Let's Talk About Characters!

Okay, I just have to take a minute to say how SUPER excited I am to make my first official post for YAtopia. Like giddy excited...LOL

Second, I wanted to announce some of the winners from out launch last week! The winner of my contest for a 10.00 dollar gift card is.... JESSI E!

Wendy's contest winner is...ORCHID!

Leigh's contest winner is...LEXIE!

Congrats everyone!

Now... getting that out of the way, on with my post :)

I want to talk about characters. I've made no secret in the past that I am completely, 100% a character reader. I can handle almost any kind of plot as long as the author writes characters I can fall in love with. And I don't just mean boys I can swoon over because while that is nice...okay, maybe a little more than nice, a girl can always use a good swoon, I need to go deeper than that. I think that's part of the reason that I love those tortured heroes so much. I like looking deep into a character. Finding out what makes the tick, why they hurt, how the deal with it and I love, LOVE seeing them find a way out of it. I want inside their heads AND their hearts.

I think even those carefree boys have to have some substance to them. I still need to know why they are the way they are. I love to laugh with them, but I also want to see that emotional side too. I want to know everything about them and if an author can do a good job of that, I fall in love with them.

Though it might sound like it, it's not all about the boys either. Though I always say I have to like the female, but love the male, I also need a girl I can connect with on some level. I'm not saying we have to be alike or that if they were real, that I think we'd be BFFs or anything, but I have to know them. Even if I don't have their experiences, I need to have some clue what it's like to live in their skin. I need to know their head and hearts too.

That's what makes a book to me. The characters.

It's the same way for me when I'm writing. The majority of the time, one of the characters pops into my head first. With WHAT A BOY WANTS, the whole book started around Sebastian. I had the good looking, slightly cocky, sarcastic boy pop into my head and I needed a story to go around him. I wanted the book to be from his POV because his voice spoke SO loudly to me. As I picked around in his head, I realized though he was cocky, sarcastic and was a little girl obsessed, that he also was a great friend. That even though he gave his friends a hard time, there wasn't anything he wouldn't do for them. That he was a good son and wanted to protect his mom. Actually, he wanted to protect everyone he cared about. He might not always show those sides to him, but that makes the times they pop out all the more special, because it made him real. To me at least :).

Who are some of your favorite characters you've read or written and why? What is it about them that speaks to you?