Characters We Love to Hate

I don’t watch a lot of TV, but when I do have time, I’d mostly rather read or write. So when I decide to devote myself to a series, it has to be well written, dramatic, suspenseful, and there should be kissing involved. And a love story. Because I’m a sucker for that.

Okay, so I guess shows like Prison Break and 24 didn’t have a lot of kissing, but even so, there was always an undercurrent of romantic suspense built in somewhere. And I live for those storylines.

Take, for example, the new CW show REIGN.

As the writers probably designed, we all love Mary, Queen of Scots. She is a well-developed character who is benevolent, kind, and as good as she is beautiful. It’s no wonder she has two brothers fighting for her hand. (BTW, I am Team Francis, all the way!)

But then we get an evil, cunning antagonist in Queen Catherine. She’s spiteful and devious, and just when you start to think she can stoop no lower or go no farther to get what she wants, she finds a way. In fact, she is so complex that no one can trust her. Not Mary, the French court, King Henry, or even her own son Francis. And yet, because she is so complex, as we learn the reasons for each new deception, as viewers we still somehow manage to find sympathy for her. In Catherine’s darkest hour, I found myself hoping she’d find a way to avoid losing her head. Literally.

Catherine is the epitome of the best kind of antagonist in a movie or show. She is the character we love to hate, and yet also the character we hate to love. And we do both.

Now I’m trying to think of another character who is quite so well written as Catherine, and I’m drawing a blank. So help me out, if you will. Who is a character you both love and hate?

(Please specify a series, book, or movie so I can look them up.) 

Chameleon of Change

You know how I've been claiming I write my blogs on the weekends and schedule them to post? Well. Since it is nearly 10am on Friday and I am only right now writing today's post, obviously, that didn't work out this week. My schedule has been thrown askew.

I'm going all out here, writing off-the-cuff. Yikes!

It's okay. I can adapt. It's one of my strengths.

So, I just finished reading the book Candor by Pam Bachorz (great story, FYI) and am now halfway through Waiting for Normal by Leslie Connor. Completely different books. One's a YA dystopian, the other a middle grade contemporary. Waiting to be read next (since it's a library book and gets priority over the other TBR books on my shelf) is Tithe by Holly Black. YA fantasy. Again, very different from the other books.

But this morning I realized all these books have a common theme. In fact, all my most favorite books share some version of this theme.

The main characters are all learning to adapt to the conflicts thrown into their lives. They may not all be Katniss Everdeen, but they're still warriors of one sort or another who take what's thrown at them and go with it, use it, adjust. They may not be happy about it, but they accept that things are changing and rearrange their way of thinking (and sometimes their schedules) and act accordingly. Over the course of the story, the characters themselves change, grow.

Change happens, whether we like it or not. How have you dealt with recent changes in your life? (Good or bad, I'm not picky.) Are you a chameleon of change? A desert gecko turned fish when you reached the ocean? An Arizona desert dweller turned Rocky Mountain snow angel?

And while you're thinking, how has dealing with change made you a better, stronger person?

Characters We Love

My friend Elana Johnson is doing a blogging experiment, wherein a whole bunch of writing bloggers, or blogging writers, or, well, you know—we all get together and blog on one topic on a specific day. Last time I did one of these activities, it was a BLAST. So be sure to check out Elana’s blog for the master list of participants.

I’ve been a reader my whole life. Really. Well, okay, there were a few years when my kids were small when I didn’t allow myself much reading time. But it didn’t last long. And believe me when I say, I’ve more than made up for lost time with the books I’ve read since I started writing.

Because equally as much as I love to write, I LOVE to read. But why? Why do I feel so compelled to spend oodles of time living in a fictional world with people who don’t really exist except in my imagination? Because I love the characters, that’s why.

But how—and more, why—would I love people who don’t really exist? How or why would anyone? Because if the author did his or her job, the characters in their books become real for the readers. Real, live people you could almost reach out and touch. And we—the readers—feel like we know these characters inside and out. Intimately. So, it’s like our favorite characters are a long, lost friend.

I don’t have all the answers by any means, but I believe this is accomplished only when an author truly believes these characters are real. Knows them intimately, their likes and dislikes, their favorite colors, their favorite foods, their backgrounds and history, what they’re like inside and why, and especially their flaws. The things they like about themselves, and those they don’t. When an author writes a story—any story—about a character they know THAT well, the knowledge comes out on each page of the story.

Sometimes we don’t know our characters that well until after the story is drafted, and that’s okay. That’s a perfectly acceptable way to get to know your characters, and then those little details will—hopefully—come through in your revision.

For me, the characters that are real are also the most compelling. And compelling characters make good stories we all love to read. Right? Right. Okay.

Be sure to check the master list on Elana’s blog to read more about writing compelling characters.

More About Special

*Sighs in frustration*

I had a whole post written about how I’m still thinking about what makes a book special, and my thoughts on authors like Suzanne Collins and Stephenie Meyer and J.K. Rowling. About how they didn’t set out to make their books special, but rather they more likely set out to write a good story that was fresh and authentic. And how those stories became public phenomenons.

But then my computer battery died—with no prior warning—and for some stupid reason, I couldn’t recover that document.

*grabs hair and suppresses a scream*

So. Anyway. About special again. I’m still thinking. Still pondering the thing that makes a book pop for me. And I’ve decided that a story has to be authentic enough to grab me by the heart and pull me along with the protagonist, feeling what he or she feels and living in his or her shoes. But also, it has to be fresh enough that I don’t feel like I’ve read this story a hundred times over.

You know, special like that.

But in order for a book to be both fresh and authentic, I think the writer can’t necessarily set out to write it that way. It can’t be premeditated, but rather should be written with feeling and emotion that comes so naturally that it shows through in the story and with the characters. (When I say premeditated, I’m not talking about pre-planned as in outlining. I’m talking about forcing a character to feel something they shouldn’t, or wouldn’t, or don’t, just for the sake of the story.)

Kind of like life, right? Right. What do you think? Can you tell the difference between fresh and stale and authentic and contrived? (Not asking for examples here, just maybe thoughts.) Do you think this is part of what makes a book special to you?

Jody the Waiter

You know on Monday how I mentioned eating at Mazza, the Middle Eastern restaurant next to TKE? So, we had this fantastic waiter named Jody. Not only was he totally cool when we told him we were, essentially, ditching out on our food to go listen to an author read, but he set it up so we could come back and have our food hot and ready when we came back an hour later. (Actually, we were an hour and a half.)

When we got back, the place was busy, but he still found us a new table, a bigger one that would accommodate four extra people. He even remembered what drinks we ordered, and brought us new ones as soon as we got there. The guy was awesome.

He had one of those memorable charismatic personalities that makes authors stand up and take notice. And there were six (possibly seven) authors at that table. Dude, Jody. I hope you know you’re totally going to end up as a character in at least one book. Maybe more.

Have you ever met someone like that? Someone so authentic and real that you just had to model a character after them? Or—if you’re not a writer—someone you remember for years, even though you only knew them for like an hour? What is it about that person that makes them so memorable? Is it the way they make you feel while you’re in their presence? Is it the way they look you in the eye when you talk? Or maybe it’s dependent on the situation itself?

If the circumstances were reversed, I wonder how Jody the waiter would remember me? Or us as a group. If you were going to end up in someone’s book, would you be the hero or the villain?

Food for thought. Happy Wednesday!