Fictional character body types and social issues.

I was asked if I prefer writing about thin athletic characters or attractive and thin. This is just the shortened version of the question but it gets the point across. It’s about whether my characters are thin or not. My basic answer for this is that my characters’ personality tends to lend towards any body type. There are times that I’ll refer to something about the character, if they happen to be tall or short. If they are clumsy or a perfectionist. I prefer to let the characters speak for themselves and depending on what their life is like it can be very different from another and I feel many of my characters are very diverse. I don’t the prime attention to the characters to be their body shape or looks.

When I write a character, I don’t plan whether they are gay, nationality, political beliefs or skin color they are. In the family secrets series, the midnight madam, the lady in black or Katherine Hawthorne as she is known. I never defined her exactly. She prefers wearing black. It helps her blend in more and she prefers to be left alone, even her family she turned she doesn’t spend time with. She has her own agenda, and plans what her time and future is. She hides behind a black veil almost as though she is mourning and yet she is incredibly powerful to the point she could take everyone out. So why doesn’t she? There is something about her that comes out in the end that no one expects. I don’t go into what size she is, if she’s athletic or handicapped. She is introverted and not social unless she is forced to be. Even as the writer, Katherine could be deaf. I don’t even discuss if she prefers women over men. I want the story to tell itself while having her be incredibly strong mentally and determined. I think I would be doing a great injustice to her if I defined her other than people will assume she is evil. She is malicious when it comes to others lives and would kill anyone to get what she wants but is that what makes her evil? There are always variables to this and why she is at that point.

The closest I have come in defining her is that her skin blends well with her veil. Usually she is seen in the dark but her features are difficult to see because she is always covered. To be honest I doubt she is Caucasian but again I never set anything to her. Another character Lorah is going to surprise some since I hadn’t seen it coming. There were certain characteristics of hers that became more pronounced as the series progressed and I learned from her. She may or may not be lesbian but I can’t honestly say if that is what I was surprised by since there are several revelations about her that slowly come out and who she is connected with outside of the main family that even though they thought they knew everything about her, they never saw this coming.

At times, there might be a few where I’ve described hair color changing or moving to another location. There certainly isn’t anything wrong with an author defining their characters. It is what they relate to and helps them better write about them. I want to connect to the personalities of the character. For me that helps write the story more than being stuck with a body type. I feel it is important to get past the looks of a character. Every reader has their idea of what attractive looks like and the way I describe something doesn’t mean people will see it the same way I do and that is fine with me. I will always have an idea in my mind about them. Especially three characters in particular that I had three different muses influence me. I mainly want the possibilities to be wide open as it would be for a real person. There are many people I know who are overweight that have accomplished more than a thin person and vice versa. The reason I do this is that it works for me, not what is sought after because people want someone or something to represent their group. I don’t want it to feel forced. I wanted it to come naturally and be the way it is because of the natural course the story went. I won’t intentionally exclude aspects but I also don’t want it to seem like a big elephant in the room that no one is talking about.

I do write fictional paranormal romance however I want the family to have problems regular people would have. Simply because they were turned to vampires it doesn’t mean their personality should change unless what they already are happens to be enhanced and when you’re a klutz that doesn’t exactly feel very rewarding. There will be many levels that they will not be relatable but there will be some that certainly will be.