How do I write a story with an immortal character so that it is exciting?
It's difficult to write a story with an immortal main character in a way that is exciting, because they can't find themselves in a life-or-death situation, which is why it can quickly become boring. If the character can't die anyway, the reader/viewer isn't captivated when the main character finds themselves in a dangerous situation.
So my question now would be whether there are ways to make a story like this more exciting and I'm not interested in finding some kind of kryptonite for him , but more in what kind of problems this character could be given.
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A solution for history would be problems in which immortality is not advantageous or only to a certain degree.
If the protagonist is responsible for others or simply wants to protect the characters close to him, it can be interesting to see how he saves them.
Immortality also means not to be able to defeat every opponent automatically if an opponent is much stronger, the protagonist could find a way to balance the difference of forces, find weaknesses or something else.
A not so demanding story could also bring characters into the story that the reader would like to see defeated, that it is enough to see him lose in the fight against the protagonist, but that could be very quickly one-sided.
An example of a work that the immortal protagonists are doing quite well is the anime/Manga One Punch Man. The protagonist is boring because he is so much stronger than anyone else that he has no more fun in any fight. It’s more comedy and parody than action or if there’s a real fight where both sides are putting their lives at stake, the protagonist isn’t involved.
The easiest way: Nobody knows, and nobody can know.
If there is no option, for whatever reason anyone knows about the immortality of the person, then the person still has to escape the deadly situations as if there really was something. Only the ‘what’ is not life, but the secret. But, of course, are not such high consequences, for the reader this could not be captivating.
The other way: Take another kind of immortality.
The ‘Nix, but even nix can only hurt the person’ Art is really unsuitable for most stories. The ‘Alter does not and does not become sick, but can die of injuries, even without special cryptonite’ Variant is usually better.
And in doubt: ‘Kill your darlings’. If you only keep an idea because you like it, but if it is actually completely inappropriate for your story, then you have to let go of the idea, completely delete it.
The question contains the answer. Write about the problems that character has by being immortal.
The other people can die, and then he would have to spend his eternity alone.
He’s not vulnerable. When he is tortured and fragmented, he lives in pain for an eternity.
I don’t know what you read for books, but the aspect that the character of every time can die is usually not important. Harry Potter tried in the first band to find the stone of wise/snape of evil things to stop and his surviving shiny in places no matter.
Tension can come through social intrigues, time pressure or moral dilemma, not only because the character can die.
Fear could at best feel an immortal figure for the lives of others.
It’s anxious to lose all the loved ones.
The film “Unbreakbeble” addresses this very nicely. Also intriguingly, I find that the “health?” is only relatively late, that he is immortal.
I also emulate the Doku “Unsterblich the Dream of Eternal Life” with Adam Savage, known from the mythbusters.
The huge problem: our hero must learn to live with losing all those who live around him in his life in practice. that can also go to the substance.
Read Orlando from Virginia Woolf.
Also recommended: The Man From Earth movie
It’s best to write what you want to read yourself.