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Hi Kristina,

One way could be to start with your setting. If you have any ideas as to what this world will be like, you can try making a brief list of the kind of problems that could arise here. For example, if there are dragons, then trying to slay a dragon could be a major issue for one character, or becoming a dragonrider (if you decide those exists), or starting a circus with dragons in it, or trying to get rid of the dragon nesting in your backyard... Stuff like that.

From there you can start building the protagonist based on the main plot problem. Continuing with the dragon example, if you want a comedic story, then the guy trying to get rid of the dragon in his backyard could be a stubborn old man who refuses to take the advice of his (in his opinion) nagging wife or anyone else who offers to help. For another kind of story, the woman trying to slay the dragon could be a farmgirl without any relevant knowledge or skills who's driven solely by a heart-wrenching desire to slay the beast that burned down her village.

This way, you can start building your protagonist from a more general setting idea. You probably still want to flesh them out, give them a few flaws, figure out what they're good and not so good at, what pisses them of, etc. But I think it's a pretty good way to start.

/Tobias