Julianna Keyes's Blog - Posts Tagged "characters"
"The Good Fight" Release Week - Post Three
RELEASE WEEK POST THREE
YEAH, BUT WHY
I love character arcs. I love it when someone starts out tetchy and difficult and learns to shed a few of those prickly parts in exchange for some love and happiness. They don’t lose all their prickly parts, mind you - just enough. Just enough to be in a better place than when the story started, enough to let readers know that they’re on the path to a more permanent happiness with just the right amount of prickliness. (I’m not going to say prickly anymore, promise.)
One of my more familiar criticisms is that my characters - the heroines, in particular - aren’t all that likable at the beginning. (Or sometimes throughout.) I always want to shout, YEAH, THAT’S THE POINT. They’re going somewhere. They’re going to learn and grow and transform. That’s what the next 300 pages are for. If they start off perfect and end perfect, what’s the point? (Totally different story if someone starts off perfect and ends up considerably less so. That’s interesting, too.)
This is why Dr. Susan Jones, the heroine in “The Good Fight,” is probably my favourite heroine to date. There’s a line when Oz first visits her at home and she mentions that her sister used to live in the next apartment. “Were you close?” Oz asks. “Yeah,” Susan replies. “She lived right across the hall.” That’s Susan. Trying her best to get it right, and maybe coming across a bit mechanical in the process. But always trying, greasing the wheels, getting better. Her fight is an internal one, a private one, and for Oz, a 6’4” former fighter, she’s an example he didn’t know he needed. She never backs down from a fight, she always gets back up when she’s knocked down, and by the end of the story, she’s getting there.
I’m a person who’s always wondering “why?” I don’t especially care if someone’s passionate about growing green beans, but I am interested in knowing why that particular vegetable caught their eye. I like understanding the motivations behind things, peeling back the layers and discovering the hidden bits and pieces that make people, well, people. I don’t care if those pieces are perfect and beautiful, that’s not interesting to me. The scrapes and the stumbles, the flaws and the fumbles (I swear I didn’t intend for that to rhyme) are what make characters and stories compelling. That potential and promise is what keeps me turning the pages as a reader, and trying to fill them up as a writer.
YEAH, BUT WHY
I love character arcs. I love it when someone starts out tetchy and difficult and learns to shed a few of those prickly parts in exchange for some love and happiness. They don’t lose all their prickly parts, mind you - just enough. Just enough to be in a better place than when the story started, enough to let readers know that they’re on the path to a more permanent happiness with just the right amount of prickliness. (I’m not going to say prickly anymore, promise.)
One of my more familiar criticisms is that my characters - the heroines, in particular - aren’t all that likable at the beginning. (Or sometimes throughout.) I always want to shout, YEAH, THAT’S THE POINT. They’re going somewhere. They’re going to learn and grow and transform. That’s what the next 300 pages are for. If they start off perfect and end perfect, what’s the point? (Totally different story if someone starts off perfect and ends up considerably less so. That’s interesting, too.)
This is why Dr. Susan Jones, the heroine in “The Good Fight,” is probably my favourite heroine to date. There’s a line when Oz first visits her at home and she mentions that her sister used to live in the next apartment. “Were you close?” Oz asks. “Yeah,” Susan replies. “She lived right across the hall.” That’s Susan. Trying her best to get it right, and maybe coming across a bit mechanical in the process. But always trying, greasing the wheels, getting better. Her fight is an internal one, a private one, and for Oz, a 6’4” former fighter, she’s an example he didn’t know he needed. She never backs down from a fight, she always gets back up when she’s knocked down, and by the end of the story, she’s getting there.
I’m a person who’s always wondering “why?” I don’t especially care if someone’s passionate about growing green beans, but I am interested in knowing why that particular vegetable caught their eye. I like understanding the motivations behind things, peeling back the layers and discovering the hidden bits and pieces that make people, well, people. I don’t care if those pieces are perfect and beautiful, that’s not interesting to me. The scrapes and the stumbles, the flaws and the fumbles (I swear I didn’t intend for that to rhyme) are what make characters and stories compelling. That potential and promise is what keeps me turning the pages as a reader, and trying to fill them up as a writer.
