My Main Character Is Emotionally Wounded! How I constructed the characters for my first novel...
My novels' main character, who became known as Elijah (just Elijah), was abandoned, neglected, and blamed as a child for things he couldn't have done. He grew up to become a passive adult who who exists through the lives of others. To him, they are like real-life soap operas. He has made a success out of himself as an adult by publishing popular biographies. He has also been a ghost writer for autobiographies about famous people.
The internal hole, or lack of personal identity (otherwise known as a hole in the soul), plays out in my novels as a psychological weakness being exploited by the supernatural forces of evil. It starts by getting him involved in the situation of the person he is writing for. Then he gets so involved that he can't extricate himself without putting himself in more danger. This scenario gives him an identity he doesn't want and didn't ask for. He becomes the anti-hero Elijah. He is the exact opposite of Enoch (AKA White Buffalo) the hero.
I built the villainess of the story out of a Watcher from the Book of Enoch (found among the Dead Sea scrolls). She's just pure evil, a counterpoint to White Buffalo as the pure good. Neither of them can be diverted from their respective paths. Samyaza, as she's known, is rather two-dimensional as a character. But that's to be expected from a supernatural evil. I gave her the personality and traits of her human host. She's an obnoxious genius. Samyaza's normal voice is unctuous and villainous, although she's not trying to be that way. But when she gets riled up she's like the Queen of Hearts in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865): demanding, petty, and childish. When she's not riled up, she's patient, willing to wait decades to get what she wants. Then she can become just the opposite; she gets tired of waiting and wants everything right now. So I guess she is complex, but it doesn't get spelled out in the book, mainly because it is a first person story. A third person story that has an omniscient narrator could fill in those knowledge gaps.
White Buffalo is more complex. He's supposed to represent the Heavenly good (Samyaza is the Hellish evil representative). But his antics show that he has some addictions. And he's rough around the edges. Yet he's not ambivalent in any way. He see no contradiction whatsoever in being a agent of Heaven who takes drugs, drives drunk, and has illicit sex with strangers.
That's my summing up of the main characters. If you'd like me to talk about other characters, to expound further on the main characters, or to write about something else, please leave a comment below. Thanks!
The internal hole, or lack of personal identity (otherwise known as a hole in the soul), plays out in my novels as a psychological weakness being exploited by the supernatural forces of evil. It starts by getting him involved in the situation of the person he is writing for. Then he gets so involved that he can't extricate himself without putting himself in more danger. This scenario gives him an identity he doesn't want and didn't ask for. He becomes the anti-hero Elijah. He is the exact opposite of Enoch (AKA White Buffalo) the hero.
I built the villainess of the story out of a Watcher from the Book of Enoch (found among the Dead Sea scrolls). She's just pure evil, a counterpoint to White Buffalo as the pure good. Neither of them can be diverted from their respective paths. Samyaza, as she's known, is rather two-dimensional as a character. But that's to be expected from a supernatural evil. I gave her the personality and traits of her human host. She's an obnoxious genius. Samyaza's normal voice is unctuous and villainous, although she's not trying to be that way. But when she gets riled up she's like the Queen of Hearts in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll (1865): demanding, petty, and childish. When she's not riled up, she's patient, willing to wait decades to get what she wants. Then she can become just the opposite; she gets tired of waiting and wants everything right now. So I guess she is complex, but it doesn't get spelled out in the book, mainly because it is a first person story. A third person story that has an omniscient narrator could fill in those knowledge gaps.
White Buffalo is more complex. He's supposed to represent the Heavenly good (Samyaza is the Hellish evil representative). But his antics show that he has some addictions. And he's rough around the edges. Yet he's not ambivalent in any way. He see no contradiction whatsoever in being a agent of Heaven who takes drugs, drives drunk, and has illicit sex with strangers.
That's my summing up of the main characters. If you'd like me to talk about other characters, to expound further on the main characters, or to write about something else, please leave a comment below. Thanks!
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