Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Letter to Vorsilla

To Vorsilla, protagonist of my Camp NaNo novel,

I know our time together has been short, but my dear, things must change. To be blunt, you are not sympathetic. Instead of hating Mr. Snyder and feeling sorry for you, I think he's being reasonable and you're letting your emotions control you. Did you really think that insulting him was going to do any good? You kind of deserved to get thrown out of the house.

This will not do. If I don't like to write you, no one will like to read you. I want to feel sorry for you, but I don't. I sympathize with your situation, not you. You are a frosty, unfriendly, rude, and so blinded by your rage and jealousy and hatred that you don't realize you're only making things worse for yourself. Instead of feeling your rage and jealousy and hatred right along with you, I'm shaking my head at your complete incompetence at dealing with people.

I know this is not entirely your fault. It's my fault, actually, as I am your author. And while starting out as a very flawed character means that you have a great deal of potential for a character arc (more than all of my previous MCs combined, actually), you are so flawed as to scare the reader away as you scare everyone around you away. My dear, you have no redeeming qualities. Your competence at running a household does not make up for the fact that you are unlikable.

This, however, is fixable. You may be a little rain cloud of anger and despair at the moment, but we will find your silver lining, and from there build a beautiful rainbow of a character arc. (Yes, this does mean that at some point you will have to experience positive emotions. and crawl out of your frostbitten shell.)

It will not be easy, and we may not make 50k by the end of Camp NaNo, but at the very least I will have learned a great deal more about working with a character like yourself. And I promise, you will have your happy ending. If any character of mine has deserved it... well, actually the person that deserves it the most is Viola, but you are also deserving, and I will deliver. (Though it won't be anything close to what you expected or think you want.)

I ask that you assist me in this matter. Perhaps together we can resolve this issue and see your happy ending come to pass.

Ever imaginatively,
Your author.