When you read? When you write (if you do)?
A friend's post this morning made me wonder. It's not the first time I'd heard of getting attached to characters. I've read posts from other writers who felt strongly attached and cried when their characters died or killed. I haven't had that in particular happen, but I can relate. I do have my favorite characters. I have had the emotions get so strong in certain stories that they make me cry, but I can cry at the drop of a dime. It's sad sometimes how easy it is. It's also a bit annoying. I've also seen where readers get almost fanatical about characters in the books. Not just empathizing with them, but wanting them, or worse, feeling they own the character--if they'd existed.
In my reading, I don't have a particularly strong favorite, but I do like Dayan and Darius from Feehan's Dark Series. I also have a Shifter in one of my own books, Morgan, that is like the ultimate crush. I'm not so keen on heroines. Not really sure I'm reading about the women most of the time. LOL
So what about you guys? Any favs that knock your socks off? Anyone you'd ditch the SO for? LOL Hypothetically of course. *wink*
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6 comments:
I agree some authors seem to be a bit too attached to their characters. I love mine but I'm always ready to send them out into the world when I'm finished with them. I just hope everyone else finds them as fascinating as I do. ;)
Literary-wise, I'm totally in love with Jane Austen's Captain Wentworth. A tall, sensitive man with a great sense of humor and honor who wears a uniform and a cravat?? Oh yeah and who loves with such depth that 8 years and an ocean apart doesn't deter that love. What's not to love.:)
Cindy
www.cindykgreen.com
I must be a strange person. I don't get attached ot my characters. I like them, nurture them, write their stories, but when the end comes, I feel...relief? lol Is that normal? Maybe I just haven't found the right character yet.
Ohhh, but I can obsess about other characters written like the best of them! I adore Vishous, Butch and Qhuinn from the JR Ward series, and Valerius from Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunters...those are to name a few! I'm total fan girl over male heroes :)
I've only got two that I'm attached to. My vampires Georges Belleveau and Diane Patterson. I simply can't stop writing about them.
Of all the books I've read I can think of only one I got attached to. And that's because I was waiting for her to get her comeuppance. Which she didn't, damn it. ;)
I wouldn't say I've ever been obsessed with one of my characters. I will say that certain characters have had a stronger impact on me than others. The hero from my recently completed novel, Jamie, was more demanding than any of my characters before or since. He pushed me to get the story written and I loved writing about him because he was funny and always had something naughty to say.
In terms of reading other writers' work, I can't say I have a character I'm obsessed with, either. I have characters I love and enjoy reading about, but for me it is often the author's story I want to read as opposed to a particular character's story. Now, I did love the Francesca Cahill series by Brenda Joyce. I loved Calder Hart and was glad that Frencesca and Calder developed a romance, though she was also being courted by Calder's brother.
The only time I've ever become so engrossed in a book that I started literally yelling at characters in it was Queen, by Alex Haley. The descriptions are so vivid and there are a variety of characters, often with very rigid opinions, so I got very involved in the story and the crazy characters in it.
I have a WIP that is completed and in that story I had to kill off a character who has shown up in previous stories. It wasn't that I was that attached to this character, but the fact that I had to have her murdered was difficult, which surprised me. And it told me we do get attached to characters in a way that at first we might not be aware of until we pull a trigger on a gun or wield the blade of a knife. I actually felt very sad especially when writing the funeral scene.
Collette Thomas
http://www.newsletterofcollettethomas.blogspot.com
I'm awfully attached to a character I'm working on now. He's an FBI agent with a cocky attitude. Naturally, he's drop dead gorgeous. My husband can't stand him. He was proofreading for me and quit because he didn't like the guy.
Elaine Cantrell
www.elainecantrell.com
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