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Why Should Readers Care About Your Protagonist?
My series (of which I just finished and published the last book) has sent me through several psychological states: first elation, then dread, then depression, then elation again, and then probably bi-polar disorder. At the outset, I spent nearly 6 months designing five separate solar systems complete with flora and fauna, alien races, cultures, history, and tons of other things that probably would bore you to death. I also spent a good month designing all of the main characters of my first book in the series, and even though I spent all that time on the main character (a rough-and-tumble bloke named Guillermo March) I realized early on (after finishing four chapters) that I probably didn’t spend enough time creating his motivation.
Sure, Guillermo lives in this very detailed and carefully constructed universe, but why should we care about him? He’s one of 45 humans left in the universe, and trust me the backstory as to why he is the last one would take up too many words for this post. He is the only human police officer to join the C’Tuulian (those are aliens) security force. He spent a full year undercover, working a complex sting operation to bring down a drug lord who was selling a deadly drug to a growing number of humans who felt they had nothing to lose, including Guillermo’s wife who died of an overdose. He is present when the infiltration team arrives…
