Beautiful People Linkup--March

Cait at "Paper Fury" is co-hosting a linkup called "Beautiful People." Each month she announces a new set of questions to answer about your characters so you can learn more about them. Since Camp NaNoWriMo is right around the corner, I'm going to try and learn a little bit more about my protagonist, a seventeen-year-old character living in a writer's head by the name of Indigo Sparks. She's the hero of her story, a YA fantasy romance, who is a revered dragon slayer. She's short, wears pastel rainbow sweaters, loves Metallica, and kicks butt while looking adorable and not at all scary. The Writer has unfortunately decided to pair her up with another character in the book, a boy she loathes but can't escape.



1. What is their secret desire?

Indigo's pretty much an open book and often voices her opinions, even when they aren't wanted. She's filterless. But her not-so-secret desires are to fight The Writer tooth and nail to create her own story, one where she has the ending she wants. Upon discovering her friends' fates, she wants to help them out, too.


2. What is the best and brightest moment they experience during the story?

Probably everything she does in the climax, but I won't give that away here. ;)

3. What are the emotional places your characters are afraid to go to?

She doesn't like thinking about her past. It's too painful for her. Her parents never really got involved in her life. They forgot to show up to school productions, they forgot her birthday on more than one occasion, they wouldn't be able to tell anyone what her hobbies are. They were always busy with work and their friends and keeping up appearances in the neighborhood, but Indigo can't remember the last time they played a game with her. After she got sucked into the fantasy realm where her story takes place, she hasn't been able to find a way back to Earth, but what she's scared to admit is that she doesn't want to go back.

4. Is there a place/city/room where they will never go? Why?

Indie's always made a promise to herself that she wouldn't step foot into the morgue, where all the characters who met their demise end up, but that promise might change. She's also never seen the wing of the hospital where all the half-formed characters and ideas live, mostly because she's never had a reason to.

5. If they were permanently leaving town, what would they easily throw out? What would they refuse to part with? (Why?)

Her books and music and favorite clothes would come with her no matter what, but if she had to leave something behind for the sake of easy transportation, she'd be okay with throwing out her old drawings. She used to draw pictures for her mom and dad all the time when she was younger, but one day she noticed her mom using them as place mats or coasters. Then she noticed that they often ended up in the trash with coffee stains or sour cream smudges. She gathered the rest of them up and stuffed them in her closet and hasn't drawn another one since.

6. What do they want (consciously and tangibly)?

A happy ending. A family. Safety. Oh, and a bigger bookshelf.

7. On the other hand: what do they need (on the emotional, subconscious level)?

See above.

8. If they could change one thing about themselves, what would it be?

Indie learned a long time ago that wanting to change who she was did nothing but frustrate her, so instead she's learned to embrace herself, flaws and all. Though sometimes she wishes she were taller so she could reach things off the top shelves. It's especially infuriating when she has to hop up and down to read the spines of books that are higher up.

9. What is the most humiliating event of their life?

When she forgot her lines during her monologue for the middle-school play. She vowed after that to become a master of improv and not care what anybody thought about her if she messed up.

10. What things do they turn to when they need a bit of hope?

Indigo's best friend, Harper, isn't exactly a ray of sunshine. She's a good person to go to when Indie needs her butt kicked into gear or someone to tell her to snap out of it. But when she needs hope and comfort, she goes to the character therapy group and talks to her friends there. The group therapist has become a sort of mom figure for her.

Tell me about your characters! Are you participating in Camp NaNoWriMo this year?