2 posts tagged “characters”

I'm feeling vindicated after reading this article featuring an interview with Katee Sackhoff -- the actress who plays fighter pilot Starbuck in the television series Battlestar Galactica.  Leoben would be my choice for Kara's true love, too... after all, they say a soulmate isn't the person who you end up enjoying a life-long starry-eyed romance with, but the individual who understands that deepest, darkest thread of you and uses this insight to empower and encourage you to evolve into your highest potential. Out of the three, I'd say without hesitation, that Leoben understands her the most, and because they are born from the same breath, (so to speak), the understanding is reciprocated by her -- try as she might to doubt it.

Lately, I've been thinking about men...  unfortunately, other diversions aside, it goes with the territory of being a writer.  Know your characters, think like your characters, and all that funky stuff.  Well, one particular character's been giving me a bit of grief.  At times I think I know him, but then he will go and do something (while I'm in the zone and bleeding him drop by drop outta my veins and onto paper) that'll leave me utterly bewildered.

This particular character (lets call him, Dave) is a great guy -- easy-going, kind, generous, a loving partner and a soon-to-be wonderful father (though he doesn't know it yet).  Trouble comes to him in the form of a woman.  (It always does, huh?) but not in the shape of his girlfriend (and soon to be wife - though he doesn't know that particular gem yet either.  Bless him, he's quite oblivious).  The problem is his mother.  I can hear the groans even as I type.  It's that ole fangled love triangle that we women love to hate: mother - son - wife. 

Dave's mother, a wonderful example of a confirmed matriarch, does not approve of his girlfriend, and thinks he should be dating her friend's daughter, Lizzy (the supermodel redhead who is frankly, pretty to look at but as dull as wallpaper paste).  Dave (being a man) finds Lizzy attractive and enjoys it when she flirts with him.  But here's the deal, he loves his girlfriend.  If he sat down and drew up a list of everything he could have in a woman, she would be It.  The trouble is, Sabrina (the girlfriend) is a real woman -- feisty, strong, kind, vulnerable, and generally, a loveable pain in the ass.  She's finding it difficult to go back to how things used to be with Dave and rekindle their passionate romance because she knows (a) about Lizzy, and (b) that Dave's mum wished she was Lizzy, and (c) that Dave is sitting on the fence and not making a decision one way or another. 

And this is what I don't get.  Everytime I go to write this, Dave always ends up sitting on the fence.  For the record, I think that's probably true to type.  But why would he do that?  He's got a lovely girl he's totally in love with and is everything he could want, but he can't find it in himself to tell both his mother and Lizzy to take a hike.  No doubt he enjoys the flirting and it distracts him from the problems in his relationship with Sabrina -- which he wishes would go back to how it used to be.  But in turn, he doesn't realise that Sabrina is reacting to his ambivalence.  And in feeling insecure in her relationship with him, is bit by bit, withdrawing from it completely.  Why should she be fully engaged in a relationship, when he isn't and has done nothing to indicate that he is committed to her and/or wants to share his life with her, not Lizzy.  To Sabrina's eyes, the only people who seem to get anything out of him, are his mother and Lizzy.

Back to Dave and character journeys.  A part of me believes Dave will come through and surprise me.  I'm of the Jungian tradition, so he strikes me as being a typical partially transformed character, outwardly mature and successful but not quite in command of his personal power or comfortable in himself (if he was, the fence sitting, I feel, wouldn't come into it).  Crucially, he still struggles with aspects of his relationship with women and probably there is a touch of the eternal boy in him, the guy who loves to escape his actual problems by throwing himself into a successful diversion, like a career, and indeed, Dave is well recognised and successful in his line of work.  To get himself out of this rut, Dave would need to undergo a complete transformation by equipping himself emotionally and mentally for admitting, accepting and dealing with those issues head on.

And because I'm Jungian inclined, I suspect those issues are a mother with issues.  She's probably throwing Lizzy his way because she knows Dave doesn't like her (in the relationship kinda way) -- his mother's cunning and unconscious master plan is to not have him develop any meaningful relationship of his own at all.  Can mothers really be that evil, well sadly and without any deliberate intention on their part, yes.  As Philip Larkin's infamous poem declares: 

They f*ck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.

But where does that leave Dave (and Sabrina)?  I dunno.  Substitute Dave, Lizzy, Sabrina and Dave's mum Kirsten with darkly gothic names, and their world with the uncertain, bloody tumult of a fantasy world in conflict and you have the basics of my character dilemma.  Armor Dave in leather mail and throw him a 3ft sword and put him at the head of an army, and you can see how the themes start to resonate and how important it is to get into Dave's state of mind. 

So now, this is where I'm hoping you guys come in.  What's your take on all of this, and I especially wanna hear from the guys out there.  What do you think is going on with Dave and what would you do if you were him?