Yup,
I want her to come alive. I’ve got the idea down. She's got all kinds of simple stats that gives age, height, weight, family, background, education etc. But still the poor girl is locked in a crystal mirror of two dimensions. I want to care. But it's a tough battle. Where are the flaws that make her human, or the strengths beyond a gun/robot/baseball bat? Where will conflict rise? Why should she care about anything or how the world goes?
Shattering through the simple stuff and making the mirror become flesh is terrifying. Why? I want to believe before she becomes a ghost, a wisp in the fog of night. I want to feel that spine tingling electricity that makes her pop forward and makes the careless reader suddenly embrace who and what she is. I've read a lot on strong female leads and my current project steps away from the typical hard bitten Soldier to something a bit different. The vulnerability needs to be there without becoming stagnant and depressing. Through the setbacks, I want to see her grow. Sometimes I catch glimpses of this. Steel hammers and iron anvils mixed with the fire of chaos. The edge gets a little better each round but it's like ripping clay from a pile of sand.
Still, this one has a whole lot of potential. Something that aches, groans, screams and kills. But where do I bring her to life? Today? Tomorrow? A thousand years from now on some distant world? What would shape her attitudes and desires? Is it nature or nurture or a few different things in between? I'm not sure where this leads but DAMMIT I know something is there.
All this because I want a reader to look beyond physical traits or historical facts. It's a craving, a quest and a heartbreaking climb. I love every minute of it even when I want to scream bloody murder.
How bout you? Do you see that one character you REALLY want to come alive? Is he or she just on the tip of your mind, ready to burst out and come alive? Drop a line and tell me how it comes!
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