Friday Reed Stirling is Visiting and Talking about Characters #BWLAuthor #Heroine as muse #villain or antagonist

 

Characters evolve after the idea for the story has been established. Main characters tend to be protagonist-narrators in pursuit of truth as they understand it or as plot and theme define it. Providing them with creditable motivation is essential. Observation of real people in real life exchanges will give birth to characters whose voices demand to be heard. Imagination informs them with a personal history, with particular traits, with relevant choices. The character I want the reader to identify with may not be lovable at all. As long as he or she is interesting, has a voice worth listening to, and is capable of reflecting authentic human instincts, naughty or nice.

My heroines often play the role of muse in the imagination, aspiration, or actual life of the protagonist: together they work towards a common goal. Idealized? Possibly, but nonetheless intelligent and forceful. Plausible heroines I find a challenge to create but most rewarding when firmly established in the plot.

The term villain is too black and white for me. I prefer the term antagonist. Antagonists in my fiction can be born out of the observation that people, despicable politicians, for instance, lie repeatedly. Antagonist can be well-meaning in their contrariness or destructiveness. They can have malicious intent in their apparent goodness. Plausible personal histories go a long way towards giving them standing. They help move the action along from crisis to crisis. I favour antagonists that arise from within main characters and shadow their every move.

 

Séjour Saint-Louis is my latest release. Though the narrator plays a major role in the development of the narrative, his story, really, and that of his recalcitrant son, the hero of the piece is a dead poet whose story proves essential to plot resolution.

 

[“Stirling does it again, entertaining the reader with a parade of engrossing characters. Through a complexity of allusion simple truths are revealed. Contemporary, relevant, challenging, Séjour Saint-Louis is fused with ambiguity and subtle humour.”]

 

I am presently working on a murder mystery set in Bruges and Paris.

 

Find me at the following:

 

reedstirlingwrites.com

reedstirling@gmail.com

http://bwlpublishing.ca

https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/bookswelove

Amazon Author central: https://authorcentral.amazon.comgp/home

 

 

Favourite authors, book:

 

Over time my “favourite” authors have included Joyce, Woolf, Camus, Fowles, Hemingway, and Lawrence Durrell.

In recent years Ian McEwan has a place of prominence.

However, the most significant author in my reading world now is John Banville; his The Sea I rate very highly on my list of favourite novels, displacing Durrell’s The Alexandria Quartet.