Happy Wednesday! Continuing our riffs on character this month, let’s talk about other people’s characters for a minute. There are some really awesome and memorable characters out there – Harry Bosch, Jack Reacher, Cork O’Connor, to name a few. So Wickeds, is there a character out there that you wish you’d written?
Edith: That’s a hard question. I keep thinking of strong interesting characters I love: Clare Fergusson, Gemma James, Harriet Vane, Molly Murphy, Inspector Gamache – and I would love to have written any of them! I know nothing about Episcopal priests, London cops, Harriet’s world, early 1900s Irish PIs in New York City, or Quebecois police, however, but that’s what research and imagination are for.
Sherry: I would have loved to have written Elizabeth Bennett the protagonist in Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen. She’s smart, feisty, flawed, and rises above the restrictions of her time. She’s one of my all time favorite characters in one of my very favorite books.
Liz: Edith, I hear you about Clare Fergusson, but I think I would say both her and Russ Van Alstyne, because one without the other just wouldn’t be the same! Also, yes, Jack Reacher – because how cool is he, wandering the country restoring order in his badass ways. And any of the Harry Potter characters – especially Snape.
Barb: This is a hard one. It’s so tempting to call out the characters who have become a part of the culture and our lives: Pip, Scout, Huck, Gatsby, Jo. But for me, it has to be the protagonists in the mystery series I love: Reg Wexford from Ruth Rendell and Adam Dagliesh from P. D. James. They do lead me naturally to some of the characters others have mentioned: Clare Fergusson, Gemma James, Armand Gamache, Thomas Lynley, Jackson Brodie.
Jessie: This is such a great question, Liz! I have a category in my bullet journal entitiled Books I Wish I had Written. This is a fun twist on that same subject! I wish I had written Flavia DeLuce by Alan Bradley. Utterly charming. I also wish that I had crafted the enchanting, melancholy Emma Graham character by Martha Grimes in her books like The End of the Pier, Hotel Paradise and Cold Flat Junction.
Readers, share your most memorable character in the comments below!
Interesting question! I would say Anne Shirley, Katniss Everdeen, Pippi Longstocking, Jo March, and Nancy Mitford’s Fanny. All versions of the same character, come to think of it.
I like your comparison!
Pippi and Katniss are two of my favorites!
Lord Peter Wimsey and Harriet Vane
Inspector Grant by Josephine Tey…today…ask me tomorrow and I may have another answer.
Jim Qwilleran and Richard Jury.
Agatha Raisin (her introduction in Quiche of Death my favorite)
I LOVE her!
So many characters to pick from! I would have enjoyed ghost writing Nancy Drew or The Hardy Boys, as they were the first mysteries I read. If I could go back in time… I would have been honored to have been just a friend of Agatha Christie. To have been there, and possibly have read the rough drafts of her books…what a dream come true for me! Miss Marple and Hercule Poirot are my comfort world.
Annie Laurence Darling and her mother-in-law. I just totally get inside of their heads when I’m reading one of Carolyn Hart’s books. So many others…..
Oh, this is hard. I really wish I’d created the characters in the Harry Potter universe. They all work so well together and I think writing an “ensemble cast” is so hard to do well.
Right? I can’t believe that was JK Rowling’s first effort.
I would have loved to have written Sean Duffy in Adrian McKinty’s series. He’s funny and smart.
Oh, gosh, I love Sean Duffy. And Gerard Doyle, who narrates many of my books (some as Michael Deehy) also reads the Sean Duffys.
I know of Gerard Doyle! I’ve listened to many of your books read by him as well as the Sean Duffys. He is so talented. In one Duffy, I counted seven different accents, four regional Irish, one hybrid Irish, one Scottish and one British. In fact, at one point I remember having listened to so many books by him that I was thinking in his voice. He even reads my grocery list better than I do.
Reading the post today is a joy – so many characters I recognize and reminds me how much I enjoyed them, and how varied writing and characters are.
Is it going to surprise anyone if I say Mrs. Pollifax or any of the Trixie Belsen characters?
Hester latterly crested by Anne Perry, Maisie Dobbs crested by Jacqueline Winspear, or Bess Armstrong crested by the mother son team of Charles Todd. All strong, intelligent, and compassionate women.
Dang autocorrect. I typed “created” not crested.
Tom Barnaby by Caroline Graham, anything by McBeaton, Joan Hess, Simon Brett’s Charles Paris, and, of course, anything but anything by Sharyn McCrumb.
There are so many, but a few are Aunt Dimity, Kate Daniels, Bess Crawford, Jane Yellowrock, Goldie Schultz, & Meg Lanslow.
Thank you for the lovely comments! (But Duncan says he feels a bit left out, lol!)
I’d have to say Harry Harristeen from Mrs. Murphy Mysteries or Amelia Peabody by Elizabeth Peters. Those are the first ones that come to mind. But I could write a list a mile long!