Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Connection

The CONNECTION:







What makes you feel a connection between your main character of the book and you as the reader? Are there some main characters that you have connected with right from the beginning and several books later you still think of these characters as dear friends and it feels like coming home or visiting next door?


Selma Eichler's Desiree Shapiro is one of those characters for me. She loves food, shopping, her job and her family. She does most things in a big way but she has taste, style and is always there for her friends and family.


Another connection I feel with a character Jaine Austen in Laura Levine's mystery series. I love her sense of humor, her bad dates, her cat named prozac, her well meaning friends, the her parents. I have to say the emails her parents send her are priceless, and Jaine trying to make it in the writing world all the while writing Flush Master Ads is just the ancedote for those depressing bad hair days we all have and couple that with a cat who has more attitude than any of my grandchildren all I have to say is that if Jaine and I ever met I know we would be kindred spirits maybe I should add her creator in the mix Laura Levine is definitely my kind of author.


I suppose for me connecting with a character is finding one with a sense of humor, is insecure enough to be real and yet daring enough to be fun and of course it helps to have a brain so that she doesn't get in ridiculous situations and then needs help to get out of them.


I think for me I pick my traits for a main character much like I have my friends. I love a friend with a sense of humor, a sense of style and yet I want a friend to have sense of justice and it doesn't hurt that my friends have a little mystery about them.


It's all about connecting with someone and knowing no matter what is happening in either one of your lives you know that you will pull eachother through it and better for having a friend you can count on to be there for you.


I feel the same way about my main characters I love from book to book in a series I can count on these character to always be the real deal and in fiction that is saying a lot and if truth be told I do think of my main fictional characters as my friends.....


Now tell us what characters you have a strong connection with and what you expect from them?






Pamela

3 comments:

  1. I want my characters to be strong-willed and intelligent for their age. I want them to have a sense of humor about life and especially themselves. They should have common-sense and the ability to step in it up to their knees on occasion, but bounce back from the mistake and admit that it wasn't their most brilliant move.

    It would be easier to list protags that I haven't bonded with than those that I have hence my huge TBR piles. If I don't connect with a character by the second book then I usually give it up as a lost cause, but once I find a character I like I will make a lot of allowances before they fall out of favor, much like my living breathing friends.

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  2. Okay mare,
    Tell us some of the protags you have not bonded with because I have a few of my own to share too...LOL
    Such asI didn't bond well with Angie from Joanne Pence's Series she used to write. I loved the series but the main character I didn't always see her point of view.

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  3. I don't connect with a lot of the new female protagonists in the cozy mystery. Why are they all looking for a man in every book? It's not necessary to the story but we are lead to believe that it is necessary to their lives. Why?

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