character meme answers
Here are my answers to this meme: Name a character I've written about, and I will tell you three things that I think are essential to keep in mind when writing that character.
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verasteine asked about Edgar Wield from Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe novels.
1) He's been closeted for most of his life, and that's left its mark on him. Even now that he's out and in a firmly-established relationship, his first instinct is to repress his emotions and anything he thinks could be a weakness.
2) Speaking of weaknesses, he definitely has a weakness for young men in distress. And his reaction is not as paternal as he would like to believe.
3) He's got a hidden wild streak, represented by the motorcycle, which I think is still there despite his happy domesticity.
dolores asked about Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
1) He's only externally nonverbal--he's got quite a complex internal monologue, as we saw in "Earshot." So writing him as mentally inarticulate is a mistake.
2) He's a remarkably self-controlled and thoughtful young man, but even before he became a werewolf, some of that apparent serenity was only apparent.
3) Oz tends not to fully incorporate into groups. There's no way in hell he'd go for the "werewolf pack" idea that used to crop up in a lot of Buffyverse fanfic.
mcicioni asked about Robbie Lewis. Bear in mind here that I haven't seen most of Inspector Morse so I'm ignorant of a lot of Lewis's history.
1) His grief for his late wife Valerie and his grief for Morse are all tangled up together in ways that I think Lewis doesn't care to look at too closely.
2) He's fascinated by Hathaway-the-mystery, and I think also rather hurt that Hathaway is so reluctant to open up.
3) He's not as recovered from his wife's death as he thinks he is. It'll be an issue in any new relationship.
sallymn asked about James May.
1) James has masculinity issues. It's extremely important for him to be, and to be perceived as, a "proper bloke." On the other hand, his definition of proper bloke-itude is roomier than one might expect. A lot of James's self-presentation is quite feminine: the long hair, the flowered shirts, the generally quiet and self-effacing manner. He's uninterested in sports (which is true of the other Top Gear presenters as well, to be fair) and doesn't seem to want to impress women with his cars. He plays the harpsichord and piano and considers knowledge of Elizabethan love lyrics to be a significant masculine accomplishment. Being called gay only makes him laugh . . . but if other men touch him he gets upset (unless it's Richard Hammond). He blames male grooming products for the decline, as he sees it, of modern civilization (growing your hair long is fine, making it look nice is not). James is obsessed with masculinity, both his own and other men's, and that obsession is central to his personality in ways I still haven't got my head round, but which obsess me a bit in turn.
2) James loves modern things. It's just that sometimes his idea of what's modern stops (like Aziraphale's) at 1950.
3) His apparent reserve and standoffishness are mostly genuine, but they're balanced by a craving for intimacy with the few people he likes and trusts enough. Witness, for instance, the "drunk cam" moments and outtakes from Oz and James'sBig Gay Adventure(s), wherein there is much coziness and giggling and James looks about the happiest I've ever seen him.
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lemposoi asked for Leonard McCoy from Star Trek: TOS.
1) He's a doctor, not a . . . (fill in the blank). It's more than a running joke. He's not a soldier, he's not an explorer; I don't think he has any particular interest in space travel per se. He's not primarily a research scientist, either, although he's done important research. In a crew full of ambitious Starfleet idealists, he's a pragmatist--not to say a cynic--whose job is to keep the idealists functioning. He's always in conflict, to some extent, with everyone else's goals, because he, even more than Kirk, counts the cost.
2) A corollary of sorts to #1: he joined Starfleet to get away from something. Perhaps his failed marriage (although IIRC that's not proper TOS canon), perhaps something else. (Someday I really ought to write that story about how McCoy is a gay man in a society that thinks it has found the "gay gene" and eliminated homosexuality through prenatal genetic engineering . . .)
3) He's lonely. Tremendously lonely. He has trouble making friends with the usual Starfleet types, and the two people he's closest to, Kirk and Spock, are usually so wrapped up in each other that they don't have much left to give him. And he's jealous of their closeness, although I'm not sure he recognizes what he feels as jealousy.
