My Main Character was too Gorgeous
My agent strongly suggested I scrap one of the main three characters in the novel I’d been working one for years, “In the Courtyard of the Kabbalist.”. She just didn’t feel connected to her story, her plight.
I resisted her. Who wouldn’t? I’d invested years in this Jewish female character, a transplant to Israel. How could I let her go just like that?
Then one day I thought: Anna’s right. I hadn’t captured Tamar with the same urgency and intimacy as I had captured my other characters – Mustafa, a misshapen and gaunt janitor on the Temple Mount, and Isaac, an uptight assistant to a kabbalist. Somehow, I had failed her as a writer. She hadn’t come to 3 D life, and probably never would. Why? It struck me then. Tamar was too beautiful. Pity has always been the portal through which I enter my characters. In the back of my prejudiced mind, I couldn’t take her pain too seriously, because gorgeous women didn’t suffer, not really.
Of course beautiful woman do suffer. I just have my own issues with empathizing. Well, I’d built my novel around a gorgeous woman and now I’d have to throw a good chunk of it out. But from the moment I accepted my personal limitations, my novel took off. I let go of nearly a hundred and fifty crafted and revised pages. Years of work. I didn’t feel bad. To me the process felt like pruning a tree, doing what it took to make the tree thrive. Thank you, brilliant Anna! Tamar did remain, as a minor character, seen from the viewpoint of Mustafa and Isaac. In that format, I felt I could do her justice, make her compelling.
Sometimes I wonder what happened to her, though, all the discarded parts. What happens to that cut off branch? What happens to all that material that doesn’t make it into the novel?
I believe in the Law of Creative Conservation. The material will get recycled in some form or another. Those discarded characters and paragraphs never die. Either they crop up in other stories, or they enter you in some way, even if only to teach you how not to write. Tamar, for instance, the original Tamar, still keeps me company in my thoughts, makes me realize my limitations.
I resisted her. Who wouldn’t? I’d invested years in this Jewish female character, a transplant to Israel. How could I let her go just like that?
Then one day I thought: Anna’s right. I hadn’t captured Tamar with the same urgency and intimacy as I had captured my other characters – Mustafa, a misshapen and gaunt janitor on the Temple Mount, and Isaac, an uptight assistant to a kabbalist. Somehow, I had failed her as a writer. She hadn’t come to 3 D life, and probably never would. Why? It struck me then. Tamar was too beautiful. Pity has always been the portal through which I enter my characters. In the back of my prejudiced mind, I couldn’t take her pain too seriously, because gorgeous women didn’t suffer, not really.
Of course beautiful woman do suffer. I just have my own issues with empathizing. Well, I’d built my novel around a gorgeous woman and now I’d have to throw a good chunk of it out. But from the moment I accepted my personal limitations, my novel took off. I let go of nearly a hundred and fifty crafted and revised pages. Years of work. I didn’t feel bad. To me the process felt like pruning a tree, doing what it took to make the tree thrive. Thank you, brilliant Anna! Tamar did remain, as a minor character, seen from the viewpoint of Mustafa and Isaac. In that format, I felt I could do her justice, make her compelling.
Sometimes I wonder what happened to her, though, all the discarded parts. What happens to that cut off branch? What happens to all that material that doesn’t make it into the novel?
I believe in the Law of Creative Conservation. The material will get recycled in some form or another. Those discarded characters and paragraphs never die. Either they crop up in other stories, or they enter you in some way, even if only to teach you how not to write. Tamar, for instance, the original Tamar, still keeps me company in my thoughts, makes me realize my limitations.
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Rebecca
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Mar 10, 2013 09:56PM
I think that the problem might not have been that she's gorgeous, per se, but that women (even gorgeous ones, who often don't believe they are gorgeous!) have problems identifying with her. I'm talking both from a reader's standpoint and from a writer's. Often, the reason we enter the mind of a character, identify with them, and root for them, is because we share experience with them. We've been jealous, or we've experienced loss, whatever. But for "average" women, gorgeous women are a different species. We either hate them out of jealousy or simply can't imagine what their lives are like. It's a barrier to empathy.
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Rebecca, I see what you're saying about 'barrier to empathy.' That's what writers do -- push beyond the barriers and prejudices to finally 'get' their characters. But if you don't know you have a prejudice because it's too subtle -- then you're in trouble.
It might be interesting to write a short story specifically about this prejudice (as you describe it)--like intentionally put a character who is gorgeous in it and then figure out how to empathize her. You could talk to someone about her beauty, or read a memoir about someone who is beautiful. Maybe contrast her with a character who doesn't like her because of her looks.This could be an interesting exercise for anyone who has identified sentiments against a segment of people, I think, and it would build writing skills, too.
The books I can think of with gorgeous main characters who worked for me all show the heroine as deeply flawed--not bad, but human. That might be a good place to start.
Remember Scarlett O'Hara? You've giving me a good idea for my writing workshop tomorrow night -- to write about a prejudiced character, especially if he or she isn't aware of these biases, then put them in a situation which really brings them to the surface.
Thanks!
Ruchama wrote: "Remember Scarlett O'Hara? You've giving me a good idea for my writing workshop tomorrow night -- to write about a prejudiced character, especially if he or she isn't aware of these biases, then pu..."
OMG--that's exactly one of the characters I was thinking of! But then I remembered that I hated her! So bratty and self-centered.
Then I thought of Katniss Everdeen in The Hunger Games (book, not movie, which I haven't seen). She's beautiful, but she doesn't think of herself that way. She's also very, very human, with lots of flaws and confusion, so you grow to love her because you can identify with her mixed feelings.
Ruchama wrote: "Remember Scarlett O'Hara? You've giving me a good idea for my writing workshop tomorrow night -- to write about a prejudiced character, especially if he or she isn't aware of these biases, then pu..."
What a great idea! I love it! Can't wait to use it. I think I feel a short story coming on...
