A protagonist must always have special powers, something which makes them stand out from the rest.
In the Millennium trilogy, Lisbeth Salander not only has superhuman hacking capabilities and acute intelligence, she is formidable in hand to hand combat. Gillian Flynn’s Amy, in Gone Girl, is more manipulative than most. She has some kind of personality disorder – an extremely destructive one – and the ability to wield it as a weapon.
The observer
Like the observers of Fringe, my protagonist, Elena, has the ability to see across timelines. She experiences premonitions and she experiences events from the past, both in her dreams and her waking life as she moves through the Borderliners trilogy. Of course, the reader is always free to form their own opinions of her capabilities. Some might see her as psychic. Some might see her as psychotic, someone who sees and hears things which aren’t there. Others, as merely delusional. Others still, may see her as merely human, someone who has the same capabilities as anyone else, if only we decided to pay attention to what was going on around us.
It is up to the reader to decide what is really going on.
In Fringe, the observers are definitely not of this world. They look and behave strangely. They know of their purpose in life and accept it. They are neither good nor evil.
Elena, on the other hand, must decide. As she moves through life and the strangeness of events surrounding her catch up, what will she make of this? Will she move her consciousness up a level? Or will she descend into a pit of delusion?
