Protagging

[mrissa]

I swear, next time I write mumble hundred thousand words about some people, I'm going to make sure that I have a POV character who can see, if not the forest for the trees, at the very least the trees for the bark.

I suppose I could do The Tides Between the Worlds next, as Charlotte cannot see the trees for the forest.

I just want to write about somebody sensible, just once.

Comments

[songwind.livejournal.com]

Heh. It seems to be an epidemic among fantasy and sci-fi authors.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

They don't Suffer like I Suffer. How nice.

[songwind.livejournal.com]

*pat*

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

I just want to write about somebody sensible, just once.

I can kind of sympathise, though there are ways in which people I would consider sensible do not generate some sorts of drama, indeed actively steer clear of it, which can also make them lousy protagonists, or at least difficult to keep interesting enough to hold a novel up. Trying to get someone whose natural reaction to weird and probably bad stuff happening is "contact the competent authorities, get them to handle it, go out for a Chinese meal and see if I can meet someone cute" to actually stay involved in something one can dignify by the name of "plot" is not easy. However much I may bitch about d'Artagnan as a protagonist, at least he's never reluctant to engage with things.

Oh well. The new project has a protaogonist who is perfectly sensible given his context and upbringing. They're just very alien values of context and upbringing.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

I get to have a short story with Orvokki in it (Orvokki being the only sensible character in Thermionic Night), and while she would love to steer clear of drama, trying to get Ilmarinen's awl across enemy lines in the middle of a war doesn't really let people do that very well. Sometimes the drama comes after you and drags you by the hair.

And yes, that's the problem with Soldrun, the heroine of Dwarf's Blood Mead: she is perfectly sensible given her context and upbringing, but some of the things that includes get a leeeettle bit dicey.

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

A sensible character... Wow. The day that happens to me I may keel over from the shock.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Don't worry. It is my experience that where characters attempt to be sensible, plot and setting rear up and smite them.

[stillsostrange.livejournal.com]

My Isyllt just tried to convince me that she's sensible. I had to sit her down and explain that, no dear, you're competent. That's not the same as sensible.

Competent characters can handle what mad authors and plot throw at them. Sensible characters run away as soon as they get a whiff of narrative.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

They can't always run faster than the speed of plot, though....

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

Wow.

I have a hard time imagining you writing somebody _not_ sensible.

Which may mean that I need to read more! more Mrissa stuff!

But wow.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Both of my POV characters in Thermionic Night/Sampo have some pretty hard-core tunnel vision. They're certainly not flighty, but it doesn't occur to them to notice a fair number of things I would really like for them to notice. So far I'm dealing with this by having other people intercede: "Truman threatened to bomb Korea, don't you even CARE?" But still.

And on the other side, it's hard to be sensible when you're thirteen years old and really are the person who can save the world, or at least as close as the world has to such a person. Delusions of grandeur make people less sensible; reality of grandeur, in my estimation, is almost worse.

You can have a copy of a novel or two to read if you like, but I assume you won't have much time for awhile.

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Both of my POV characters in Thermionic Night/...

No kidding. Something in the water maybe... and ooh. Orvokki?

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

What about Orvokki? (On e-mail if you like....)

[angeyja.livejournal.com]

Yes. Wasn't that email? ;-) Just kidding. Hope later is OK. At the non LJ job.

[mrissa.livejournal.com]

Later is of course fine.

[mmerriam.livejournal.com]

Any character (of mine, anyway) who attempts to be sensible shall be whacked over the head with plot.