Category: characters

Meet the Cast

by camillesther, posted in Author, Books, Camille Esther, characters, Doctor and King, Georgia, Local, Novel, revising, Uncategorized, Writing

What is a story without the people? As I’m going through the alpha reading phase of Doctor and King, (which means I’m reading it to my husband for insta-feedback) I’m getting reactions not just to the story, but to the people themselves. That gave me the idea: why not have a “meet the cast” day?

So, without further ado, here are the major players of Doctor and King.

Gervaise: [Jer-vayz] The young king of Averon who mixes his own tonics and doctors animals as a hobby. After all, every king needs a hobby to keep himself sane. Gervaise has a bit of a sweet tooth, preferring to start breakfast with a pastry. He does his best to live up to the expectations everyone has of him, but secretly wonders if he’s really the great king everyone thinks he is.

The Queen Mother, Margaret: A bubbly personality with an intense inclination towards mothering her only child, Gervaise. She does her best to keep “her boy” safe from intrigues and make sure he is steered toward filling her late husband’s shoes as king.

Sedgwick: Gervaise’s servant, who prides himself in maintaining an even keel and doing what is best for his master. Even when his master may not agree.

Evangeline: The princess of Sharrilock, a kind-hearted young woman who finds the charades of those who call themselves nobility insufferable. She enjoys the occasional bout of sarcasm, and hopes to one day try her hand at raising bees.

King Oberon: Evangeline’s father, a stern-looking man with a temper, but with a sincere heart and a desire to provide for his daughter as best he can.

Clara: Evangeline’s cousin, a micro-manager extrordinaire. She hates men, due to bad experiences with a drunken father, but is not above trying a few rounds of swordplay with any man willing to try his skill against her. She usually wins.

Constance: Clara’s sister, a timid personality who relies on her sister and clings to her, but is secretly afraid of her. Evangeline is her best friend, and the two share many secrets, but Constance won’t share this one with anyone—not unless she has to.

Creating Flawed Characters

by camillesther, posted in Author, Books, Camille Esther, characters, Georgia, Local, Novel, Uncategorized, Writing

Have you ever been around a goody two-shoes? You know, that one kid who never seems to do anything wrong and is always telling you what you *should* be doing. And you just can’t wait for them to slip up and get in trouble, just to prove to them they aren’t as perfect as they think.

Switch topics to storytelling. In the same way a goody two-shoes is annoying in real life, they are annoying as a character. Sometimes you can’t help but want a perfect character to mess up, just to breathe some life into an (obviously) fake persona. So let’s dust off our creativity and give our character some flaws.

The good news is, it is super easy to find character-appropriate flaws.

The bad news is… Well, there isn’t any bad news, so let’s get on with the good news!

See, every person has strong points. Maybe a particular character is a great leader. (Let’s name her Kristy.)To make a flaw for Kristy, all we have to do is find out what the flip side (a.k.a. “the dark side”) of leadership is. Incrementally, the dark side of leadership is: bossy, domineering, tyrannical.

So, if Kristy is our protagonist, (the good guy) we might just make her bossy; or, if she’s struggling with her character, we might make her a little domineering. If Kristy is our antagonist, (the bad guy) we might even make her downright tyrannical.

So there you have it! The super-easy formula for creating flawed characters.

Why create flawed characters?

by camillesther, posted in Author, Books, Camille Esther, characters, Uncategorized, Writing

It’s easy to want to create perfect main characters. The ‘Righteous Sufferer’ has a certain appeal to us. After all, if it was our story, we’d rather be a victim of circumstances than have to face the consequenses of our own actions.

However, the perfect character makes for a dull story for one simple reason: they do not change. (They’re already perfect, so they don’t need to change.) Side note: characters who do no change are called static characters. Characters who change are called dynamic characters.

All this begs the question: why is it so important for our main character to change? Why does an un-changing character make for a dull story?

You see, a story is about progression. It’s about how Daniel or Marcy or Zane or Alithia get from point A to point B. The road from A to B has to be challenging, or it bores us. Challenge brings growth, and growth equals change.

But if a character is already perfect, there is no room for growth.

It’s kind of like our own lives. We need to grow in character in order to become the best person we can be. We need to expand in order to better fulfil our potential. If we just stayed at one level our whole lives, we would have wasted the potential we were born with.

So, here’s to growth! Cheers, everyone.