Robyn Hugo McIntyre's Blog, page 12
January 22, 2013
What Makes a Character Worth Liking?
I’ve just started corresponding with my #LitChat friend @Mamafog (also known as Karen) about what makes a fictional character likable. In particular, she asks what makes a character likable for me?
As seen previously in this space, I’ve been giving my reading some thought, finding more and more of the novels recommended to me by others as not enjoyable or just okay. Where I used to devour anything readable – including the backs of cereal boxes when I was out of books – I now have to make time to read, so naturally resent spending time on books I don’t like. And, generally speaking, I don’t like books where I don’t like the main characters.
What Makes a Character Worth Liking?
I guess, first of all, I have to be able to see myself, at least a little, in him or her. Someone completely different will make it hard for me to identify with them as they struggle with their challenges. This isn’t usually a problem, since all of us share some traits.
S/he has to have a decent code of ethics at core. Just the basics – not killing people for fun or wanting to have ultimate power, that kind of thing.
S/he has to be self-aware. There’s no point in seeing how a character grows if s/he remains blissfully ignorant of the changes s/he’s gone through.
I like a sense of humour. It can be dark, sarcastic, self-deprecating, or just wacky. Humour helps us recognize ourselves and frame a situation. What makes you laugh helps define you. And if you have no sense of humour, that might be funny in itself.
With secondary characters, I prefer they not be there just to serve as cannon fodder or to scream on cue. Even if they won’t be around long enough for me to learn much about them, I like it when I feel they are as much people as the main characters.
That’s the short list for me. I’m sure that continuing to think about it will bring other things to light, like why some books I enjoyed even though I didn’t like the characters. And what part narrative plays in helping me decide whether a book and its characters are good or not*.
Got your own list of what makes you like a character or not? Let’s talk about it.
* ‘Good’ being a term relative to our individual interpretations, of course.
Tagged: character, fiction, likability, literature, traits, Writing
January 15, 2013
Show Me The Character
I started reading Incarceron (by Catherine Fisher) as part of my foray into YA books (also read Leviathan by Westerfield and Thompson, reviewed on Goodreads here). It started up slow for me and only now, where the two main protagonists are actually talking with each other, is it really starting to get interesting to me. I’m also reading The Pale Blue Eye (by Louis Bayard) and Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell (by Susanna Clarke). These books, in conjunction with some discussions on both LitChat and SciFiChat on Twitter have underlined for me the fact that if I don’t like the characters, I probably won’t like the book. Maybe this is why so many modern novels in ‘Literature’ remain only partially read by me – they seem to be inhabited by a bunch of people I would not want to know. Some writers have told me they like to read about the human condition. My condition is such that I want to spend my precious reading time with either an interesting puzzle, learning something new (nonfiction), or with fictional people I can admire or whose company I enjoy.
What have you learned about yourself from what you’ve read?
Show Me The Character
Tagged: character, literature, reading, self-discovery, Writing 
December 12, 2012
Sarah’s Sacrifice (review)
Sarah’s Sacrifice by Carolyn Burns Bass
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
This charming story illustrates how a growing child becomes more aware of the spirit of Christmas through her own generous act.
As small children, we tend to be territorial about our toys and our sentimental tie to them can persist even when we have moved on to other interests. In Sarah’s Sacrifice, a little girl makes a big decision about one of her most beloved playmates and we grow along with her as she learns just what an impact such a decision can have.
Written in clear-to-understand language, Sarah’s Sacrifice is a book for children and yet falls into that category of children’s books that have charm for adults as well. It’s definitely a book that can be shared by parent and child, its story reaffirming that – especially at Christmas – the giver can receive just as much as the one who receives.
Tagged: children's book, Christmas, fiction, review
November 18, 2012
Review: Daring Greatly
Daring Greatly: How the Courage to Be Vulnerable Transforms the Way We Live, Love, Parent, and Lead by Brené Brown
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book was recommended on a blog that I follow by a person whose thinking somewhat mirrors mine. She recommended it in a big way, so I was anxious to read it. And I’m feeling odd about not giving it a higher rating, because I think it probably deserves one. I’m giving it three stars not because I have issues with the content (exactly) or with the writing, but because the subject matter is old hat to me.
Ms. Brown is fairly well known as a speaker and writer on the subject of ‘shame’ and how it debilitates us and keeps us from being the persons we want to be. She is right, of course. The weight that we give to shame is disproportionate to the weight it should have in keeping us to our personal code of ethics and values. She also addresses shame in this book as a chapter explaining why not being good at vulnerability often means that we are good at shame and how learning to be shame resilient is necessary to being able to achieve comfort with being vulnerable.
In particular, she focuses on how being willing to be vulnerable and to acknowledge that vulnerability – embrace it – creates opportunities for growth and increased closeness to those we love. Without being willing to expose our feelings, we cannot be that social networking Holy Grail, authentic.
In my youth I was very vulnerable (ha!) to shame. Terrified of being judged not good enough, I spent a lot of time trying to make myself invisible. The summer after 10th grade, I spent some time thinking about the enjoyment of life I was not having. It was at that point that I decided that I would work to be me, whoever that was, and if that wasn’t okay with the rest of the world, then they could kiss my skinny brown butt. I have spent the majority of my life since then trying to be only who I am in all social situations – ‘what you see is what you get’, ‘keeping it real’ and so on.
So I found nothing really new or life-changing in Ms Brown’s book. But that doesn’t mean you won’t.
It’s a good book. And if shame and lack of vulnerability are keeping you from being who you would like to be to your family, your friends, and your Self, then you should read this book. You should definitely read this book.
Tagged: authenticity, mental-health, nonfiction, self-help, shane, vulnerability
