Hello, Readers! Clevenger here.

So, what kind of characters do I like to write? Well, that’s a challenging question. Thanks, Graham.

So, first, I want to touch on what Graham mentioned in his previous post on roles and archetypes. Because for me, I think the interest starts there. I don’t really have a favorite character style to write. I lean towards intellectual characters when I read, Hermione was my favorite from Harry Potter, Vin in Mistborn, Bean in Ender’s Game, all the quick-witted, perceptive side-kicks that saw the challenges that the main character (MC) would face before they did.

But when writing, I don’t want my characters to be compared to their classic archetypes. I’m never going to claim to compete with the likes of Tolkien or Jordan. Comparing authors to each other has increasingly become frustrating for me, because I’m beginnnig to appreciate how subjective art SHOULD be and by forming arbitrary “rules” or “ranks” it diminishes the creativity behind the piece. I may like some more than other, but I don’t want to say “this is better than that…” And I don’t want my characters to go through that either.

So, what do I like to write? Well, I love the dichotomy of a conflicting “role” and “archetype” in a single character. I like putting in things that would challenge their space. Taking background elements that would normally serve another character and putting it into place for another to see what it would shape them into.

So, let me talk about Jen’Merith’El. A character who is from Graham and I’s Table Top RPG, that is “sort-of” in the story. Jen is a orphan, raised in an orphanage, who became a rogue. Sound familiar? But what makes Jen different? Well, he wasn’t created with the “Street Urchin” background… I created him as an Adept. Someone who studied magic early on. This love of magic led to him taking skills he was gaining on the street (mainly through association with other urchins) and combining them with magic. Instead of a “loner” mentality,” where he looks out for himself and trusts no one. Jen is a happy go-lucky, fiercely loyal, and bubbly prankster.

While MUCH of the background is different (because Jesse was always Graham’s character), Jen had some of the core qualities that Jesse had. An innocent approach to sexuality that was stunted because of his background, a desire to become the “best” and prove himself, and a rogue of “curiosity” rather than “a selfish desire to have.” So anytime I would write a scene with Jesse in it, I would tap into the mind that I created for Jen. It was a challenge that I loved, to create that “new-rogue” mental state.

Finding a new take on an old archetype was one of my favorite things to write, and I ended up enjoying Jesse more than I ever thought possible.

But… is that all? No.

The second type of character that I enjoy, is the character that is…. well… me.

I’m a pretty decent guy. No cockiness or arrogance involved in that, just a decent guy. I can’t even take that much credit for it. I was raised well, had great influences as a kid, and have (to the credit that I can take) strived to improve myself as much as I can. Empathy is the key. I genuinely try to understand people and treat them with respect.

So taking that aspect and enhancing it, or accenting it, is especially fun to write. Symon and Kyrn were two sides of me. Symon was my younger self, learning the same lessons about family, honor, respect, and empathy as I did. Kyrn is the father’s side of me (much influenced like my real life parenting) inspired by my father. He’s the hopes and fears that I have as a father, what I know I want to do, what the “best I can do” looks like, and the struggle that it’s “never enough.”

When Graham and I first started Manticore’s Shadow, we got deep into some scenes and Graham was struggling to find the voice of Symon. He had a “reluctant” hero vibe… but nothing was pushing him. Graham couldn’t find his flaw, the lynchpin that would “push” him into the story. So he asked me about it. I told him, the way that I saw Symon was different. The reason that Graham couldn’t find Symon’s identity was because Symon couldn’t find his identity. Symon was SO busy doing what he was “supposed” to do, and what he was “told” to do, that he had NEVER thought about what he WANTED to do.

His “rising action” was a discovery that forced him to be on his own. To work out his own problem for the first time in his life. That moment (along with meeting Jesse) made him tap into his empathy for others and explore a world that was different than his point of view. So much of this echoed my moving out of a small farm town in the midwest to a bigger city. Being introdcued to more diversity and representation as I matured was what I wanted to explore in Symon as well.

Because so much of his “perspective” echoed moments in my own life, it was SUPER easy to write him. And well, that’s always a good thing because easy things are funner than hard things.

Well, that was a vague way of saying, I really like writing a lot of different characters. Is it a cop-out answer? Sure. Am I okay with that? Yep. Will my difficult characters to write post go the same way? Well, you’ll have to find out. For now, let’s hear what Graham has to say!

Until then.

Be Kind.

-Clevenger