By KEVIN KAUMAS
You know, I never understood why so many writers are obsessed with making their main character the smartest person in the entire book. Sure, I get why mystery novels do it; unless it’s also a comedy, it would be kind of odd for our detective to be incompetent and easy to fool.
But in other genres, I feel like having a genius protagonist has sort of become repetitive.
However, I am by no stretch of the imagination saying protagonists who are intelligent are an example of bad writing. Afterall, my favorite superhero has always been Batman, whose ability to plan ahead can sometimes lean into comical. Plus, as someone who loves mystery shows, my favorite kind of character is the one who is two steps ahead of everyone.
So why am I writing a rant about smart protagonists if I enjoy them so much? Well, here’s the thing that many people seem to forget: At the end of the day, the main character of a story can only be as smart as the person writing them is. Look, I get that there are some authors out there who are actually smart (I know, how scandalous!), but there are also a lot out there who are not.
You can usually tell which kind of author you’re dealing with by just how they make their character “Smart”. See, a lot of times, a story will make all the characters around a protagonist the dumbest people alive so the protagonist can shine.
You might think I’m exaggerating, but trust me, a lot of shows will lower the supporting characters’ IQ to room temperature in order to make sure their precious OC looks as smart as possible.
Another way authors like to write their so-called “genius” protagonists is by having them know everything that has and will happen without really explaining how.
The protagonist will apparently be an expert on human behavior and will always be able to know what a person is going to do next. While this can be good writing if the author themselves are an expert in psychology, this trope can also just as easily come across as cringy if they don’t know what they’re talking about.
A good example of a smart character done correctly would be the original version of Sherlock Holmes, written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.
For those of you unaware, this version of Sherlock, while being extremely smart and cunning, is not omniscient.
Sure, he’s smarter than you or I will probably ever be, but he still struggles with cases from time-to-time. He still asks his partner, Watson, for advice. He even gets outsmarted every now and then.
The point is, you can make a smart protagonist without them being perfect. In fact, I would like to argue that having a character who is almost always the smartest person in the room yet can still be tricked makes them more human.
It makes the audience relate to them more and helps them form a connection.
It is important that, when writing a smart character, you make sure not to alienate your audience by making them smart beyond reason. It’s even worse when said character has an “edgy” personality, because then it can come across like the author is making some sort of self-insert.
I hope I don’t need to explain why having a self-insert is considered one of the worst things an author can do.
At the end of the day, if you want to write a smart character in your story, whether it’s the protagonist, supporting character, or the antagonist, just make sure it makes sense.
Trust me, I would rather read a book about an enjoyable character who is an idiot than one who is the smartest person in fiction but has no likable qualities.
Don’t dumb-down everyone else, don’t make them be able to know something that should be impossible for them to know, and for the love of God, don’t make them completely unlikable.
With that out of the way, I wish you all a happy Holidays. I hope you do your best on all your tests and remember to get plenty of sleep so you can actually function.