“Self-centred rising young artist” = protagonist

“put aside his ego” = main character goal

“girlfriend” = villain

Art about art is always fun. To write a story about an artist, is to simultaneously be an artist and emphasize with their point of view.

It’s the epithet like quality of the last sentence that left me hanging:

“… for a record deal with a famous rapper’s upcoming label”

To be semantic, perhaps the main character is more specifically a Musician, singer or music industry related profession. Disorientated my initial image of the character (sorry, imagined a painter/artist).

‘Put his ego aside’ is very abstract for a character goal, but ‘win a record deal’ is much more specific. The implied character arch is from self-centered -> through to -> selfless. A virtuous and powerful story structure. But perhaps this might be expressed through the story conflicted? What if the villian were kind, selfless, generous, supportive of others? This would surely go up againist the grain of our protagonist’s character flaw.

Speaking of villains, who is the main villain: girlfriend, or rapper? Not that stories can’t have multiple bad guys, just that usually there is only one main climatic “Boss” character.