just to help me keep going

[howsmyenglish]

Brain seems to have recovered a bit. It was yesterday. I kind of woke up and suddenly remembered that I need to order books for next year, write to students, answer that guy I wanted to have answered about a month ago... So, I did all that just now. Wrote to all I remembered (and a few are still waiting, but there's a reason for that), even made a phone call - it's something I completely forgot how to do, but I managed it, too! So, now, considering everything, is the time I need to take the leap and open up something diss-related. I'm nervous. Seems like it's such a big step. While it absolutely isn't. So what. So I open something. Some file. And spend a day remembering what I was doing there. So what. It doesn't hurt. Come on, you can do it! *taking a deeeeeeep breath*

PS: By the way, I've been meaning to ask someone for a long time: if a "protagonist" is the main character of a story, does a "main protagonist" have a right to exist? Or is it just doubling the obvious? Are all people just "characters" and the main character the "protagonist" or can all the main ones be "protagonists" with the main one among them as "the main protagonist"??? Did I confuse you with this question?

PPS: Ahm... amazing... I'm reading the last file I wrote on my diss... don't remember a thing... did I write that? what did I want to say?? (I'll feel better tomorrow, yes, I will, I'll remember a lot and get rolling...)

PPPS: ooookay... looking at my own text with comments in brackets and comments in double brackets and comments in light gray and all that, I come to the conclusion that I am unbelievably and annoyingly particular about the tiniest details! If I have trouble getting through all that myself how do I expect anyone else to understand what I'm trying to say?? NOTE TO SELF: shorten! simplify!

Comments

[thanatos_kalos]

A protagonist is a main character, but many books/films/TV series etc have more than one main character. So you can contextually say 'main protagonist,' e.g., 'In this chapter [character] is the main protagonist. He/She/They is/are the focus of the chapter and...' Any fictional person is a character, but if your work involves any history, historical fiction, myths or religious texts then you'll need to be careful about calling them a character (because the term implies that the person/deity/etc isn't real! :P).

Shortening and simplifying are two key skills for academic writing, but having loads of notes all the way through is very common for drafts! Don't punish yourself for doing it. :)

[howsmyenglish]

My texts are autobiographies, which makes it more difficult in terms of "characters", but i think I'm doing fine with that one... Still, I'll need to drop the "main" from the most "protagonists")) Thank you! You're a huge help, as usual.

[thanatos_kalos]

You're very welcome! :) Glad I could help. :)