Authored Adornments

Favorites: Characters

theartofnotwriting:

I feel like, when an author likes a character, it might be for different reasons than when a reader likes a character. I sometimes struggle to get all a character’s dimensions on the page (see: book 1, Jeanine), but sometimes I’m surprised by what emerges as I write, and it’s usually in the latter case that I wind up with favorites.

There are a few constants. Tris is always my favorite, because she’s such a complicated girl— at times humorless and merciless and relentlessly hard on herself, at other times brave and compassionate and emotional. I have also loved watching her develop a sense of humor over time. There are so many things I like about her.

When I first started writing Four, he instantly became far more than I thought he would be, with an endless supply of secrets and a history that became more and more complicated as the story went on. I would say more but I’m not going to talk about the third book much— ask me again in October.

Those are sort of lame answers, though, so let’s go with favorite side characters, shall we? They change from book to book.

After book 1, my favorite side character was Tris’s mom.

After book 2, it was Peter. (Or Christina? Or Evelyn?)

And after book 3, it’s Caleb.

(ETA: Also, don’t take that to mean that none of these characters do awful things…because I still end up liking characters even if they do awful things, as long as those awful things come from a complicated place rather than a simplistic one.)

So I’ll just leave you with that.

(How about you?)

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