Writing Recipes: Just Desserts #1

B's Protagonist Pie

Make a character  that readers will eat right up!

- 6 cups: Weakness
Essential. Vary the amount for the desired taste-- less for sweet or more tart. A believable brand of weakness works best. Fear is always your friend. Maintaining balance is vital when adding this ingredient-- as with all things. Too little and your protagonist pie comes out fake, too much... your pie comes off as a bit needy and unlikable. Unless you're baking a pity pie, in which case you should dump the stuff in!

- Fill a mixing bowl with: Background
The foundation of your delightful dessert. Must mix well with all other ingredients and must feel real. Do not let this part be obvious to the eater, new cooks! It should be tasted subtly between bites and tasted at just the right time.

- 3.56 tsp: Quirk
Pepper in as desired to make your Protagonist Pie stand out from the rest. More- if you want it to be a weirdo, less- if you want a more serious pie. Try to be unique. We have enough chain smoking wise cracking detective pies. The eater desires new  flavors, aspiring bakers!  

- 2 tbsp: Strength
Your Protagonist Pie needs a kick-- robust flavor. (A pie can gain or lose this over time) Add in any kind of strength. Give it skills, abilities. Things that make the pie cool and interesting. You need to take care not to add too much strength because that makes your creation unrealistic and hard for an eater to relate with.  

-  Don't forget the Dynamic 
Change in your confection is the yeast that makes it rise up to great heights. Forget to add it and your static cooking falls flat-- ruining the entire pie. Make sure the texture of your pie ends up fitting the intended mold but able to be decorated and eaten away at over time. Progression is a key ingredient to all the best protagonist pies.

- Stuff full of: Beliefs
A proper pie must be baked with a drive in mind. What does it think? How does it think? Who does it hate? Love? Does it hate politics? Does it care for religion? Humans are full of opinions, so stuff your protagonist pie properly.

- A stick of: Interests
Interests make any pie appealing, bringing your creation to life. Throw a bunch in for better taste, but not too many because they can be quite fattening. If a protagonist is too bloated with hobbies it seems distracted and unfocused-- sidetracking the entire dessert.

- Crusted with: Persona
The crust of your pie should be different from the insides. All protagonists must have different masks they wear for others to keep their fillings safe. Let the filling ooze out at the proper time, keep the crust on most of the time. Keeps the reader hungry for more.

- Glaze with: YOU
That secret sauce that is all your own. Your signature. The stuff that makes a protagonist pie a drool-worthy delight worth diving into. This is the part you need to discover all your own. A special quality that only YOU can put in. Genuine things can happen with this, just don't lose yourself in your cooking. Never bake your own heart into a pie, just add your blood.  
  



Hope you enjoyed a peak into this writer's kitchen. For more savory selections of novel nibbles keep an eye here at my blog.

- B