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.) 

Start with Change

A few years ago, I was lucky enough to attend a workshop session taught by the poetic and brilliant Martine Leavitt. During one of her lectures, she gave our class a bit of advice about beginnings. I don’t remember her exact wording, but she basically told us to start our story on the day when things change.

Real people have those moments regularly. They are the parts of life we may not always want to face, things we don’t always see coming, but they are also the moments that come to define us as people. How will we feel when our town is hit by a natural disaster? How will we react when our parents get divorced? What will we do when someone gets sick and dies, leaving us behind grieving? OR conversely, how will we feel when we reach a goal we’ve been aiming toward for years? How will we react when we find love? What will we do to transplant ourselves in a new place?

These are questions we need to explore with our characters and within our stories. Because change is, by very definition, a conflict of sorts. And every good story is defined by conflict and how the characters overcome the obstacles and beat the odds, just as people are defined by these same things.

So though we might begin with a small glimpse of how things are before, the real story, the part we all look for, happens in the moment when things change.

What life changes have defined you? Have you used those experiences in your writing?  

Art that Spans Generations

For the 4th of July, my family attended a local fireworks show / concert. This year’s headliners: The Beach Boys. (And seriously, who doesn’t love the Beach Boys? What’s more American than that?)

I’ve seen the Beach Boys before. In fact, I saw them at this same exact show a number of years ago. They have the kind of sound that makes people stand up and dance and sing at the top of their lungs, even if they don’t know all the words.

There was this guy a couple rows down. He had to be forty-five-ish, at least. But as soon as the band started to play, he whooped, and hollered, and jumped out of his seat to belt out the songs. And yes, he definitely danced, even when his kids got in the way.

Between songs, my teenage son turned to me and said, “This is the kind of music that will never go out of style. It’s classic. Why don’t they make music like this anymore?”

My first response was to point out that we were at a concert, so obviously someone still did make this exact music (notwithstanding the fact that the band members are in their 70’s ish). But then I thought about popular radio play these days, and wondered what songs and which groups will be considered classics when my grandchildren are teenagers.

I often have similar wonders about books and other literature.

I have fond memories of stories by Judy Blume, Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series, and Nancy Drew and the Hardy Boys. Those are the classics I grew up with. The stories that stuck with me. The art that carved out a piece of my soul and reshaped it. There were others, of course. I loved to read as a kid. But when I think of personal childhood classics, those are the first to pop into my brain.

In the age of technology, when there are thousands of books to choose from, and kids can buy them with the click of a button, I’m wondering which ones they will remember most when they’re grown.

And I have to admit, I kind of hope that someday, one of them will be mine.

For your enjoyment, this is the 1963 version.

The Musical Trigger

I’ve decided that life should be set to music. Seriously. Like, when a baby is born, the nurses should assign them a life theme song. Not a permanent one. Just one to get that person started, going, inspired, until he or she outgrows that theme song and needs a new one.

I could swear every memorable moment in my life has some kind of music or song involved, or at the very least, there’s a song that reminds me of those moments. And when I hear those songs, I’m transported in time and place, and suddenly, I’m five again and singing, “Li’l Red Riding Hood” (by Sam the Sham and the Pharohs) in the living room of our tiny house in the Nevada desert. Or I’m fifteen, learning to drive to the sweet harmonies of Wilson Philips. (Am I crazy to admit that?)

Because of this, I have a tendency to unconsciously assign theme songs to books as I read them, heightening the book’s emotional impact.

Do certain songs trigger memories for you? Which ones?

Memorable People

“I’ve learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” ~ Maya Angelou


I have a theory. Probably not an original one, actually. In fact, someone somewhere has most likely done a study on it at some point. But I believe that our memories are based not on sights or tastes or sounds or smells, but on feelings first. Everything else is secondary.

For instance, we might remember our first vacation because of the excitement and happiness we experienced during that trip. And then we associate smells and sights and sounds with that incident, and voila, we have a memory.

On the other spectrum, we might remember a broken heart because of the hollow ache, the physical pain. And again, all the other sensations we remember are linked to that original gut-wrenching feeling.

I don’t remember a lot of books I read as a child. But there are a handful that I do, and they affected me enough to help shape what I became as an adult. Thinking back, I’ve always been a fan of romance in plots. Even in Nancy Drew, I couldn’t get enough of the almost-kisses between Nancy and Ned. That’s the feeling I latched onto, and the only part about those mysteries I really remember. Well, that, and the fact that Nancy always conveniently carried a change of clothes in the trunk of her car. But ya know. I think that had more to do with believability.

Another example: People.

I’m terrible with names. It takes me at least three times of meeting you before I remember yours (unless you’ve done something to make a huge impression, then it might only take two). But if you made me smile, I’ll remember that feeling and associate it with your face. If you made me angry, I remember that too. And if you said or did something outlandish or incredible or absolutely impressionable, if you made my cheeks hurt from laughing, or my heart flutter with happiness, or my gut clench with pain or anxiety, I will definitely remember your name. The first time.

How do the people you meet remember you?

Confession of a Romance Reader

I once read a story (by Nora Roberts) about two photographers who teamed up on a cross-country road trip, taking pictures for a photo-essay book about America. It’s been so long that I don’t even remember the title, but the story and characters stayed with me in a recessed corner of my mind.

The feeling of awe, the shared sense of wonder between the characters, the romance of our country as portrayed by the author, is something I’ve remembered ever since I read the book more than six years ago. I can’t remember the title, but I will never forget how that story made me feel.

Breathless. Excited. Inspired by the simple beauties that exist outside my very own front door.

Nora Roberts is a master storyteller. For all that I’d NEVER let my kids read one of her books because of sexual content, I love her style. And I can admit that before I discovered YA, I went through a phase when I devoured her work. Certain books of hers moved me, changed me. And ever since the photographer-road-trip story, I’ve wanted to take a similar drive. One in which I could stop to experience a little taste of everywhere America. The cheesy, the beautiful, the amazing.

And then fate stepped in.

My husband was sent across the country for a lengthy, intensive training for which he needed a car. And because of the length and distance, he invited me to drive with him (because he’s sweet like that). I thought of the book—even though it was years ago—and remembered to take pictures. Of everything. Lots of them. We stopped to see small stuff, and big stuff, and cool places, and streets with names that made us laugh. We drove more than 2,500 miles in one week.

We saw America.

We would’ve made the drive anyway. But would it have been as enjoyable? Did a book I read years ago enhance or encourage or in some way affect my experiences on the road? And more, did it affect my husband’s experience?

I think it did. And I’m grateful. I want to be the author who moves people to think harder, to see a different view of things, to take chances. I want to help people learn how to soak up more of their own experiences.

It’s my ultimate goal. What do you think? Realistic? Crazy? What’s your ultimate goal?