It’s about the character for me. I look for characters who change in some way through the course of the story. If a character is interesting to start with and becomes more interesting as the story progresses, I’ll more than likely stay with the book.
There has to be a character with whom I identify in some way, though. I’ve tried to read some books that I just couldn’t get into, and as I thought about why I struggled with them, it boiled down to one thing. I didn’t identify with anyone in that book. That’s not to say that the book was badly written or the characters were flat or the plot was so out there you had to suspend your disbelief in order to even open the cover. Not at all. I just couldn’t find a character I could use to enter the story.
Why is that important? When I read, I enter the story. I become one of the characters. I live the plot through that character. That’s why, if I’m reading and you say something to me and I don’t answer, I don’t answer. I’m not ignoring you. I’m just not me at that moment. I’m living vicariously through someone else.
I have a picture in my head of a reader like me who completely immerses himself/herself in a story. If you were to look at that reader’s eyes while he/she is reading, you would see the world of that story reflected in them. I think that would be a really cool piece of art. I’d draw it myself, but I can’t draw. Even stick people aren’t terribly realistic when I attempt them.
So anyway, the draw of a book for me is its characters. They don’t have to be completely believable as long as they’re believable in their world. For example, I just finished one of Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt books. Dirk is basically James Bond without the spy side of the story. He does get some pretty cool toys, though, and he has some incredible adventures. One of them was raising the Titanic, which he accomplished successfully, by the way. Dirk is a cold man when it comes to the villains, completely unmerciful in taking out the bad guy, but he’s every woman’s dream. And, of course, he always gets the girl.
Now the plot of this particular book, Treasure, revolves around the discovery of the lost library of Alexandria and a crime family that has set up two of its sons to rule Mexico and Egypt. Not entirely realistic, I know. But one of the reasons I read is to escape from the real world. I enter a world where someone else is solving and has solved the problems and I don’t have to worry about it.
But I like Dirk and his friend Al. They allow me to put myself in their world and follow along on their adventures. And if I saw them walking down the street, I think I would know who they were.
I’ve met other characters who are so well drawn and defined that I’d know them in a second if I had the chance to really meet them. When I read their stories, it’s like re-meeting an old friend you haven’t seen in awhile. After that initial hesitation, wondering if they’re still the way you remembered, you fall into that comfortable state of being able to be yourself and picking up the friendship right where you left off.
And that’s the mark of a great character. I hope the characters I create can have that said of them.
I have a picture in my head of a reader like me who completely immerses himself/herself in a story. If you were to look at that reader’s eyes while he/she is reading, you would see the world of that story reflected in them. I think that would be a really cool piece of art. I’d draw it myself, but I can’t draw. Even stick people aren’t terribly realistic when I attempt them.
So anyway, the draw of a book for me is its characters. They don’t have to be completely believable as long as they’re believable in their world. For example, I just finished one of Clive Cussler’s Dirk Pitt books. Dirk is basically James Bond without the spy side of the story. He does get some pretty cool toys, though, and he has some incredible adventures. One of them was raising the Titanic, which he accomplished successfully, by the way. Dirk is a cold man when it comes to the villains, completely unmerciful in taking out the bad guy, but he’s every woman’s dream. And, of course, he always gets the girl.
Now the plot of this particular book, Treasure, revolves around the discovery of the lost library of Alexandria and a crime family that has set up two of its sons to rule Mexico and Egypt. Not entirely realistic, I know. But one of the reasons I read is to escape from the real world. I enter a world where someone else is solving and has solved the problems and I don’t have to worry about it.
But I like Dirk and his friend Al. They allow me to put myself in their world and follow along on their adventures. And if I saw them walking down the street, I think I would know who they were.
I’ve met other characters who are so well drawn and defined that I’d know them in a second if I had the chance to really meet them. When I read their stories, it’s like re-meeting an old friend you haven’t seen in awhile. After that initial hesitation, wondering if they’re still the way you remembered, you fall into that comfortable state of being able to be yourself and picking up the friendship right where you left off.
And that’s the mark of a great character. I hope the characters I create can have that said of them.
