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I love that character! He’s not similar to me at all, but he sounds amazing. Definitely go with Arden 🙂
My favorite type of character to write is a little hard to pin down, but I would say they are reserved, shrewd, and logical (in contrast to spunky, outgoing, spontaneous, etc.). This is actually most of the characters in my novel, I just realized, and my characters like this are far more developed than the loud or reckless ones.
(And I’m not going to worry about the poor singular/plural grammar up there.)
What about you? And who is the favorite character you’ve ever written? (Same goes for anyone who wants to answer on this thread.)
My life is hid with Christ in God
Thank you so much! I agree; it does have a foresty sound, I think.
“Rosalind: Well, this is the forest of Arden.
Touchstone: Ay, now am I in Arden; the more fool I; when I was at home, I was in a better place: but travelers must be content.”
-As You Like It, Act II, Sc. IV, lines 15-18
XD (apparently this is what everyone on here uses to express laughter)
What is the character in your novel-in-progress like?
@freedomwriter76
That’s awesome! Historical fiction is great. It’s actually my favorite genre to read. What’s your favorite historical fiction novel? (Mine is A Tale of Two Cities for sure 🙂 )
As for what genre I write, that’s a little hard to answer, as I haven’t been writing for an incredibly long time. I have only “published” (not truly published; all I did was submit it to a short story contest) one work, a sci-fi story, and after that I decided I didn’t like writing sci-fi. The main thing I’ve been writing other than that (actually, pretty much the only) is—you guessed it—an allegorical fantasy novel. (I feel like most ppl on here are working on one or multiple of these. XD) Honestly I’ve put so much effort into this one thing that I haven’t even considered starting anything else until I finish it, but I dream of writing a fantastical or futuristic political drama someday.
@kayla-b what genre(s) do you write?My life is hid with Christ in God
@kathleenramm I definitely agree that a subtle/covert allegory is far more powerful than an overt one, simply for the reason that in reading an allegory that is more difficult to discover (in the older sense of the word), the reader is forced to think through it far more deeply than an obvious, surface-level allegory. (There is also a unique beauty in subtlety of metaphor that makes such an allegory more powerful.)
@Madelyn The best allegory (or, at least, story with allegorical elements) I have ever read is Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. It is far less famous than his Narnia books, but in my opinion it is even better than them. For one thing, it is far more mature (partially because it was intended for an older audience) and I have heard that C.S. Lewis considered it to be his best work. I won’t ruin the story for anyone on here, because I think everyone should read it, but it will suffice to say this: you don’t think it’s an allegory when you start reading it. You think it’s a pagan myth. It is not until the end that you understand how skillfully Lewis has revealed the truths of the gospel through the plot and through the characters. The very fact that they are compelling makes the truth behind them compelling.Something I think that authors should avoid when writing allegories is making their Christ-figure too apparent, at least from the beginning. I think that if it is obvious who a character is intended to be from the start, the reader will assume they already know everything about him. He becomes predictable, and the reader won’t waste time trying to get to know him. But if you keep his allegorical identity hidden until the end (and perhaps, don’t even reveal it then; let your readers guess at it) they will see him as a person that is worth getting to know, and if they want to get to know him, you have more opportunity to reveal truth through his actions.
Anyway, I hope this helps! (Also, I would definitely recommend you read Till We Have Faces!)
My life is hid with Christ in God
One thing that I think might be helpful is a combination of unusual phrasing and metaphor, for the reason that the complexity of the writing draws attention away from the all-absorbing sorrows of the characters, putting them into perspective but somehow also making them more poignant. I know you said you’re tired of cliché phrases to describe crying, something I’ve definitely tried to avoid as well. I don’t have one rule that always works to avoid these, but here are a few I’ve tried in the past.
“‘Have you ever killed anybody, [MC]?’ she asked, dull and broken like a rusted length of pipe.”
“She stared past [MC] at her echo on the wall against the yellow candle-circle, while the shadows of her voice reflected round the narrow space in endless variations. It did not quake, but she could not entirely prevent her face from doing so; every now and then some small contortion—a twitching of the nose, a twisting of the lips, a sort of grotesque wink, a bobbing of the throat—would pass for the briefest instant over her features as she spoke.”
“[S]he drew a long, shuddering breath, as if shattered glass was sticking into her lungs, but the excruciating pain of breathing was the only alternative to asphyxiation[.]”
“Her face was twisting, and for a moment she looked incapable of going on, but then she looked up at [MC], and her eyes were wet, dripping with liquid light, it seemed, as the candle cast its glow into her face and turned her tears to stars.”
Honestly, when I wrote these, I kind of just used whatever random metaphor came into my mind and I liked enough to put into my story. I think your readers will be far more willing to read a sad scene if you help them see it in a new way through unusual language.
My life is hid with Christ in God
