Someone asked a question about creating perfect characters, so here’s my two cents worth.
If you have a super perfect character, then the story is usually told from someone else’s pov such as Watson for Sherlock Holmes or if you have super bad characters with no redeeming characteristics, then the story is usually told from a better character’s pov, such as the “The Beans of Egypt, Maine” by Carolyn Chute. The POV character is Earline, the girl across the street.
I also like the idea of giving super dark characters a goodness quality, like Artemis from “Artemis Fowl” by Eoin Colfer
An author who is really good at creating many believable sympathetic characters in one novel is Cecily von Zeigesar. Yes, I know she writes “Gossip Girls” and I am rolling my eyes, but she’s great with character sketches.
I always advocate buying other authors’ books, but I know that’s not practical for everyone, including me. So you can read excepts from Chute and Zeigesar’s books on Google Books and Amazon and Colfer’s book on Amazon. I recommend the first in Colfer’s series Artemis Fowl. This has made me think I might need to put together a book list of authors who do things well.
Write on.
D
Deidra Alexander's Blog 