Favorite Character

A favorite character...hmm. Well I have to admit that this is a broad topic. A favorite character of my own or someone else's? Well in order to cover my bum I'm going to write a little about both.

Every now and again a writer will fall in love with one of their own characters. I believe that it's impossible to fall in love with every character you create. I speak from personal experience. I downright hate some of the characters I've written but hey, that's life right?

My favorite character that I've written recently is Sera, from a fantasy fiction piece that I've worked on. A strong female lead that I've developed to a point where she's a real person. I've worked on her for so long that she's a real person to me. I'm a "long term" type of writer.

I work on pieces off and on for a couple of years at the very least. Right now i have a few other characters that I've "known" for the same amount of time but I feel a real kinship with Sera. part of it may be because she is the only one that I have an image of. I'm a very visual person and it really helps me to have images of my characters. The best I can manage is a series of pictures of people (some fictional and some not) pasted together to create some semblance of who I'm thinking of. This sketch came out better than I could have hoped. The feel of the character, the overall look, the look in her eyes, it was all right on target. I wish this particular artist would do all my character sketches but unfortunately I can't afford to commission that many and that much work no one should do for free. Sadly my own artistic talent is restricted to clothing. Faces, hair, and expressions are all beyond me. So far she is my favorite character and part of that is I think because I've written her to be a facet of myself.

On that note I'll transition to my favorite character that someone else has written. I first picked up Polgara the Sorceress by David and Leigh Eddings in my teens. Since then I have read it at least a dozen times and each time the main character makes me laugh. Her sense of humor and sarcasm are in line with mine and the way she deals with situations mirrors how I would like to think that I would deal with them. Polgara is a unique character and very real to me because of the character traits and attributes that I feel we share. I have a feeling that in the years to come I will probably read that book another dozen times at least just because it's like having a conversation with an old friend.

In the end I think that an old friend is really what the best characters should feel like. Sometimes they feel that way to the author and some times they don't. What's important is that each character deserves to be written because somewhere there is a reader waiting to make that "old friend" connection and they might be waiting for your latest character. How awesome is that thought?