The Loser Protagonist is an fairy attractive guy, doesn't live with his parents and has a job, actually has a college education, and a nice guy overall.

Problem is, he's a loser and a geek. He's an errand boy at a big new station and is rarely appreciated. Though he does have his own place, it's a studio apartment.

He does have friends, and is not that bad of a guy, but goes on a lot of dates with Rosie Palms, and is demisexual (or just flat out Asexual, depending on how the story goes, but he's not looking for a relationship).

He also wears childish-themed tightey-whities. This is to show his immaturity.

Back in high school, he then started swimming, which gave him a nice body (a swimmer's built, of course), but no one will realize this because his frumpy looks repels any sort of attention, and Female Gaze from the back is only every once in a while.

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Another variation was to have him fight on his school's wrestling team, though because of his crude personality, he usually gropes or grind against his opponent while getting them in awkward positions during submissions (he usually does this to throw them off guard and had admit to enjoy doing so) before breaking their arms and legs in many different angles.

Are these different ways to write a loser protagonist?

edited 20th May '12 7:05:19 AM by DoubleG

I think this may make more sense in Trope Talk.

Nah, give this thread some time first. I want to see other people's opinions on this topic, especially if the OP meant it to be writing-orientated.

Personally, I'm more inclined about writing more popular characters, or at least characters held at a high position by his/her peers. The "loner" archetype is one that is used a lot in YA, and I wonder what it would be like writing such a story, but from a different POV.

Not that Loser Protagonists are out of the question. I have a few of them around in several story ideas, including the one I'm writing with. But it's something I want to try out one day.

You know, I have to wonder: what if the Loser Protagonist is actually okay with being a loser?

He may have it bad, but from his perspective he may think he's got a pretty good life — not perfect, but satisfying in his eyes. And even if he's less than savory, you could still have someone even lower (i.e. more loser-y) than him. Taking a look at the trope page, it seems like what makes him a loser is that he's underwhelming by societal standards; if you can find a way to twist that around, maybe you can add some variations.

Personally, I always thought it'd be interesting to write an unconventional Delinquent; he could be a grunt that's far from ideal, and regularly put-upon by others, and exposed to his fair share of humiliation and poor circumstances, but there might be some potential...as soon as I think of it.