Hello, writers. Like a lot of people, I’ve been listening to the soundtrack from Hamilton this week. It’s extremely catchy, and can be listened to in part on NPR, until they take it down I guess.
Hamilton is a hip-hop musical based, naturally enough, on the life of Alexander Hamilton. (The premise of a musical always sounds improbable.)
What strikes me about these songs is how quickly they establish a character that we all want to know. If you’re like me, what you know about Alexander Hamilton is:
1. He wrote the Federalist Papers
2. and then got shot by Aaron Burr
3. and hence wound up on the $10 bill.
Entire 8th grade classes have been known to fall asleep in unison at the mere mention of the Federalist Papers.
If you listen to the first couple songs, you get a sketch of a character who:
1. Has his back to the wall and
2. is very smart but
3. also impulsive, quick-tempered… a bit of a firebrand which means
4. his mouth gets him into trouble a lot; sometimes deadly trouble.
In other words, your typical male action hero. I’ve gotten into the habit of mentally jotting down character qualities and how they’re presented (good exercise, recommended) and as I counted up these ones, it occurred to me that these character qualities I used in the Jinx books.
They are the qualities of a whole host of male action heroes.
We like these characters.
If they’re guys.
Right now, not for the first time, I’m trying to write a female character with the same qualities. And I have to keep toning her down. My previous attempt at a shoot-from-the-lip female protagonist did not sell, although I’m reading it over this week and it’s really not any worse than Jinx. One or two of the editors who rejected this female character mentioned they found her unlikeable.
My most recent attempt has already sold (to HarperCollins) and now I’m wrestling with the limitations of female action protagonists. This burden of likeability never seems to be raised with male protags, but is raised constantly with female protags.
So I’m just wondering, if the above list of qualities makes a male protag instantly likeable, what qualities make a female protag instantly likeable?
Would love to get your thoughts on this.
Tonight’s challenge:
Choose a work of fiction that you like. What qualities make the protagonist likeable?
Choose one of these qualities…
Write a brief scenelet in which a callow youth and his/her stout companion go into the Startled Duck to ask the whereabouts of the great sage Froop. In the scene, have the CY or the SC display the quality you chose.
Try to limit yourself to 150 words.
The Write On! timeslot has returned to Thursdays at 8 pm ET (5 pm Pacific).
Before signing a contract with any agent or publisher, please be sure to check them out on Preditors and Editors, Absolute Write and/or Writer Beware.