Elusive characters – good or bad?
It’s the first Wednesday of the month again, time for a post for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group.
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You all know by now that I make book covers. At first, I only created pre-made book covers, which came exclusively from my imagination. Then, I was lucky enough to attract some writers’ attention, and a couple people asked me to create book covers for them. Every single time, it was a marvelous experience to mesh my aesthetic vision to their specific story.
I’ve decided to make more of those, simply to enjoy the process. I selected a couple series of books I read and admired but didn’t like their covers much. So, I made my own covers for them, not for publication (they have already been published), just for myself, to have fun. My first attempt was a science fiction series by Michelle Diener, and I shared the results with this blog’s readers a few months ago.
My next similar project was the PALADIN series of fantasy novels (the sword and sorcery variety) by T. Kingfisher. Those of you who read fantasy probably know her. That particular series of hers includes 4 books (for now) and has covers that are mostly abstract, differing from each other by colors and some symbols pertaining to each particular story.
I adopted the same approach: no people on the covers, just symbols that define the lead characters. It was easy for the first three books. Their lead characters are, respectively: a perfumer, a local coroner, and a were-bear. The symbols leapt at me. Below are my covers for those 3 novels.
The novel #4 proved unexpectedly resistant. Its heroine is a professional spy, and she is freaking elusive. I wrecked my brain trying to come up with the symbols that would define her. Writing implements? Flowers? Weapons? Money? Nothing seemed to apply 100%, but eventually I came up with the couple versions below, although I can’t say I’m completely satisfied with either.
Which brings me to the point of this post. What do you think about elusive characters, characters that defy labels and categories? Do you enjoy reading about them? Do you write them? Tell me in the comments.
