Favoritism — it’s impossible to avoid (A-Z blog)

Arianna Collins from my novels Arianna’s Honor and Arianna’s Destiny will always be my favorite character (shhhh…don’t tell my other characters).

Okay, I know…we aren’t really supposed to admit we have favorites. Parents are supposed to love all of the children the same amount and teachers are supposed to be completely unbiased and totally objective about all of their students. (I am not a parent, but trust me after 18 1/2 years of teaching, I definitely have some favorite and not-so-favorite students).

So Arianna is my favorite character. Those of you who have read her, might understand why. Then again, you might not.

One of the best parts of the writing process is I get to write characters who do things I could never do…they may have bits of my personality that come through once in a while, but in general, writing allows me to “be” different people.

Arianna is so brave and her fears never get the best of her. Her physical strength is added to her fierce loyalty and if ever there was a person I could call selfless, it would be my girl, Ari. She could be a super-hero or a sword-carrying, ass-kicking, violent Mother Teresa (sorry, yeah, that comparison was a bit too much for my brain as well).

The point of all of this is, as an author (or parent or teacher, etc.) you will have favorites. The trick is to treat all of your characters, kids, students, etc as if you love them all equally. No body has ever guessed my truly favorite student…and I plan to keep it that way, and I plan to keep my characters all thinking each of them is my favorite as well. It’s okay, my characters don’t read my blog.

Part of the writing process is writing the stories your characters have to tell. Arianna is my absolute favorite, and it is tempting to have more novels for her because she is the favorite…but I have to really look at it objectively  and think if she has a 3rd story to tell. Too many movie series, TV series, book series stay too long at the party.