demons of a Dead World and Secrets of a Dead World.
If you are looking for a young adult fantasy, check out my book The Threads Unbound.
DANIEL R. BURKHARD 