How to create a young adult or middle grade protagonist
BY Patrice Lawrence
20th May 2025
Great characters are the beating heart of novels, and that’s possibly even more the case for YA and middle grade fiction.
When I’m reading a book, I need to care about the characters. The story world may be fictional, and the characters drawn from writers’ imaginations, but to me they must be as good as real.
So how do we go about creating compelling characters that younger readers respond to and care about when writing middle grade and YA?
1. Relatability
It’s important to have characters your readership can relate to – and we can start with the basics here, by looking at how old your characters should be.
The perceived wisdom is that children and teenagers will generally read books that feature characters who are their own age or older – but usually won’t read books about characters younger than themselves. I would strongly recommend spending some time thinking about the age of your potential readership when you’re creating your characters – and if you already have a character in mind, consider whether you can make your story relatable to more readers by making your character a couple of years older, or younger.
2. Character sympathies
No one is perfect and a perfect character will be far from compelling. Often it’s character flaws that really engage readers – and story arises in part from those flaws. Children and teenagers are just as unlikely to be interested in a character who has no flaws at all as an adult reader. However, if a character’s unrelenting positivity is a cloak for something more sinister, then that’s perfectly fine.
3. Character motivation
Your characters must have a goal. They cannot be passive; they cannot wait for the story to come to them. They must drive the plot, make decisions and act. For all this to make sense and be credible in the eyes of your reader, your character must have clear motivation.
One ‘hack’ that I use at the beginning of a book is to write down three things about the main character. Those are:
- What does your character want at the beginning of the book? This may change as the character develops through the story, but even establishing an early goal will tell us much about their character.
- What does your character fear? Characters’ vulnerabilities give them appeal and humanity. (They are also useful when developing your plot – as you will inevitably have to make your characters face their fears!)
- Think about something that is precious to your character. It may be a gift, something unique that they found, or even a person they love. What is it and why? What would your character do if it was lost or stolen? Again, you can use this precious object to show something about the character, but also to move your plot forwards.
4. The right character for your story
When I write a book for young adults, my characterisation is influenced by the topic I intend to explore.
If you are writing a thriller, your characters must be curious and ultimately brave – so that they are pulled into whatever action-filled scenario they are faced with. If you are writing a romance, your characters must be loveable – even if they’re not aware of their own innate lovability.
The characters you create must be the right characters for the story you want to tell.
If you're keen to learn more about creating authentic and relatable characters for your young adult or middle grade novel, join our next six-week online Writing YA & Middle Grade Fiction course. Learn from exclusive teaching videos, extensive written notes and practical writing tasks by award-winning YA and children's fiction author Patrice Lawrence.