The Challenge Of Writing

Today I want to tell everyone about the absolute hardest part of making characters. You might think it’s easy. After all, you could just take all the best traits you like in people and make a main character, right? I’ve learned from experience that it’s a lot more complicated. Here’s the first challenge.

First off, you have to figure out what gender you want your main character to be. Let’s just say I made my main character female, and I wanted to make a strong woman who didn’t need the stereotypical male hero. So I detail every part of her down to what she looks like, some quick one liners she might say, and her interests. It all seems so good on paper, so I write my story. When I get feedback, however, I get asked why she seems to fall more into a man’s role, and even worse, why her love interest is such a wimp. Now, the male wimp comment is usually just because he doesn’t seem like the dominant one in the relationship. I usually think the feedback is a little ridiculous, but then I think about it. I write for an audience, so if they value tradition over difference, then who am I to say that’s how it shouldn’t be. I change her character. She’s still strong, but she needs a little saving every now and then. The feedback I then get is that she’s a little too much of the stereotypical woman in stories, and then I might get asked why she goes brain neutral at times and has to be saved when at others, she’s so capable. I’m now stuck. Is she strong, weak, or a bipolar woman who doesn’t know who she is from one second to the next?

Now, for the second challenge . . . her personality. Is she withdrawn and full of morals, or is she outgoing and open to everything? This is a major problem because if you make your character a good person people usually can’t relate. I know most of us aren’t bad people, but for whatever reason, we don’t like characters that seem too perfect, so that’s out. I have to give the character flaws and weaknesses. She can’t be the cookie cutter good girl. Here lies another problem, however. When I show the character kill someone, have sex, or in general engage in a fit of rage, I’ve gone too far. Don’t I know that kids might read this!!! I then feel trapped. She must be good, but not too good. She can’t be described as being too pretty or ugly, and maybe hardest of all to accomplish, my main character must remain the perfect balance of strong and weak to satisfy everyone.

Here’s the third and worst problem. Once I make this character that is totally balanced to please everyone’s point of view, I realize something. She’s boring. She doesn’t ever fall too deeply in love, and at the same time, she’s never cold to anybody. She doesn’t murder or commit any kind of crime, but she’s not exactly a warrior for justice either. Most confusing, she is strong and independent . . . except for with some random guy who must complete her. It’s like creating the most bipolar person in the world.

All right, so as you can see it’s very hard to create a character that pleases everyone. I might even argue that it’s downright impossible, especially when trying to create a character that goes a little against the norm. Here’s some advice for anyone writing. However you picture your character fitting into your story is right. I know it sounds simple, and you think you should consider your audience, which I suppose you should to a certain extent, but engineering a character or story comes off as just that - engineered. Make characters that people will love, hate, and talk about because they’re different. Some might not like them because they’re not cookie cutter or because they think they’re too typical, but only you know the world you want to create. When you give up that vision you lose the passion for your project, and then your story loses the life you were giving it very quickly. The words just become words, and you create reflections of what people have told you is good instead of something that might just help you leave your mark on the writing world. The lesson here is to create without censors or worry. Your audience will find you, and who knows if it’ll be a big one or a small one, but at the end of the day, if you do what you want with your story you’ll be able to look back at it with pride. Those were your characters, worlds, and ideas. No one gave them to you, and if you’ll stick to your guns, you’ll find something so amazing - a passion for creativity and life that goes beyond all the noise of this world.

A Magnolia Romance

I want to tell everyone about my next project. It’s called A Magnolia Romance, and it’s a young adult romance set in the area I grew up. This is the first time I’ve used a real place in my books, and I did it for a reason. I wanted this book to come off as authentic. That meant including places I knew a lot about and letting real life experiences and feelings guide how my characters acted. After all, these characters are young, so emotion still guides a lot of their actions. Logan and Madison are two of my favorite characters I’ve ever had the honor of writing about. I’m not sure if everyone will perceive them like I do or if people will love the world they live in, but I do know this. No one will be able to say that place doesn’t exist or people really don’t act that way because I know they do. I grew up here with people exactly like them.

At its heart, A Magnolia Romance is a love story that doesn’t pretend to be much else. It’s in the same vein as Destiny only simpler. It’s a small town story with a hint of tragedy to bring the characters together. You see, when I started writing this story I wanted to make a book about younger characters who had to grow up fast. They had to have a backstory that made them into somewhat of outcasts, but it was that experience that would bring them together. While that was the backbone of the story, I never knew how much more Logan and Madison would be. These characters jump off the page and bring a familiarity that’s so much like real life. They’re not perfect, but sometimes that’s what makes us who we are. While editing this, someone asked if I thought the characters could be a little inappropriate sometimes for teenagers. I really asked myself were they, and the answer was yes. Logan and Madison do things they shouldn’t, make mistakes, and joke about things that parents don’t want to know their kids talk about, but it was my experience as a teenager that made me know that there’s no such thing as a cookie cutter person, no matter how much our parents might wish we were perfect. It’s those imperfections and inappropriate thoughts that we let slip off our tongues that makes us who we are, though. In the end, I kept the things that made Logan a teenage boy with inappropriate thoughts and the little things that made Madison what we don’t want to picture our daughters as. Don’t get me wrong. They’re good people, but they’re exactly like us. It’s in our flaws that we find relation, not our fake perfections. In that way, I hope you will all give Logan and Madison a chance to show you how real and well rounded they are as characters.

I can’t guarantee that everyone will love A Magnolia Romance, but I can promise you that I’m proud of this one. It’s the opposite of what Nora Roberts or John Grisham would write, but I think that’s the point. You can get so lost in dreams of success that you try to emulate what you think people want to see, but that’s never been me. Success comes in different forms, and whether this sells millions or hundreds, I feel successful. This is a book for people who love deeper, aren’t scared to go outside of norms, and who want something different. I also think some of my local people will enjoy the scenery and recognize many of the places in the book from the early 2000s. For everyone else, welcome to my world. This is where I grew up, and these are the types of characters I love to write about. It’s almost ready. I feel confident that I can have this in everyone’s hands by at least the middle of March. I can’t wait for you to read it. I want this one to be very successful, but my main goal is to share something real and show the passion I still have for writing. In that regard, I know for sure A Magnolia Romance will be everything I could have ever dreamed of.