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being mean to the characters
Fiction is about storytelling, and storytelling is mostly about trouble.
I like my characters, even the unlikeable ones. Or let me say: I don't especially like Jemima, but there are things about her that I admire. The same thing was true of Elizabeth's brother Julian, once you got below the surface and saw him as the sum of his experiences. Even Jack Lingo had a backstory, though it didn't show up in the novels.
Right now I'm coping with very bad things happening to the characters I like best, and it's unpleasant for me as well as them. But you know, these characters insist on putting themselves in the most dangerous situations, and sooner or later, the consequences show themselves.
I'm hoping that by the end of this book -- and I should finish it by January 1 -- some good things will happen for Hannah. I almost see the light at the end of that tunnel. The really odd thing is this: I feel the rest of the characters watching me. Waiting to see what will happen, a little worried, a little impatient. Nathaniel is definitely on guard and not exactly enamored of me at the moment.
Back to work.
October 23, 2005 02:33 PM
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Comments
I like the idea of Nathaniel watching you, waiting to see what you do next with Hannah. I can picture it very well.
Posted by: sara g at October 23, 2005 03:51 PM
And now I'm wondering about Jack Lingo's backstory. And really, really looking forward to reading this book.
Posted by: sarandipity at October 24, 2005 09:47 AM
I saw this earlier today and almost commented, and didn't, but here I am again, so I will.
And you mean you don't feel all of your readers out here, a little worried, a little impatient, waiting for something good to happen to Hannah?
Because we are, you know.
Although, come to think of it, if I were you, I think I'd be more scared of Nathaniel than all of us. ;-)
Posted by: Danielle at October 24, 2005 07:14 PM
The thing that gets me about Jemima is... I don't like her. She was a spiteful little girl who when she grew up still didn't realise she doesn't have to stay that way. And she has been so cruel to Hannah. No, I don't like Jemima. But the thing I can never get out of my head about her is that she named her daughter after her mother. Whether I am reading too much into that I don't know, but it's the one thing that pulls me up about her. Maybe a vain hope that there is/was one person in her life she had no malice for.
Posted by: Alison at October 26, 2005 04:23 PM
My take is that Jemima would like to be more like her mother, but doesn't know how. She's full of resentment for everything bad the world's ever done to her and she doesn't know how to let it go. So she named her daughter after her mother in the hopes that she would be the better person Jemima wants to be.
Posted by: sarandipity at October 27, 2005 08:02 AM
Sarandipity I hope you are right. There may be a glimmer of hope there after all.
Posted by: Alison at October 27, 2005 05:09 PM