Ugh, rehearsal schedule is reaching new heights of craziness, hence my blog neglect.
I may be picky about food – yes, I admit it freely- but there’s a lot I’m not picky about. And sometimes it’s almost to the point of not having an opinion, or not wanting to be decisive and commit to one, but often it’s just because I happen to like a variety of things.
Like music. I am decidedly unpicky when it comes to music. I like a LOT of different styles, genres, artists, whatever. Except I don’t really like rap. Or country. Sorry Rat. (She really likes country)
This is relevant because I was reading Johannes Cabal the Detective the other day – the second in a series, and you should read them…the first is Johannes Cabal the Necromancer – and I was thinking about the main character, the titular Johannes Cabal. Wow that was a long sentence. He’s…interesting. He’s not your typical good guy. He’s selfish, he’s not very nice, he doesn’t play well with others, his motives are not always pure, and yet you find yourself rooting for him.
I’m not going to analyze this too much, but basically my point is it takes a lot of skill to write a character like that in such a way that he’s sympathetic to the reader. Hm. Something to work on.
Tomorrow, provided I remember, I debrief Screnzy.
EDIT: So I said that my not being picky was relevant, but then never actually said why…the connection is that I’m not picky about the characters I like. They’ve got to be well written, interesting, fleshed out – the usual. But they don’t always have to be the “hero”. I like variety in my characters, just as I like variety in my music. And my ice cream. Besides, always reading about the same sort of character gets booooooring, right?
The Great Novel Adventure 