I spent today thinking about sacrifice and resolve. These are not among my strengths, unfortunately.
I have written characters who just bubble with these virtues. Do we always write about traits we admire rather than traits we happen to have?
Anyhow, I was mulling on things like . . .
Can we write suitably upbeat stories about protagonists who are not and never will be heroic?
If we did, would those be better stories?
More honest work?
More perceptive creations?
Can we sorta compromise by writing strong and virtuous protagonists, but including ordinary weak, realistic, conflicted characters as well-regarded secondaries?
I thought about this while I was buying barbeque from Mel's here in town. I am trying to find a barbeque place.
Hhere in town Mel's didn't please me. I will feed the rest of it to the dog Mandy who is less picky. But Mel's is well regarded. Goes to show something.
I've decided we need all sorts of stories for all sorts of readers and there's no harm in writing what comes naturally even if it isn't very realistic.
So I'll pretty much do what I want and not worry.
Hi Joanna, I read that you are retiring from Word Wenches, are you also retiring from writing books? I absolutely love your books and I wish you all the best.
ReplyDeleteStill writing now and then, but not so much expecting to publish. Writing for myself only.
ReplyDeleteWriting doesn't seem to be something you can just stop doing.
But I've retired from social media.
It seems like characters who are not, nor ever will be, heroic are the subject of much literary fiction. In genre fiction don’t you think the reader wants either resolve about at least one goal and/ or heroic action at least once now matter how weak or screwed up the character is otherwise?
ReplyDeleteBecause Romance genre is about happily ever afters,
Delete(or at least some reasonably lengthy period,)
I think the protagonists need to end the story seeing admirable traits in one another,
because that makes it more likely they will be together at the end of the next tax year.
While there are many admirable traits, heroism is right up there with bathing frequently if the conflict of the story has been dark and exigent with guns going off and bad weather and spaceships running out of air or something.
So a writer might explore courage as interesting and significant.
As a technical thingum, the writer might decide to explore slightly off-the-wall types of courage because why not?
... somebody who admits they were the one who embezzled funds from the orphans,
... who wades into a flooding library to save rare books
... somebody who gets up every morning for years to work at a dull job because he has three kids depending on him.
One more thing to think about. It's a building block for characters. What courage is. How the character uses it.