I think this is the first I'm bringing this up publicly, the situation of my parents has largely influenced the framework on how I imagine characters. Like with many people, my parents lived from paycheck to paycheck, closed off from certain options. I mean to say, that there was a program that if you vowed to have more kids, there was a guaranteed credit for a better apartment, except since my old man is a drunk, obviously she didn't want additional kids beyond my brother.
So, because of that, the "expected male role model" turned out to be a self-centered prick, who liked cheap pubs a lot, thus she took that role. Explains why I'm attracted to physically and emotionally strong women, who're more than capable of taking care of themselves and those around them without being subservient.
Using that as a basis, I like to fancy the idea, that readers, both women, and men can relate to a character, who is outstanding to them. They're not suddenly just a girl in a bikini with a great rack, but a person, who has struggles, yet still finds the energy to fight on the behalf of those they love. For that, there's no genetic formula, it comes from within. I know it's a selfish statement, but since what I publish is rarely something I've written for myself, I like it if people can remember, that it was different from other stories.
Don't get me wrong, garden variety stories are good for the pure physical need, I just think that with 192 countries and more cultures on a global site like this, and for the large part our grammar is being the same, yet our idioms and metaphors are not, we can introduce certain things that give the reader something to take away. That is why, and I mean no offense to great writers like Jack here, I like sinclairfan the best. He's a diligent cerebral writer, who can guide the reader to the past in the Baltics with the same ease he does with the early '90s or today.
I don't expect people to get too real, and start talking about their own actual lives in great detail in relation to a character, but it's nice to imagine they can while consuming the story. My biggest sorrow with the lack of responses is, that we don't get to know where ca grow personally, and I mean here scene and character description, fluid action or psychological realism. The fetish may have chosen us, but we do come from different generations, ethnicity, creed and walk of life. The last decade has been impregnated with the breakdown of common values to the lowest denominator, when I feel we can do better, and that's what I want to reflect.
