Now, I will admit that I'm a people pleaser. I try to make EVERYONE happy, but I ended up putting my foot down here. Jade is exactly how I want her to be...and that's that. Not everyone will "get" her, I suppose, but those that do I think will enjoy her personality.
Another thing that came up regarding Jade was her being categorized as the "stereotypical rebellious princess." That bothered me. So, I'm amping up her uniqueness. To organize my thoughts, here are some things I'll be trying to convey:
- Yes, Jade is rebellious, but she doesn't hate/resent her life. She just would like a little more freedom.
- Her parents disapprove of her interest in dragons, which is why she often sneaks off to the dragon rock and reads books about them in secret.
- She is pretty, but she doesn't really think about that. She thinks of herself as awkward and a bit lacking compared to her beautiful sisters. Mainly, it's because of how her mother (Queen Gemera) treats her compared to her other siblings.
- She is more at home under the stars than in a gilded bedchamber.
- She does not have any intentions of "running away" from an arranged marriage. She's known all her life that her husband would be chosen for her, she just doesn't necessarily like the idea. The thing she flips out about is that her intended husband is a DRAGONSLAYER.
- She is considered odd and an outsider by the people of Thorndarl, but she's not hated or shunned or ridiculed. She just bemuses people.
I'll try to convey this better in the first chapter, but, I'm have to shake my head a little at the people who want all this character building shoved in the first chapter. It's a novel, people. That means it has room to breathe and room to grow. I don't want my character to come across as stereotypical, but I'm not going to change her to make everyone happy.
I like how you made a checklist for how you do actually want Jade to come across, regardless of how others want her to appear. It gives you something to compare the story to, so you can see if her character is fitting the way you want.
ReplyDeleteI'll have to try that with Jana and Daira, because even though I like the scenes I've just written for them, I'm not sure they come across how I intended. My old, coarse versions of those scenes, badly written as they are, fit my intentions better. I'm thinking another do-over is gonna be needed. Sigh.
I'd better go check out your new first chapter, so I can see what changes you've made. I love that story.
I haven't read nearly enough of DQ, but you know I love what I have read.
ReplyDeleteAnd just for the record, one of the things that really attracted me to your story was Jade.
She's a marvelous character, and I can't wait to see where you go with her.
That's the way it is in my book as well. The characters, though they have their good qualities, aren't exactly angels when the book first begins. But they slowly become better people. And reading about flawed characters is much more interesting than reading about characters who are perfectly agreeable.
ReplyDeleteThat is really good. I like DQ and I like the fact that you know when to say "Hm, maybe I will consider this" and when to say "Well, you're completely missing the point!"
ReplyDeleteAnd yeah, you can't get to know everything about a character in one chapter! I like to let the relationship build, both with the reader, and in the case of my novel, the other characters who meet each other and who become extremely close over time.