Favorite Characters

Part of the process of getting a book ready for publishing is to getting good and reliable Beta Readrers. These are wonderful people who take the time to read your early version of the book and provide helpful suggestions. Some of these can be: grammar, plot, character development, what’s missing, what’s confusing and so on. It’s a humbling but wonderful use of great family, friends and even some interested potential readers who you know little about.

One of the more insightful elements of this process was the answers to simple question: Who is your favorite character and why? In the development of the book, my intention indeed was to make the characters real in that they reprseent the best and worst of us. But, despite that attempt, there is always “the hero” or the ones that are largely “better people”. In my head, I believed the answers to this questions would be largely the same one or two people.

Oh boy, was I wrong!

My good friend Michael’s favorite character was Paul - to me, initially, that was strange, and to my friend Tony as well as he “thought Paul was a dweeb”. While I wish not to give away the story, it seemed a strange choice to relate to Paul. However, from that moment on, I started looking at Paul from a different lens. And then others would always, like my Narrator Claire who stated that she couldn’t believe what happened (no spoiler alert here!). And now, Paul is someone I see in much more positive and real way.

My cousin Melissa, and fellow wonderful author (https://www.engenbooks.com/melissabishop - check her out, she’s just fantastic) mentioned her farorite was Alex. He was mine too, but interestingly, the more I read and re-read the book, the less favorite he was (probably because, in many ways, he represents the part of me that’s too pragmatic).

I am utterly and happily surprised that people seemed to choose characters that reflected some parts of their lives. I know now that what I think a character is like, is NOT what other might believe.

O Paul, where out thou?

Till next time!

Len