What Is it About that Girl?

I can’t imagine that I could ever write a story wherein the main character is male. Some women are able to accomplish that with apparent ease, but I don’t think I could. I’m such a girl. I sort of know how men think - sometimes - but in order to create a main character, I have to channel her in a way. I become her when I’m writing. I think like she does. She talks like me.  I don’t think I could channel a man. I am so much my main character in Up the Hill that she’s named after me - or I after her.

What makes a great main character? For me, a compelling main character has obvious flaws, she makes mistakes, and she’s able to draw the reader’s sympathy. She’s a dreamer in search of happiness, which is a universally appealing quality. She faces conflict and learns and grows as a result.

A great main character is different at the end of the story than she was at the beginning, but the core of her personality remains the same. Whatever it is about her that drew me in initially is still there on the last page, but she’s wiser, stronger, more understanding, though she may never quite be satisfied.

Scarlett O’Hara, Holly Golightly, Elizabeth Bennett, Sister Carrie Meeber, Bridget Jones…  these are my favorites. Complex women who want everything life has to offer. There’s something about each of them that I see in myself. I like men as much as Scarlet. Like Holly, I pretend to be something I’m not. I'm intelligent like Elizabeth. Like Carrie, I’m never satisfied with what I have, and well… Bridget…  

Oh, Bridget. We do have a lot in common.

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