I’ve been wondering this for a while now about my fantasy novel’s lead character, mostly in being unsure how he might come across to readers. To start with, the lead character to my novel-in-the-works “Lifebinder” is Kaelan, the 14th Lifebinder of Avalon. Literally born of fire, Kaelan was adopted and raised by the Guardian of Life, along with her daughters who he saw as his sisters. Even as a child, he shows that he has a great deal of determination and perseverance, as well as an odd level of ignorance (or stupidity, as his master calls him when he asks her to continue training him, despite the day before nearing killing him). He also shows he is rather patient. Once he leaves to travel the world after his magical abilities start to emerge (and being forbidden training from the Guardian of Magic), he starts to develop a little more. Due to his life being surrounded by women, he is most comfortable talking with them, and finds other males intriguing, and often intimidating. Kaelan finds social interaction with those he isn’t used to quite difficult, sometimes even becoming too nervous to speak. As a Lifebinder, and raised by the Guardian of Life, Kaelan believes that all life has worth, and refuses to kill. Often, he’ll try to talk his way out of a fight, but will defend himself when prompted, and will not hesitate to protect and fight for those he cares about. Usually, he will try to either incapacitate his opponent, or render their ability to fight useless. Kaelan has not much knowledge of the world of Avalon, and is naturally curious to anything new. Sometimes so much so that he gains tunnel vision on that particular thing, blocking out even conversations directed at him. That’s all I think of right now. If I remember some more, I’ll be sure to add them.
i think those thoughts are something every writer struggle with. will the character appear to other people as they do to the writer? Will he succeed in creating the kind of person that he sees in his head? I guess the only way to find out is to let other people read your work and listen to their opinions.
This. When I want to find out how my characters will come across I email it to someone and get their opinion. I often email work to multiple people to get different perspectives so I can compare them. What I like best about the person I've been sending my writing to the past few months is that she speaks different languages to me (we total six between us, with varying levels of fluency, but only have one in common) so it's interesting to hear how it's coming across to a foreign reader.
If that is what you believe your character is like you need to write the story's events and have your character behave in those ways. Then your readers would see your MC as you believe he should be seen.
Its weird that new things interest him yet new people don't that sounds like aspergers. nothing wrong with that's lots of great characters have those traits. From the above he is not Sympathetic, i really could not care what happens to him he is too powerful and moral and if someone knocked him on his ass for being so great it would amuse me. the value of life thing would be Marvelous for a Villain to corrupt, Imagine painting the insignificance of life to the son of the guardian of life and a life binder in one go. this would make for a tasty downfall, but unless thats what happens i wouldn't even start getting interested.
Well...that's the thing about readers, they are a vast and diverse group. Different people, with different ideas, values and opinions, will look at the characters you present, with the exact same descriptions and see them in different ways. The best thing I can advise you to do is write your characters as true to the mark you wanted them to conform to and let others draw their own opinions.
Well, it's not that new people don't interest him, it's that he finds it difficult to talk them. As for the power thing, believe me, in the very first draft he used to have the ability to resurrect. I cut that out fairly quickly. In terms of the killing, the way that he refuses to only lasts so long. Eventually he learns that some people aren't worth saving, which does indeed starts leading to a bit of a dark period for him. The character himself is still a work-in-progress, as Im always trying to make improvements to him to make him more appealing and less... well... someone who read my first draft said to me about him "No. Just no."
I love a Characters Flaws and you Character Does not have enough for me. I'd love if there was a rule that's not to be broken, but he broke it for greedy reasons. then became obsessed with breaking it, like a vow of chastity or something. Or maybe a series of spells or powers banned for their power. because at the moment he is a bit dull.
Mhm. Just seems, realistically, my SciFi characters have more feeling to them than my Fantasy ones ^^;
