Introducing Your Main Character

      You might think you know them, but I bet most of you do not. Try placing you character in a situation where he/she might meet the author (You) and/or some other important person.  The scene that you create might even be a preface or a prologue for your novel to help promote the fictional dream of your world. I wrote this piece to answer at least some of the questions from all those interested in my leading character.  

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     I remember the first time I met Esola. (Es-so-la) She sat half naked outside on a bench at the most prestigious university on the planet suckling a baby.

     I just finished my whirlwind tour of Ava, a planet you are familiar with as Mars. The late Carl Sagan astronomer extraordinary suggested to me that when it was possible to please visit Mars and Saturn’s moon Titan, the two worlds other than Earth that he surmised could support life. He was right, well partially. Mars, a world civilization not unlike Earth, but better in ways that Earthly leaderships has far to go to match. Sadly, I was told that Sation, the name the Avaians called Saturn’s largest moon has been mute for more than five centuries. They have no reason for that.

    I strolled the grounds of this picturesque institution and watched students cavorting and running to class, when this beautiful voice caught my attention. “You’re a stranger here?”

     I guess my strange clothing gave me away.

     She asked, “Please sit by me.” Her long brown hair tied into a ponytail covering her back in a simple nonchalant manner.

     “I’m a bit nervous.” I said to her trying to sit in a respectable non-obtrusive distance. “Where I come from most young mothers I knew, breast feed their children in private, so not to annoy or shock anyone.”

     “They do.” She said switching breasts. “You come all this way to tell me this?” She smiled faking a laugh. “He’s not my son. A mother in my clan gave birth and became ill. They needed a volunteer while his mother recovers.”

      “That’s generous of you.”

      “I had to drop out of an important assignment in class.”

      “You attend school here at this university?” I said thinking she looked like a high schooler.

      “My uncle teaches history.”

     “I think I met him, a Professor Musa. He is a unique individual.”

     “He told me that you were here. Do they teach history differently where you live?”

     “Uh,” I thought for a second. “History, a vast collection of who did what when where and if we were lucky why. Your uncle has taken a different slant on the subject, advocating a proactive stance. Frankly, I never heard of a term paper titled, ‘How would I stop the war?’”

     “I had to be excused from that major project. My milk won’t come down when I dwell on war and death.”

      “I didn’t realize how those things work…or not.”

      “So, do you consider us backward? You that are taught on the glories of war, and to be afraid of mothers nursing their babies in public?”

 

***Commerial***I don’t get a penny for this.

Look up a writing book

Take Your Character to Dinner

Laurel A. Yourke

I have taken several of her writing courses at the University of Wisconsin Madison. Reading her book is the next best thing from taking her class.