There’s a certain Dr. Frankenstein aspect to writing novels, of any sort, but especially in romance where you live and die a bad-career-death if your characters turn out flat. But good characters truly take time and thoughtfulness in order to pull them out of their stock-ness. My favorite characters in fiction are Scarlet O’Hara and the early version of Alex Cross (when he was more Morgan Freeman than Denzel Washington — don’t get me wrong, Denzel is hunky to look at, but Alex is NOT Denzel, he’s Morgan Freeman, but I digress…). These two people are at opposite ends of the sympathetic spectrum, but they both have courage and intelligence yet always kept my interest and fascination.
I love creating characters; I love making up people that I want to hang out with for a couple of months, and thus, it’s important to me that they’re not boring. For me, that’s priority number one. Some books think that this means that a character must be huge, and boisterous, and tell the best stories, and leap tall buildings at a single bound, but not all stories are best told by Superman. Some stories call out for Peter Parker, who is way cooler than Superman because he’s not the usual superhero.
I love being surprised by a person, either in real life, in someone else’s book, or in my books. For a surprise to occur, you have to create a character who is shown to be capable of many different paths of action, not just one, and not always the right one. A character has to make mistakes during the course of a book, because mistakes are the number one way that people learn and change and grow. Sometimes the mistakes are because they’re doing the wrong thing and they know they’re doing the wrong thing, but they can’t help it. Sometimes the mistakes are because they think they’re doing the right thing, but it’s not really the right thing, and the reader knows this, but the character is very fixated on some goal and because of that, he’s missing out on the whole “what is the right thing” discussion. And sometimes, when the author is very clever, there is no right thing. There are only two wrongs, and the character must choose.
Ideally in a book, there should be a lot of crossroads, a lot of decisions, a lot of choices (not all good) that a character must face. It’s in these choices, that the face of the character is truly known. So, who are your favorite characters in novels or movies? What makes them stick with you? If you could create a character of your own, what sort of personality would they have? Just asking.
:) Kathleen
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Good morning, Kathleen!
The most memorable characters for me are those who stay with me long after I closed the book–and in some cases, even if I don’t re read the book for years afterwards. I am thinking of Christian and Maddy, from Laura Kinsale’s Flowers from the Storm; or Milla and Díaz, from Linda Howard’s Cry No More.
In life we often don’t know that what we are doing is “the right thing”–we must make our best guess based on what we know at the time, and then live with the consequences. Sometimes, all you have is two bad options and must choose one anyway (lesser or two evils, anyone?). So characters who live through these situations and show me, the reader, to have depth, stay with me.
by azteclady
on May 1st, 2008 at 9:42 am
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I def agree with you on that. Linda Howard is excellent at putting people in the bad/bad situation and letting them muddle through. I loved her villain, the gunrunner in All the Queen’s Men, and I kept wishing he’d give him his own book only because he was so fascinating. Doing bad for all the right reasons.
Looking back on my fav romance characters, some are really nice people (most of Nora’s stuff), and some are truly bent (the hero from Gaffney’s To Have and To Hold is totally awesome). Mainly, I just want people to be interesting.
by Kathleen OReilly
on May 1st, 2008 at 10:42 am
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If you’ve read all of the Alex Cross books, you might remember Patterson describing him as a young Muhammad Ali. The casting of Morgan Freeman, wonderful actor that he is, was just wrong! Alex is younger and better looking.
Anyhoo, one of the most exciting, vivid characters I’ve read recently was Rhage in J. D. Ward’s LOVER ETERNAL. He’s so handsome the heroine described the vampire as “so beautiful he made Brad Pitt look like a contestant for The Swan.” 
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My favorite characters are Eve Dallas And rourke from JD Robb’s Death series.
Eve is a strong woman in her own right and with the sexy Rourke behind her, she is even better.
by Estella
on May 1st, 2008 at 5:24 pm
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Chicki, when I read, what I usually end up doing is throwing away whatever visual clues the author uses and make up my own based on the way the character sounds, and the Patterson voice for Alex Cross is sort of this old-style, Walter Mosley black man, which is how I get to Morgan Freeman — that and the first movies . I suppose a young Muhammad Ali would be more Denzel, but I don’t know that my heart can take it. 
I love the Ward books, but Z is my fav. So tormented in his own hell…. I’m looking forward to the next one.
by Kathleen OReilly
on May 1st, 2008 at 5:29 pm
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Estella, I think Eve is wonderful. I feel like Nora took a stock character and brought her to life. Yes, she’s the tough-talking, heroine who is more comfortable on the streets, but she commands respect as well. I read the In Death series a long time ago, and then Nora began writing faster than I can read, but I’m almost tempted to pick it up again, because I do miss those characters. Especially Rourke.
by Kathleen OReilly
on May 1st, 2008 at 6:06 pm
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A memorable character for me was the hero Cheryl Holt’s The Way of the Heart. I can’t remember his name, but I could recite all the mistakes he made and OMG I hated him so much! He was absolutely reprehensible. Although he suffered for his sins, I wasn’t quite satisfied with the happily-ever-after because he was such a lost cause.
I remember thinking, “This isn’t a hero! Heroes don’t do this!” And yet, his actions have stayed with me a long time.
I’m getting bothered about it again right now! I can’t say I’d have it any other way, either. This book engaged me on a level that few others do. But I don’t know if I would even recommend it because the hero was so despicable.
I guess the topic is more about when good people do bad things. In his case, by the end, it was more like, when bad people do good things.
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Jill, I haven’t read that one, but what you said was enough for me to want to read it. I love really bent characters, because their journey can be the most difficult.
I’m going to find this one. Thanks for the *rec*.
by Kathleen OReilly
on May 2nd, 2008 at 2:24 pm
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