This week: On Kind and Caring Characters Edited by: NaNoKit  
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Who is your favourite good/kind/caring character? What do you like about them?
Writing a kind and caring character doesn’t need to leave your readers yawning whenever their name pops up.
This week's Drama Newsletter, then, is all about characters without too many skeletons in their closet.
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Do you like good, kind, caring characters? Characters who may make mistakes but who don’t have some dark, hidden past or personality? Many readers are drawn to darker, more troubled characters and I cannot deny that they have their appeal. I love a Samuel Vines, from Terry Pratchett’s Discworld novels, who struggles with his inner demons whilst trying to do the right thing. I love Pratchett’s Granny Weatherwax as well, who is all too aware how easy it would be for her to end up as the kind of witch the storybooks warn you about.
I love a good bad guy. Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Spike (apart from that one episode), or The Wire’s Stringer Bell, for example, are interesting, multifaceted characters: Bell wants to be more than just a gangster, so he takes night classes, and Spike likes the idea of watching the world burn, but he doesn’t actually want it to be destroyed. Straight-up evil is often rather boring. There needs to be depth. Motivation. Feeling. Does this mean that a straight-up good guy is boring, too?
They can be, in my opinion. I find DragonLance’s Tanis Half-Elven to be tedious. He’s such a stiff, unyielding goody two shoes. Sure, he has his feelings for a darker character and she briefly leads him astray, but otherwise he’s dull as dishwater. Sorry, Tanis fans. They don’t need to be, though. There are some lovely characters who aren’t at all boring.
Lynsay Sand’s Bastien Argeneau is a sweetheart. He’s a vampire, but he doesn’t bite people. He lives off the blood that blood banks are unable to use. He is kind, and caring, and responsible. He has a sense of humour. When he falls in love with Terri he treats her well, and with great respect. What you see is what you get with Bastien other than that he doesn’t find it easy to tell the love of his life that he’s immortal. He’s afraid that she’ll reject him. He’s been hurt before. Which isn’t the most original situation for a vampire to find himself in, but Sands makes it work – both Bastien and Terri are enjoyable, multidimensional characters who you can’t help but root for.
George R. R. Martin’s Brienne of Tarth is arguably one of the most moral characters in the Game of Thrones universe. She is loyal, and honourable, and despite the cruelty of those around her she is still able to see the good in others. She sees the good in Jaime Lannister, who everyone else has written off as irredeemable. Jaime has, indeed, done a lot of awful things, but the act he’s most reviled for was, in fact, necessary. Brienne is not just defined by others, however. She is brave. She is an excellent warrior. She is firm in what she believes in, and in doing what is right no matter what. I think she’s one of the best characters in the series. Her goodness and kindness don’t hold her back.
What good characters are at risk of is being predictable. A less moral character can find themselves in a difficult situation and you don’t know which way they’re going to go. If a good character wants to remain good, their options are limited. That can be seen as boring.
It doesn’t need to be like that. The struggle to remain good when times are hard can, in itself, be interesting. No matter one’s nature, being good is a choice. There’s a lot of temptation out there, so it’s a decision that has to be made over and over again, day in, day out.
Many of the people who manage to get ahead in life have made morally dubious or even plain awful decisions in order to get there. You don’t get to be a billionaire without some form of exploitation somewhere along the way. Politicians who entered politics for the right reasons are under pressure from a variety of interest groups and corporations and to get ahead, to get actual power, requires money and support… how do you reach the top without being bought? Who will you end up selling when you get there?
Staying good, then, is far from boring. Writing a kind and caring character doesn’t need to leave your readers yawning whenever their name pops up. Besides, a good character doesn’t need to be perfect. They’ll have as many flaws as the next person. They have hopes and dreams, but also doubts, and regrets, and fears. Jane Austen’s Elizabeth Bennet is a good person, but she has to learn to be less judgemental. Her sister, Jane, is a very sweet woman, but her shy and reserved nature almost sees the love of her life slip away.
With NaNoWriMo around the corner – and in general, of course – I want to encourage you to write about someone nice and kind. It’s a challenge, sure, but it can be a fun one. I aim to include some in my novel. They definitely won’t be as insufferable as Tanis Half-Elven. I hope that whoever ends up reading my work will enjoy their inclusion.
Happy writing!
NaNoKit
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Drama: October 16, 2024 Issue [#12788]
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