I was very excited to say the least when I was invited aboard Cap’n Jack’s ship. I had some reservations. I have never been a crewmember aboard a sea faring vessel. I have some experience straddling a cannon, just not on the deck of a ship… I want to tow my share of the the rope, but I realize the wenches aboard this great vessel are far more sea worthy than me.
Although I lack experience in the writing world, I wanted to be apart of this adventure to get my sea legs so to speak. I understand the basics of writing a novel. I know I need a character sketch, an outline, a plot, a synopsis and a query letter when the time comes. I know I need an agent and eventually a publisher. I know I need a heroine and a hero and I understand why a protagonist needs an antagonist. I need a muse to feed me, but she can only help provide the words and direction. My problem is getting past the first important step in writing a novel.
I have tried on occasion to do a character sketch and I have succeeded…in creating the perfect Mary Sue. My heroine always turns out exactly the way I wish I could be. My hero is always the most dead sexy male fantasy that I could ever imagine. Hell I even love to hate my villains.
Therefore, my question is this. How do you create characters with believable flaws that you can still embrace as your own? Do you have to like your heroine? More importantly, does it serve a purpose for her to behold qualities you find irritating?
I know the drill; never create a character that has the physical attributes and abilities that you find unattainable. This I can understand, where the line gets a little grey for me, is how I can create a heroine I believe in if she doesn’t share some of my own aspirations.
If I can embrace my characters, I can pass on that emotional connection to my readers. I want to create a hero and heroine that captivate the reader long after they close my book. I am excited about creating lives and situations for characters that I can call my own. However, I want them to be realistic, not superficial. I want to walk away at the completion of my novel and have pride in knowing I created characters readers want to believe are more real than fiction.
With that being said, I think the first order of business is to swab the deck of all extra baggage.
*Looking sternly at Mary Sue who is hunkered down in the bow of the ship*
“You‘ve been a cast away aboard this ship long enough. Come forth wench and walk the plank.”
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11 comments:
Don't toss Mary Sue quite yet. We all create heroines in our own image--or at least the image we want others to see ourselves as. If God can create man in his own image, it only serves the apple's not going to fall far from the tree.
Granted I probably wouldn't make a heroine who looked like Pamela Anderson. Mostly because I think she's got too many male fans as it is--I like to create (and recreate) the fantasy of Beauty and the Beast--with usually the heroine being the beast. Is that me? No. I have yet to find a Beauty--but I don't think it's unoriginal to goldmine your own personality for attributes and flaws.
Flaws are hard for me...because I too like my characters a little too much and like any proud parent, I want everyone to love them too. And how can you love a flawed person? But isn't that what love stories are all about? Being loved even for your flaws?
Usually I hear/read that flaws are like the flipside of a character's attribute/virtue. Like--if your character is determined, bold, daring--her flaws would be: aggressive, reckless, and a show-off/attention seeker. We all know people with those flaws and we don't hate them, do we?
Okay, yes, we hate Tom Cruise...but him notwithstanding...there is something good and bad in each attribute. You don't have to think up new and creative flaws for your characters. They should come naturally with the attributes.
Let the girl stay. Really, on a ship full of women, I'm positive we can find *something* wrong with her.
Maybe she's too nice. That's always annoying. Maybe she has a little scar in her left eyebrow where she fell off her bike when she was six. Or she has this weird tendency to sing really loud in the car though she has the voice of a sea urchin. (Do sea urchins have voices?)
Then we could look deeper. Does she have a tendency to talk about herself too much? Or call her girlfriends and vent only to hang up when it's their turn to unload? Does she believe she's the ugliest chick alive when she could give Angelina a run for her money?
Trust me, we can find something wrong with her. Let her stay!
Okay she can stay, but I'm warning you she may be a little too smutty for her own good. Plus she has this attitude problem and she hates doing dishes and cleaning the head:)
Flaws are a biggy for me too.
