[Help Request] A little bit of assistance

[Ace Trainer Slash]

Hello everyone,

I need some assistance regarding a story I'm making. You see, I've been making a story for my Pokemon ROM Hack, Pokemon Not Fire Red *tentative title*, however, I'm struggling to choose how to portray my protagonist.

For context, the crux of the story is about growth and maturation. Essentially, the 16/17 year old protagonist's parent's pass away and from then on the story involves their growth and maturation as a person. As a result, they want to become a Gym Leader to make their parent's proud. That is the very basics of it, it's far from finalised.

My problem is though, should I use a mute protagonist, or a protagonist with a distinct voice? I'm not sure which is more effective considering the context and the idea that I want people to relate to the protagonist. If I use a distinct voice, some people are less inclined to relate to it because the voice has some bias to it, whilst a mute voice wouldn't be enough to develop them to the point where I can show they have grown and matured.

Please let me know if you need more context, I'll certainly provide it. Critiques for every part of what I said are also welcome, I want to make the story itself really good too, so critiques will really help me make a good story.

Thankyou in advance.

 

[Palamon]

That's honestly up to you. But, if you make the protagonist mute, I suggest showing stuff through their actions instead of dialogue if they don't talk. I'm currently writing a quiet character myself and choose to show his feelings through various paragraphs of what he's thinking instead of him talking.

But, if you want him to grow, perhaps maybe he starts out as mute, and eventually finds his voice. But, this is your story, and that's completely up to you.

 

[gimmepie]

It's difficult to show a silent protagonist (I assume you mean this not a character who just happens to be mute) as a character in that context. The general idea with such a character is that the player is meant to project their own personality onto the protagonist. So, generally, if you want a protagonist to develop as a person, it's better to make them a proper character in their own right.

Now, if you did mean a mute character as your protagonist, then Palamon is right. You have to show how they develop through their actions instead of words.

 

[Ace Trainer Slash]

That's honestly up to you. But, if you make the protagonist mute, I suggest showing stuff through their actions instead of dialogue if they don't talk. I'm currently writing a quiet character myself and choose to show his feelings through various paragraphs of what he's thinking instead of him talking.

But, if you want him to grow, perhaps maybe he starts out as mute, and eventually finds his voice. But, this is your story, and that's completely up to you.

It's difficult to show a silent protagonist (I assume you mean this not a character who just happens to be mute) as a character in that context. The general idea with such a character is that the player is meant to project their own personality onto the protagonist. So, generally, if you want a protagonist to develop as a person, it's better to make them a proper character in their own right.

Now, if you did mean a mute character as your protagonist, then Palamon is right. You have to show how they develop through their actions instead of words.

Ok then, thankyou very much for both of your feedback. I'll try develop the protagonist through their actions. I'll probably need to develop a more concrete story and a more concrete world before I'm able to incorporate the character into the world I'm building haha.

Thankyou once again for the useful advice!