Ten Favourite Characters

Following on from my post yesterday about creating characters, I thought I would share the characters that I had listed for the weriting exercise. These are all favourites but I especially made my choices based on the charaacter I am creating for my new story. In other words, there are many more characters that I love and that have made a significant impact on me as a reader and a writer but these are the ones that I think have helped me to inform who Hazel is.

1. October Holt from October, October by Katya Balen- she is a complicated young girl the same sort of age as Hazel who is grappling with guilt, fish-out-of-water syndrome and her mother’s abandonment (in her eyes). Stories for her are a coping mechanism and a way to understand our world.
2. Fionn Boyle from The Storm Keeper’s Island trilogy by Catherine Doyle – he is so determined and brave. He lost his father at a young age and has been seeking how his father links him to his destiny and duty as Storm Keeper. He is a good friend and relentlessly curious.
3. Anne Shirley from the Anne of Green Gables series by L. M. Montgomery – most of you reading probably already know Anne but when I re-read this book relatively recently, I fell in love with her again. She is imaginative to a fault, fiercely loyal and wants to be loved so badly. She dances off the page, she is so vibrant and vivid a character.
4. Lyra Belacqua from His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman – another spirited and daring character who is clever and adventurous.
5. Holly Gibney from the Bill Hodges trilogy as well as The Outsider, If It Bleeds and Holly, all by Stephen King – I love Holly because she is serially underestimated because of her ordinary middle-aged appearance but she is sharp, brave and utterly dogged when she sets to solve a mystery. I am excited to see she will return in Never Flinch which is being released this year.
6. Emma Rose from The Last to See Me by M. Dressler – this seasoned ghost is both a sympathetic character while also being somewhat dangerous. I love how she makes the most of what little agency she has in her ghost-state.
7. Belle Blackthorn from Rewitched by Lucy Jane Wood – she made the list because she is a witch who, like Hazel, is not willing or able to live her life as a full witch. She is humble, sweet, loyal and just getting to grips with who she really is. I love her name too!
8. Lady Macbeth from Macbeth by William Shakespeare – an surprising choice perhaps, often seen as vile and manipulative. I don’t love her because I admire her but I do think she is a fascinating character who is fierce, ambitious, unafraid of flouting conventions but also cruel and deeply flawed. Is she the fourth witch? Perhaps. But she is also a woman surviving (until she doesn’t) in a man’s domain.
9. Scout Finch from To Kill and Mockingbird by Harper Lee – I fell in love with this character when I read the book as a teenager. She was a tomboy, intelligent and very loyal – a character trait I clearly value. She also matures over the course of the novel developing empathy and compassion.
10. Elizabeth Bennet from Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – I saved the OG best character until the end. Elizabeth is loyal (again), independent, obstinate, headstrong (what is wrong with that, Lady Catherine?!) and also imperfect which makes her all the more endearing. She is brave in the face of rigid social conventions and seeks for herself a life with love.