Spending Time With Characters

As I mentioned before, I’m taking a little time off between projects to refresh. I’m reading more, and just yesterday went to a book club meeting. We read The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, which we all enjoyed even though most of us couldn’t remember the title correctly when anyone else asked what we were reading these days. Wonderful characters, fresh, amusing voice, a few surprises along the way and a satisfying end. One of the things everyone agreed upon was that the characters in this book were people we’d all like to spend more time with.

And that’s really the best compliment any author can receive—a reader wanting to spend their precious time with characters an author made up out of her head. Obviously the author wanted to spend time with them, or was compelled to spend time with them, but that doesn’t automatically mean others will feel the same way.

So that’s what I thought I’d throw out there to think about this week. Recalling characters we’d like to spend time with. I’m obviously taking this from a positive viewpoint, because those “compelling” characters I referred to a moment ago might not be ones we’d necessarily want to sit down and chat with—but would still be successfully drawn characters. (Any number of villains from suspense novels come to mind.) But since this is Monday and the sun is shining, not to mention that I’m hoping to keep the smile on my face today, I prefer to dwell on those characters I want to sit down and share a cup of tea with.

There are the classics, of course. Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet comes to mind. And what about Scrooge—after he wakes up on Christmas Day, of course? I can also think of characters from books written by friends of mine, and it’s usually the heroine I’d like to chat with. I’d list them all except I know I’d inevitably leave someone out!

Sometimes people ask me which of my own characters is my favorite, and so far I haven’t been able to answer that question. I know I have books that are special to me (Oak Leaves always comes to mind first because of the Fragile X connection). And my upcoming book, Whisper on the Wind, comes to mind too—mainly because of the way that book idea came about. It was an affirmation that God really did wire me to write.

But choosing a favorite would be like relegating my other characters to some sort of lesser status, and even though they only exist in the literary realm I prefer to let readers tell me which of my characters is their favorite.

So this week as I prepare for the beginning of summer now that the school year is on the brink of ending, I intend snatching some time to enjoy those characters just waiting to be discovered out there in that literary realm…