What literary character would you like to hang out with?

The best fiction is character-driven. Plot matters, of course, but if I don’t care about the characters, the best plot in the world won’t make me enjoy a book (see: Gone Girl. Amazing plotting/storytelling, but the characters? Not so much.) So let’s talk about characters–specifically, a literary character you’d like to hang out with. But before I get to that:

This post is part of the Insecure Writers Support Group (IWSG) blog hop. On the first Wednesday of every month, we IWSG-ers share our doubts, fears, struggles, and triumphs. Our awesome co-hosts this month are Jennifer Lane, L Diane Wolfe, Jenni Enzor, and Natalie Aguirre. Stop by and leave them some comment love. Each month our fearless leader (Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh) gives us an optional question to answer. This month’s question: What fantasy character would you like to fight, go on a quest with, or have a beer/glass of wine with?

The literary character I’d most like to hang out with

I’ve broadened the question to include any literary character, but the character I’ve chosen is, in fact, a fantasy character (sort of). She is: Claire from the Outlander series.

I’ll try to avoid spoilers in case someone out there hasn’t read or watched Outlander yet. Claire is a former WW2 army combat nurse who finds out the hard way that a stone circle in the Scottish Highlands is actually a time portal. By “the hard way,” I mean, she finds herself ripped through time and plopped into the 18th century. What follows are 9 (soon to be 10) very large books’ worth of adventure, sex, violence, and men in kilts.

But what draws me back to this series over and over isn’t the adventure, sex, and violence, or even the men in kilts (though they certainly help). It’s the characters (not just the hot male kilted ones). They’re rendered so vividly, they feel like family. I wouldn’t mind hanging out with several of them, but Claire tops the list. She survives all manner of terrifying adventures, sometimes rescued by others but usually saved, at least in part, through her own intelligence and resourcefulness. She isn’t perfect (who wants to read about perfect people?) but her grit, toughness, and boundless compassion keep me rooting for her.

I’d love to spend an afternoon with Claire in her garden, learning about medicinal herbs and how to carve a rewarding existence out of a frontier wilderness, then kick back on the porch of her 18th-century home and just talk. She’s like a grown-up Laura Ingalls with an English accent, a foul mouth, and a very high sex drive. I think she’d be a hoot to hang with.

Outlander is a great example of a series that succeeds because of its great characters. The books can be challenging and even problematic at times (lots of violent sex–including far too many rapes for my liking, overwrought descriptions in places, too many side stories in the later books and an overall lack of focus at times), but the characters are complex and remarkably well rendered. The writing is also gorgeous in places, so much so that I’ll reread favorite passages occasionally just to savor the language and imagery. But it’s the characters that have made these books beloved by millions.

How about you, dear reader? Which literary character would you like hang out with?

Writing News

My big writing news is that “Proof Text,” the first short story I ever wrote as an adult, is now published in King’s River Life! Details and a link are available in my previous post.

The Memery

I’ve been too busy playing in my garden lately to do much meme-hunting (and the main source of my memes–social media–is a shitshow, so I’ve spent much less time there), but I have a couple to share this month:

As long as we’re in wordplay mode:

I’d bet a substantial sum of money that a dad drew on that poor leek and stuck it under the sink.

March is my birthday month, so let’s celebrate in style:

This is entirely too accurate. I seem to sprout a new brown spot every flippin’ day.

Let’s just say I’m glad my mouse has a scroll wheel.

That’s it for me this time. Drop a comment and tell me which literary character you would like to hang out with–or just say hi. Comments reassure me I’m not just typing into the void over here.