Hello lovelies,
Can you believe we’re just 14 days away from the release of Remembering Majyk??? I honestly cant believe how fast the time has been flowing by. Even as it seems to take forever. Funny thing, that time.
Anyway, today, I wanted to talk to you a little about my writing. You’ve met Calista, you’ve met Brendan. If you’ve read any of my other books, you’ve met characters I’ve written before. Remembering Majyk is my most personal book and it has a lot to do with the Russian heritage portrayed there. You don’t get to see as much of it in the first book, but once you get in a little deeper, you definitely will.
While Remembering Majyk is my most personal and favorite book, Calista is my least likable character. She’s a lot like me, which I realized in revisions and was definitely not planning for while drafting. She’s stubborn, she’s annoying, sometimes she’s childish. (I know, I’m a fantastic human).
But she’s also real.
I think that if I was in her situation, I would react the same way. And while writing her, I wanted to make her nicer, more pliable? More likable. But I didn’t. It’s a hard choice to make as an author. You want people to love your characters as much as you do. But at the end of the day, I think it’s about you loving them first.
Calista is all kinds of flawed. As the story unfolds, you’ll discover a lot more things about her and you may even like her less. But at the end of the day, I think she’s the kind of a character that just wants to make the choices for herself. Sometimes those choices are too difficult to comprehend and her decisions may not be the best. Sometimes, it’s her reflex that makes the decisions for her and our reflexes, our gut feelings, are not always correct.
That’s who Calista is to me and to write her a little unlikable may have been something I didn’t want to do, but I knew I had to do. I can’t exactly change who she is just because I want everyone to love her.
As authors, we do make difficult decisions as well, but our characters are also living, breathing people in our minds and we can’t change them anymore than we can change those around us. However, as she discovers more about herself and the kind of a person she wants to be, she does the changing. And I think that’s a beautiful thing.
At least, that’s where I’m at. I wanted to share a little more about my girl with you. And a little about my writing thoughts. This is the behinds the scenes, after all, right?
Don’t forget, the $50 Amazon gift card preorder giveaway is still happening!! Just preorder (Amazon) and fill out this form: https://goo.gl/forms/pJn0S6BxYqABHQRf2
What do you think, as a reader, about unlikable characters? Have you read any books that were written like that?
Happy New Year, lovelies!
Much love,
Valia
Valia Lind 