I decided that i wanted to work on my MC's look which i haven't got it down so i wanted ton know that other people imagine she looks and acts like by her name with that being said her name is: Anabel Macalister tell me what you think her character traits are and how she looks and anything else that might be relevant
She's no older than 25 or so, probably attractive in a simple way, not a clothes horse, not lots of makeup. Brunette, straight hair. Calm, quiet, intelligent, somewhat shy. Serious. Happiest by herself, possibly with a book. Not uninterested in men and marriage, but finds most men her age childish and somewhat tiresome. Well-bred and well brought up.
Anabel Macalister Phd, Creative Writing Fellow, and specialist St Margarets School of Poetry, her chap books include the breakthrough masterpiece A Pain Through Window Seen, vol 1; The Witching & Womanhood, Journal; Diary Of A Vegetarian
A woman of colour descended from a slave born on a Caribbean sugar plantation who, as was the norm, was named after the plantation owner. Anabel is a modern woman, politically savvy and an accomplished musician (cello).
Precocious and spoiled only child, attending kindergarten for the first time and struggling to accept that the world doesn't actually revolve around her. Plays sweetly with the other kids as long as they follow her dictates, flies into teary tantrums as soon as one of them has another idea. Parents are older, hadn't planned on having children but got hit with a bad case of Impending Mortality in their early forties. Fertility treatments, etc., both of them secretly wondering whether it was a good idea to go forward but not good enough at communicating to share their doubts. So, now, Annabel. Easier to give her what she wants rather than help her learn self-control. Blame the school for most of the issues. Annabel will always be spoiled, but she'll eventually make friends with a tomboy in the class, a rough-and-tough little sprite who helps Anabel clean up after she is pushed into a mud puddle. This friendship will be Annabel's saving grace throughout childhood and into early adulthood. When the tough best friend [is kidnapped] [gets cancer] [declares her romantic love for Annabel] [declines Annabel's romantic interest in her] [becomes a fashion model and leaves Annabel behind], Annabel needs to dig deep inside herself to discover if she truly has any strength of her own. ETA:
Thank you all for giving your ideas. I hope to see more commenters in the future because this was really fun. Thank you all.
Fourth born, a girl at last, grows up coddled but boyish with big brothers. Dad takes her to tennis school in Dunblane. She excels. Poached too soon by London coach. Excels more. Homesick, determined—ranked, seeded, wins, more wins. Sponsored, tabloids love her, men love her (women love her). Sporty frame now, long and lithe in her whites, nub nose, big (mesmer)eyes, dark bob (Louise Brookes signature look). Hoists polished silver and gold salver over her head does Anabel Macalister at 19—Grand Slam Girl—Wimbledon Winner.
The first thing that struck me was that it's a Scottish name, but not spelled the way it normally is. It would normally be Annabel MacAllister. (Or McAllister.) I've got a thing about names not being spelled normally in real life. I feel it can create unnecessary problems in a person's life. Even my sister, whose first name is Sara, has had her name spelled wrongly by lots of people all her life. Sarah is the more usual spelling, and the one most people choose without being told differently. The simple Scottish name 'Calum' is now being spelled: Callum, Callom, Kallum Kallom—what's the point? My very favourite 'misspelled' name belonged to a woman I used to work for. Her name was Sybil. But she spelled it 'Sible.' No, we didn't laugh, because she was about 10 feet tall with a dyed red beehive hairdo, a face like a rusty hatchet and a temperament to match. I wouldn't have argued with her about anything, never mind her name!
She sounds like a plain woman, likely wearing her hair up. For some reason, I'm seeing glasses, perhaps because 'Anabel' sounds bookish to me. Very little—if any—experience with men, keeps to herself, has doilies on the furniture in her apartment (if she does live in a house, it's inherited) and most of that furniture is antique dark wood. Lace curtains on her windows.
An early 90's, chubby, sixteen year old girl, with an old-school, punk, rainbow mohicana, dressed in a white gown, wearing her combat boots loosely tied as she sits elegantly in the music hall playing Gun's and Roses on the harp. She's a fan of Bukowski, she steals her stockings from the shopping mall, she's afraid of spiders (although she loves sketching spider webs) and peals her apples before eating them.
Anabel makes me think of someone who is cow eyed. Anabel seems like the name of an innocent young woman, not a grandmother or even mother yet. And Macalister seems like someone whose has some kind of Scottish or Irish ancestry? So perhaps shes dark auburn or very red hair with freckles? I tried to not read the other responses before mine so I was also thinking it instantly appeals to me as a name for a historical early westward expansion in the United States story. One of the young women traveling with or without her family westward for a place in Wyoming or somewhere. Shes the kind of innocence that would not be overwhelmed by the wilderness and find her personal courage and strength overcoming nature's obstacles. ALSO....I defiantly going to look for more threads like this. I'm new but this is a fun workout for the brain.
The MC in the unmade Home Alone 4? IDK...Take Radar (MASH), make him a pompous upper crusty elitist woman who hates the poor, and lives in a mini castle (sipping Cognac and smoking cigars, while being catty with her snobby neighbors.)
Note: You gave me a name but not a story, this required me to build a story around that name. If there's anything you can use in there, great. Also haven't read the rest of the thread. I can take this a bunch of different ways but my first impulse from that name alone is British spy story with a Scottish female protagonist. Mid-30s. Anabel is a quirky name but not entirely out of style, prim but powerful at the same time. I'm going blonde, because, hey, it's a spy story. Upper Crust lowlands Scottish Accent (noticeably not English but very cultivated.) She probably grew up up on the family estate outside Dumfries, but she's the middle child so she's neither the heiress to whatever minor title the family held nor the pampered baby of the family - so she has all of the education and sophistication needed to become a proper lady with none of the motivation. So basically you get a younger version of Hellen Mirren who really likes punching people in the face.
Anabel Macalister. Age 17. Taller than most of the boys in her class; classically trained ballerina who is dealing with the fact she'll never be a professional dancer. Blue eyes, freckled skin, ash brown hair that used to be white blonde in childhood. Probably sunburns easily. Stylish, but in an innocent, beachy way, not a Kardashian way. Couldn't contour if her life depended on it. Second youngest child with two older brothers and one baby brother. The only daughter. Her mother lives vicariously though her and her father, a successful, upper ranks type, is overbearing. Absolutely keen for personal freedom. Probably goes nuts her freshman year of college but gets it together quickly and leads a quietly successful life, although she never grows out of that beachy dreaminess.
For some reason my first gut instinct of that name was a lawyer in her mid to late thirties, wearing pencil skirt suits and with straight brown hair and blue or green eyes. Quite serious at work, but knows how to party