Damsels
in Distress
As a writer, do you love the characters
in your book, or don’t you care what happens to them?
You have to care for them a great deal,
after all you created them, so you must be a just a little concerned about
their welfare. Therefore it follows
that you should know everything about them.
What makes them tick? What are
their needs and hopes for the future?
What is their financial status, or what sign of the Zodiac were they
born under. What do they look like? Are they fat, thin, or just perfect? I always find that when your main character
looks into the mirror, it is quite easy to describe what or who they look
like. Or you could ask another
character to describe them for you. You
must know all of these things, in order to make them seem alive to your
readers. They can never be just
cardboard cut-outs.
Would you send your principal character
into danger? Yes, you would probably
say, because you and you alone know that you can rescue them whenever you want
to: in fact you hold the key to their
life and their future. But why make
them suffer in the first place? The
answer to that one is easy, because it wouldn’t be a very interesting story without
conflict of some kind.
I have been known to lie awake at night
worrying about the main character (librarian, Katie Nicholson) in my latest
book PAPER DREAMS. I had placed her in
an impossible situation. The poor girl
was locked in the attic of a very old and creepy, crumbling mansion and as far
as I was concerned, this was the stuff of which nightmares are made. Katie had always been a bit of a dreamer in
a “Walter Mittyish” kind of way and I had placed her in an incredibly awkward
and positively dangerous situation.
Her protagonist, Harold Hapsworth-Cole,
was hoping to inherit the old house, following upon the death of his aunt,
elderly owner, and wealthy widow Marjorie Hapsworth-Cole. Katie had found evidence whilst cataloguing
books in the house’s old attic, that another possible heir existed! So of course, my evil intentions towards
Katie of whom I was supposed to be very fond, had to come out of Harold’s
mind. He had entered the old house in
secret and hidden in the shadows of the large wooden staircase…and whilst
listening to a telephone conversation between Katie and her employer about the
letter she’d found in an old book, had plotted to steal the evidence and make
sure that she couldn’t escape from her creepy prison.
At this point, I feel like saying…”it’s
nothing to do with me Guv!” But of
course it had something to do with me and yes, I had found a way of rescuing
her. Katie’s involvement in this drama
ended up with her being placed in an even more dangerous situation later in the
story, but I digress…
Katie had been treated badly by her
boyfriend at the beginning of the story.
She suffered as we all would at a time like that, so I found her a new
love: Stuart Wells. So, I had salved my conscience by giving her
a man who adored her…and everyone lived happily ever after.
Well, nearly every one!
Principal female characters in stories
seem destined either to be ‘damsels in distress’, or perhaps become the more
modern forward looking women, who single-handedly take care of their own lives
and futures. I know which ones I prefer
to write about, and despite their suffering, my readers can both cry and laugh
with them.
A small part of a review I have received
on this story ends with the words…”I do love a happy ending.”
Another recent review in THE
SELF-PUBLISHING MAGAZINE ended:
“The book feels substantial, the cover
is attractive and its quality is good.
It’s a galloping, very enjoyable read and HIGHLY RECOMMENDED and well
worth its price. Matador 9781848767898
(£7.99).”
Phyllis Burton
August 2012.
My
website: www.phyllisburton.com
Available from my publisher Matador (an
imprint of Troubador Publishing Ltd.)
Amazon:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Paper-Dreams-Phyllis-J-Burton/dp/1848767897/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345370152&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Dreams-ebook/dp/B0069TI3LY/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1345370681&sr=8-2&keywords=PAPER+DREAMS+-+Phyllis+Burton
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