Who's Your Favorite Child?

Have you ever had someone ask you, "Who's your favorite child?"

I have.

It’s a shocking question. The first time someone asked this, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to slap them or laugh. It’s the kind of question that makes me wonder about the person asking the question.

Are they insecure of their parents’ love? Or is something more serious going on?

However, if someone asked me, “Who's your favorite character in Swords of Aroc?”

That question I will answer. Often my favorite character in my Swords of Aroc series isn’t the protagonist and sometimes it is.

Usually, I start off loving the protagonist because that’s likely the character that propelled the story. As I write, there is usually one or two characters that bubble to the top for me. Of course it depends on the story.

For example, Dragon Speakers is told completely from Gwendolyn’s point of view. Yes, I love her character. When I started writing Defying the King, I realized that Robin had wormed his way into my heart. Yeah, still love Gwen, but Robin is special in a very different way.

When I started, the Swords of Aroc, which is set in the Dragon Speaker’s world, Robin showed up and became more and more important to the novels. That probably was my subconscious mind completing his story, which wasn’t necessary in the Dragon Speakers’ Duology.

When I started writing, the League of the Daring books, Toby was a sidekick character, but less than half way through the first book, Finding Pedro, I realized he was far more important than I realized. He turned out to be the heart and soul of those stories.

Is he my favorite in the League of the Daring stories? Probably.

I love Toby and sometimes I wonder if he should have been the protagonist. What happened was that I thought I was writing a single point of view book. Then I realized I needed multiple points of views. Telling parts of the stories through Toby’s eyes elevated him in importance. In the end, I found the multiple points of view gave each character their moments in the spotlight.

So, maybe character’s are like a parent’s children. Sometimes they are lovable and the perfect child, and sometimes they aren’t. But, even when they are annoying, you still love them.

When I was writing the Swords of Aroc, I discover that some of the original Dragon Speakers characters from the duology had changed a lot. There is seventy years between Defying the King and Dragon Thieves and the first book in the Swords of Aroc series. In Swords of Aroc, a couple of the original Dragon Speakers characters had changed so much that I wondered what happened to make them act like dicks. Eventually, I’ll have to write some short stories or novellas to figure out how and why they changed.

In life, some people do change. Sometimes they change so much we don't recognize our old friends.

How do you reshape your thinking if you realize your favorite uncle is a racist. Or as happened to me, if it’s your grandmother who says something so shocking you cannot speak. I believe I stared opened mouthed at her and decided she was a horrible person. Or you discover that girl or boy you liked in high school was using you to get more status (high school’s power).

My writer’s mind asks this question all the time: what influenced these shocking changes? A high school kid stepping on people to gain status could very well become a future politician who will do anything— lie, cheat, steal, commit crimes— for power and/or money.

All this thinking brings me back to something I truly believe. A good story tells us about what it means to be human. As much as we don’t want to believe it, some people are bad guys who occasionally do something good, and good guys are good people who occasionally do something bad. Most people are a mixture of morally right and morally wrong. Some people will manipulate people to get what they want at any cost. Some people are so compassionate, they get used by other people.

For me the question is always, why does this person act this way? Did something traumatizing shape them into this person? What’s their story? Are some people born broken? Or do circumstances shape them. Yeah, the whole nurture versus nature argument.

Good stories can point out the flaws and strengths in humankind. Which is one of the main reasons I love well written or well acted stories. Sometimes I love the not so well written or acted stories because even with their flaws they give us a peek into the human condition.

Buried in the fiction are truths that can help us get through life. Characters are sometimes like your children. You might hated what they are doing, but understand why. Or you might hated what they are doing, but they have lost your respect.

From a reader’s point of view, a person might find themselves liking a character with dubious qualities. Or a reader might find the protagonist an okay character but love the sidekick, who in real life would be a difficult person to be around.

For me, Amos from the science fiction The Expanse series is one of those characters. When the chips are down, I would want to be his friend. He might scare the hell out of me, but he’ll protect me with his life. Sometimes characters like that come around in real life.

Storytelling has been around since humanity began.  A storyteller sitting around a fire telling stories of adventure, horror, war, love, kindness, and warnings of what can lead us astray. Good storytellers help us understand ourselves and others. They give a sense of what it means to be human.