To love a character

What is it that you admire most about your favourite character? Is it that he is made of muscle and can fly? Is it that she has a huge heart yet is much stronger (emotionally) than all the men around her? Is it that every guy falls at her feet or that inside he's a really big dork?

Maybe you love this character because he, or she, succeeds every time.... or maybe it's because he/she simply tried.

In most novels, you expect the character to succeed. It's pretty much part of the standard format. In fact, I can barely think of any characters that don't succeed (if you can think of any, I'd love to hear them!) But I don't think it's the fact the character succeeds in whatever mission he is she is trying to accomplish that makes us love them. I think it's the journey. I think it's the trying to succeed.

Take Harry Potter to start with. I love Harry Potter, we all know this by now. I read the first book when I was nine years old but I still remember how much I loved it from the very beginning of the book. That was before Harry had fought with Quirrell and Voldemort, and won. At the end of the book (I'm sorry if this is a spoiler, but really, the book has been out for fifteen years, and the book for ten years.... you've had plenty of time to catch up!) Harry succeeds in his mission. He keeps the Philosophers stone safe and Voldemort doesn't manage to kill him. Again.

But we already loved Harry. We cared whether he lived or died, we admired him for his journey in life. (And if you were like me, you were jealous he got to go to magic school.) We loved him for TRYING to figure out who was trying to steal the stone, for risking his life to protect the stone he really knew nothing about. We all knew he would most probably get the stone and live to see another day, so it wasn't the success that we were likely to admire him for. It is the journey. The trying.

In my favourite book of the year, The Tea Rose (Not a YA book, I should add, but a great book nonetheless), the main character doesn't always succeed. Spoiler alert. In fact, it leaves you a little confused. You're sitting there saying "What on earth is going on? She's the main character, she's not supposed to have this much bad stuff happen to her with no sign of good luck on the horizon." But it works. Ultimately, she does succeed (to which you'll release the breath you didn't realise you had been holding for the last 800 pages). Her success though, it's not the reason you would admire her. It's one of them, sure, because she worked very hard for that success, but it's the trying to succeed and the journey she's taken to succeed that makes you love her.

She's one of the strongest female protagonists I've come across, and she's one of my favourite female characters because of her journey. Because of what she overcomes and because she's not afraid to keep trying.

It's an interesting thought to keep in mind when you're writing. It's not the character's successes that makes us really love them, it's their journey.

What are your thoughts?

RTW: Best Book of August...

Wednesday already? Holy moly, the weeks are flying by! So for those who don't know, Road Trip Wednesday is a blog hop hosted by YA Highway!

This week's question...

Best book in August?

I can't believe it's nearing the end of August. Time is really flying! Feels like just yesterday I was writing about the best book of July!

This questions was a no brainer for me. While I've read a couple of interesting books this month, the one that has really captured me is Hourglass by Myra McEntire. 

I'd heard a few good things about this book in the past and when I came across it while looking for some new books for my kindle, I thought I might as well give it a try. I couldn't put it down. In fact, I got grumpy when I reached my subway stop on the way to work and had to stop reading! 

I found the book to be well written, captivating and it wasn't infuriating as some novels are with their love stories and ways of presenting the conflict. You are given enough information to be satisfied while still wanting more yet you're not left totally in the dark feeling frustrated by the whole situation.

Here's the plot

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn't there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents' death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She's tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson's willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he's around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened?

There's a nice mix of romance, suspense, intrigue, drama, heartbreak, comedy and each chapter leaves you wanting more. It's obviously not a completely novel idea but the way it's presented is very original. I also love the fact it's set in Tennessee... I haven't read many books set there! It's cool. There are some time travel/ability style elements in it and sometimes I find hard to fully grasp the concept of time travel and how everything fits on the time and space continuum but it was really well done. Well written and captivating.

Now I'm on to the next book in the series and it's just as addictive. In fact I've started road reading again (three points if you know the book I got that term from!). When you live in NYC road reading is really not a smart idea. sigh.....

What's in a name?

When I was working on my last novel (which will never see the light of day, I might add), my main characters name just came to me. It appeared in front of my eyes and started screaming at me. When I'm naming a main character, I need to make sure the meaning of the name fits. I know it shouldn't be a big deal, but for me, the meaning is just as important as the name itself.

When I saw the meaning was perfect... it fitted the character and the story, I knew I had my name. It was that simple.

On my current WIP it hasn't been that easy. I've needed the names to be slightly different and that didn't come as easily to me. I'd shut my eyes and try and make her come to me and tell me her name, but that didn't happen. I'd search the internet hoping a name would pop out and say 'this is what you've been looking for'. I talked to friends, I experimented with letters and I got hugely frustrated. At one point I settled on a name for all of 9 hours when I realised it just wasn't a strong enough name. It was over powered too much by the male protagonists name, and that wasn't going to fly with me.

Finally I settled on a name, but it took a long time, and I still had to make sure the meaning would fit the character and the story. Luckily, it fitted seamlessly. I just worry about the fact that I had to really think and think to come out with this name. I feel it should have come more naturally, like in my first book.

Then again, in my first book, the characters were there and their world revealed itself around them. In this WIP, the world is very established, and the characters are yet to show me who they are and what they're about.

Anyway, the point of this post.... I'm wondering, how do you name your characters? How do you find the name that suits you male and/or female protagonist? What do you look for? Does it come to you when you least expect it, or do you actively seek it out?