In other news, today at work we had a mandatory 7 am meeting. And I'm scheduled to work from 12:30-9:30 pm. And I slept really badly last night, in part because I was worried about oversleeping, missing the meeting, and getting fired. Not looking forward to my shift, oh no.
verasteine asked about Edgar Wield from Reginald Hill's Dalziel and Pascoe novels.1) He's been closeted for most of his life, and that's left its mark on him. Even now that he's out and in a firmly-established relationship, his first instinct is to repress his emotions and anything he thinks could be a weakness.
2) Speaking of weaknesses, he definitely has a weakness for young men in distress. And his reaction is not as paternal as he would like to believe.
3) He's got a hidden wild streak, represented by the motorcycle, which I think is still there despite his happy domesticity.
dolores asked about Oz from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.1) He's only externally nonverbal--he's got quite a complex internal monologue, as we saw in "Earshot." So writing him as mentally inarticulate is a mistake.
2) He's a remarkably self-controlled and thoughtful young man, but even before he became a werewolf, some of that apparent serenity was only apparent.
3) Oz tends not to fully incorporate into groups. There's no way in hell he'd go for the "werewolf pack" idea that used to crop up in a lot of Buffyverse fanfic.
mcicioni asked about Robbie Lewis. Bear in mind here that I haven't seen most of Inspector Morse so I'm ignorant of a lot of Lewis's history.1) His grief for his late wife Valerie and his grief for Morse are all tangled up together in ways that I think Lewis doesn't care to look at too closely.
2) He's fascinated by Hathaway-the-mystery, and I think also rather hurt that Hathaway is so reluctant to open up.
3) He's not as recovered from his wife's death as he thinks he is. It'll be an issue in any new relationship.
sallymn asked about James May.1) James has masculinity issues. It's extremely important for him to be, and to be perceived as, a "proper bloke." On the other hand, his definition of proper bloke-itude is roomier than one might expect. A lot of James's self-presentation is quite feminine: the long hair, the flowered shirts, the generally quiet and self-effacing manner. He's uninterested in sports (which is true of the other Top Gear presenters as well, to be fair) and doesn't seem to want to impress women with his cars. He plays the harpsichord and piano and considers knowledge of Elizabethan love lyrics to be a significant masculine accomplishment. Being called gay only makes him laugh . . . but if other men touch him he gets upset (unless it's Richard Hammond). He blames male grooming products for the decline, as he sees it, of modern civilization (growing your hair long is fine, making it look nice is not). James is obsessed with masculinity, both his own and other men's, and that obsession is central to his personality in ways I still haven't got my head round, but which obsess me a bit in turn.
2) James loves modern things. It's just that sometimes his idea of what's modern stops (like Aziraphale's) at 1950.
3) His apparent reserve and standoffishness are mostly genuine, but they're balanced by a craving for intimacy with the few people he likes and trusts enough. Witness, for instance, the "drunk cam" moments and outtakes from Oz and James's
lemposoi asked for Leonard McCoy from Star Trek: TOS.1) He's a doctor, not a . . . (fill in the blank). It's more than a running joke. He's not a soldier, he's not an explorer; I don't think he has any particular interest in space travel per se. He's not primarily a research scientist, either, although he's done important research. In a crew full of ambitious Starfleet idealists, he's a pragmatist--not to say a cynic--whose job is to keep the idealists functioning. He's always in conflict, to some extent, with everyone else's goals, because he, even more than Kirk, counts the cost.
2) A corollary of sorts to #1: he joined Starfleet to get away from something. Perhaps his failed marriage (although IIRC that's not proper TOS canon), perhaps something else. (Someday I really ought to write that story about how McCoy is a gay man in a society that thinks it has found the "gay gene" and eliminated homosexuality through prenatal genetic engineering . . .)
3) He's lonely. Tremendously lonely. He has trouble making friends with the usual Starfleet types, and the two people he's closest to, Kirk and Spock, are usually so wrapped up in each other that they don't have much left to give him. And he's jealous of their closeness, although I'm not sure he recognizes what he feels as jealousy.
In other news, today at work we had a mandatory 7 am meeting. And I'm scheduled to work from 12:30-9:30 pm. And I slept really badly last night, in part because I was worried about oversleeping, missing the meeting, and getting fired. Not looking forward to my shift, oh no.
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As for the Star Trek universe, I like to think they'd gotten over it by the time of DS9, since no one bats an eyelash at the prospect (which occurs in more than that one episode) of Jadzia having a relationship with another woman.
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