C25K Day Fifteen: Characters

Day 14 was another 'rest' day, and am writing Day 15 on Day 22... Not exactly keeping up with writing every day, but I'm sure as hell doing more writing (and more blog posting) than I did all year last year.

I think of characters that capture my attention, or that I admire because of something, unfortunately there aren’t a lot of women. What does that say? About me, or indeed about the writing that is out there? Is it incredibly egotistical of me to say that my favourite female characters are the ones that I’ve created and fleshed out in my head? Either way, let’s do the list:

Loki – for his incredible depth of character. Here is a person who is deeply flawed, broken and strong at the same time. Even if what he does isn’t good, the reasoning ‘makes sense’.

Shuri – a fine example that women can be clever and flexible, can be the ones pulling the strings and doing what needs to be done. I wish I knew as much about technology as she does…

Robin Hood – I mean, characters with archery skills anyway. But also, the idea of social justice and ‘robbing from the rich for the poor’ is an interesting one.

Mrs Maisel – I find her incredibly complex, and she doesn’t always think in a rational way about what she should do. This is frustrating as the watcher, but in terms of analysing her it makes sense, makes her more believable.

JD (from Heathers) – similar to Loki, he is a product of his own upbringing. I definitely fall into the category of ‘woman who seeks to fix broken man’…

Okay, so 2 of 5 were women after all. But I think what this exercise showed most is that I really need to start reading more books…

Agatha stood in the middle of the half-empty tube carriage, her hair in disarray and her white blouse still half-wet from trying to clean off the cake she’d dropped on herself in the office. She clutched the rail beside her, rocking with the movement of the train as she stared off into space. The train began to slow, coming into a station, which made her glance up. While most people were pointedly ignoring her – and each other – some were looking at her. A woman about her age was staring, almost with a sneer; when Aggy caught her eye, the woman quickly glanced away. An older, balding man leered at her chest. Uncomfortable, Aggy shifted to turn her back on him. This didn’t help matters, it alerted another man to her presence. He looked up from his phone, and ogled at her bra through her blouse. Aggy crossed one arm over her chest, trying to cover the wet patch, but still clung on to the rail of the tube with her other hand as the train came to a stop in the station.