Another question...do you have to have a character antagonist? Or can a flaw the heroine has tried to repeatedly overcome be the antagonist?
How can she be smutty and not clean the head? Don't those two go together? *g*
You've got me on the antagonist front. In my story, there is no clear cut villian. My heroine is pretty much her own worst enemy. But there are secondary characters that throw friction into the story. I think the flaws - stubbornness, assumptions, distrust, misplaced anger - can create the antagonism you need.
But what do I know...LOL!
I find that when a character comes to me, I usually like them. then I start writing them, and they take over, such as life, eh? I think we the writer want our own way when we are mapping out our characters lives, and forget that they have to get from point a to point b on their own. It's authorial intrusion and breaks the flow if you try and force your character to be the person you want them to be.
I've never had a choice. And Like I've said before, I tried to fight Claudia, cause seriously she doesn't shut up in the best of situations, like during sex, wench. Anyways, I hit a block when I forced my character to do something. You just guide them onto the road to redemption. And I'm probably over thinking your question, as usual. hope that helps.
Flaws are fine, when you get to the end of the book, ask yourself, doe I like my character now? Did this flaw get sorted out? Is this something that just makes my character, and I realize now I love them for it?
If you can say yes. Well wasn't it worth the ride of creating flaws you didn't like?
And I love smutty! *w*
If you toss Mary Sue I will tie you up and let you dangle over the open seas until you cry uncle and go find her.
I think flaws are hard for everyone. I find it harder to write flaws for my main lead hero than my heroine. Why? Mostly because I like the idea of having a fantasy man that's really not that believeable but has a past that would shock the pants off the most wicked of degenerates. I tend to make my heroine's pretty but not conceited about it. My heroines are always underestimated by the villain. I love a villian who thinks a pretty lady is just arm/eye candy. Bad, bad, villain.
And Hellion hit it on the head, it's about learning to live with flaws and someone learning to love you even with those flaws.
I love Hellions point too Sin.
I love a hero that loves a heroine despite her flaws. And some flaws can be endearing to a certain point, and make the character instead of breaking them.
I like a heroine who is average looking but the hero sees far
more in her appearance than she could ever see in herself.
And Sin your villians always make me shudder, so Babe you go on with your bad self:)
I think, that if you spend 350+ pages with someone, some of the things that you really love about her are the same things that will begin to bother you-THEN you realize those are just her quirks and you love her anyway.
Just my $.02.
Di
Just jumping in here (PS, lovely blog, wenches.)
I think that to write believable flaws we have to dig in to the things in our lives that cause us discomfort.
Cory, my heroine, is constantly getting caught with her foot in her mouth. Something I'm famous for. Sometimes I write her into scenes and I can feel my own panic, the panic I feel as I try to talk my way out of some pickle I've wiggled into.
So, that's my advice (for what it's worth) about believable flaws. Find your uncomfortable traits and channel your discomfort. Who needs therapy? If you talk about yourself too much, have your character ramble when they're nervous, etc.
Terrio - a boat full of women finding flaws. LOL!! But, I agree, don't toss the lass in yet. She's bound to be imperfect if we look close enough.
I'm very late here, but if anyone sees this *waving!* then my two cents' worth won't be wasted.
You have to have flaws--or I mean your characters have to have them--because otherwise, what do they have to overcome? How do they change?
And I agree, I have a hard time assigning them, too (mainly because I have little imagination for it), but they're necessary. As long as they don't make your characters unlikeable (or not too much so!) pile 'em on. Then find ways to clear up some of the major ones by the end of the book, with the help of The Love Interest.
Or at least that's the way I'm trying to approach things. Am I wrong?
Dee - of course you're not wrong (says the woman who knows nothing). There have been characters in books I've read that I had a hard time liking for much of the story. In most cases, we learn along the way the character either is not exactly how they are being portrayed or deep down, there is a valid reason for his/her behavior.
Without flaws, characters are not believable. If the character is not believable, who wants to read about them?
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