In my agency research, I came across this statement by Nephele Tempest of The Knight Agency:
“Your main character: I must love your protagonist. I need to relate to this person, male or female, on some sort of an emotional level, not just at the beginning of the book, where you’ve caught my attention, but all the way through. ” –http://nephele.livejournal.com/67900.html
Love my protagonist? Not just at the beginning of the book, but all the way through? Ah, really? Well, I guess I scratch that agent off my list. If it’s prerequisite to like my protagonist right off the bat at the start of the book and all the way through, I’m in trouble already. We’re talking about a two dimensional character, in my opinion. There’s no way that Nephele’s going to enjoy any of my books…because I write about realistic humans in believable situations, and I start out showing them in difficult circumstances. Anyone know anybody in real life they like everything about all the time? I sure don’t. Not even my best friend. Not even myself, in fact. I like myself, but certainly not all the time. I’ve got moments….
Then we come to the next part of the prerequisite criteria: Sadly for me, Nephele says she “must relate” to this protagonist. Must relate? As in: To make a natural association; “approve of “, “feel sympathy for.” Same problem. If a reader must relate, must approve of, must feel sympathy for a protagonist all the time (”all the way through”), then, again, we’ve got a problem because nobody that I know of anywhere approves of anyone all the time.
Writing about people to me means exploring the heights and depths and breadths of those people, their good, their bad, their nuances…their whole person. Not just the rose-smelling shells. Give me the deep end, or why should I read on? I like to let my readers make up their own minds about someone, not present them with some plastic, smiling, waving Dolly or Dick who is nothing more than any corporation’s trained-to-be-pleasant-under-all-circumstances customer service representative.
…Too bad those are prerequisite, because I actually like The Knight Agency, and I enjoyed what I’ve read in Ms. Tempest’s blog and elsewhere about her. Oh well. Onward.
Recently:
- Moving is Tough on Writing Novels
- Move complete & back online…when the DSL doesn’t falter
- Offline for a week.
- The ‘I’ Proposition
- No, I didn’t get eaten by my novel.
- Scott Heim reads We Disappear at last reading at Chelsea
- Hunger in the World
- What a Beta Reader Can & Cannot Do
- A Gift for Eternity Finds a Home
- Today’s Giggle: SE vs Employee, the Benefits — Not.
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