The majority of people are familiar with that word because they learned it in English class in high school. It is accurate. However, the protagonist of your story is not the actual person who is affected by the events. The protagonist must be motivated to achieve their objectives and must actively cause the story’s events.
The protagonist must be motivated to achieve their objectives and must actively cause the story’s events.
Let’s say your show’s premise is that it takes place in a haunted bakery and that your protagonist is the new owner. She goes on to say that it has always been her dream to start her own bakery and run her own business. She wants to demonstrate to everyone that she is capable of doing this alone.
But now she has to deal with all of these ghosts, who are ruining everything.
Thus, you have an entire television series in one paragraph. Which show is it? Haunted Bakery
What is the foundation? A woman starts a bakery, but the place is haunted by ghosts.
Who is the main character? the person who runs the bakery. What is she seeking? to own and run a bakery that succeeds. Which obstacle must she overcome in order to accomplish her objectives? Ghosts.
You won’t have a show if you don’t have her drive and the obstacle that keeps her from achieving her goals. Even if she is being haunted and that is what is happening to her, each story needs to have her actively setting out to do something and the ghosts getting in her way to stop her from doing it. It can’t be that the ghosts do scary things to her and then she reacts in the stories. She is the main character because she actively sets out to achieve her goals and has agency.
The protagonist’s decision to pursue a particular objective is the cause of everything that happens in the show.
The protagonist’s decision to pursue a particular objective is the cause of everything that happens in the show.
Your story’s protagonist must be the one who advances the plot. And he or she does that by working toward their objectives. As previously stated, her ultimate objective for Haunted Bakery is to operate a successful bakery devoid of ghosts. Because that objective is built into the premise, it will propel the show forward from episode to episode and season to season.
However, whatever she wants to accomplish in that particular instance will determine how each episode progresses.
The goal of your protagonist (usually a supporting cast member will get the main story, but you won’t have to worry about that in your pilot episode) is the starting point for every episode’s plot. And it’s even better if that contributes to the larger objective. It makes sense that the majority of the stories in Haunted Bakery will revolve around the main character’s desire to open her bakery.
She needs to fulfill a significant corporate order, which could lead to repeat business, but the ghosts conceal the bagels. The frosting is hidden by the ghosts, though she is making a stunning wedding cake. These are individual tales that advance your main character’s overall journey while also detailing specific occurrences in a haunted bakery.
In the pilot episode of Haunted Bakery, the main character tries to open a bakery, finds out it is haunted, and succeeds despite ghosts doing ghostly things to stop her. This is the natural character story. Your main character, the show’s primary conflict, and the main character’s motivation are all established within this fundamental framework.
What your show will look like in the future is shown to the audience by all of this taken together. Because everything was in the pilot, they know what to expect from Haunted Bakery generally. Because you established the reality in episode one, you cannot introduce aliens in episode two.
