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Saturday, April 30, 2011

Your MC and Zombie Mom

I've read a couple of books lately where I didn't like the MC.  I thought they were bratty, rude, and selfish.  It bugged me.  And then I realized  the new character I'm writing, the one in Parasites... is not so endearing herself.

Why do we do this?

I guess it's fun to make someone snarky, who'd say things you wouldn't, or maybe you taught eighth grade and are being realistic... 

But for whatever reason you have, is your MC boarding on too obnoxious?  Right now mine is.

So anyone got any ideas for making an annoying character more endearing??

I know this has been successfully done... an example:  See Kyle, in Beastly by Alex Flinn

The MC is a total jerk, he kind of does a nice thing and you think maybe he's not all bad, but then he's still a scuz bucket...  but throughout the book he'll take two steps forward one step back, he's a great example of transforming your character.

Now I just have to close the gap and figure out how to do this with my story.

Now for the letter Z:

My baby is due on the 10th... I've been totally Zombie Mom lately.  Really.  Like locking my keys in my car multiple times, leaving the oven on indefinitely, leaving hamburger meat out on the counter (for the record it was out to thaw, still wrapped and on a plate, but I kinda forgot I was going to make sloppy joes that night)--good thing my husband has been checking out the kitchen before he goes to bed... 

So I'm excited to get back to my completely irregular blogging schedule, because maybe with one less thing to think about I'll remember the important things... like turning off the oven.

Posting might be a little hit and miss for a while, so see ya when I see ya.

2 comments:

  1. I think a flawed character comes across more realistic than the always perfect MC. Which direction should you take with the current character your writing? It depends on what message you want to send your readers.

    Do you want to show readers that people are a hodge-podge of personality traits? Then, show the character reacting differently, to show we aren't always perfect. We are flawed, but it's how we behave the majority of the time. For example, PC Cast and Kristin Cast's YA series, The House of Night, depicts this well. Aphrodite is blonde and wealthy. She's the queen bee. When she speaks, it feels like she's spitting shards of glass and never changes through all 8 books that I've read. But she does redeem herself by doing kind things here and there.

    Do you want this snarky MC to evolve into a more endearing character? If so, then have them overcome obstacles that ultimately change their way of thinking and acting.

    I hope this helped! Good luck with the baby!

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  2. emily! i figured this is the best way to get inside your head, you know, catch up!! I'm almost done being sick and we need to talk books and writing and life and e'rything

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