Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Character

Pop quiz:
Would YOU rather be an evil genius or a good-hearted simpleton?
If you had 100 points to allocate between goodness and intelligence, where would you put your points?

Are "right" decisions based on fact or feeling for you?
If you're a writer, which of these drives your MC?
Can rational thought take the place of morality?

I hope this keeps you thinking today.

BTW, I started considering this after seeing an ad for the summer reality show True Beauty. I LOVE the premise: pretty people who believe they're in a model-themed reality show are really being evaluated on who they are and how they treat other people--a.k.a., "inner beauty." I don't watch much TV, but I may have to check out the first episode of this one.


This completely unrelated video depicts one of my personal nightmares
(and the main reason my book tour is almost entirely online):

Thanks to Brenna Lyons in the Broad Universe discussion for the link.

And I got this yesterday--it made my day:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/103709681

6 comments:

Disgruntled Bear said...

Goodness: 35
Intelligence: 65

And Maddie, my MC, is probably 20/80.

Nicole said...

I would agree with 65 intelligence, 35 goodness. I'd much rather be an evil genius, I think. Especially since whenever I'm usually routing for the evil, yet somehow redeemable character.

Easy examples coming to my brain at the moment are from TV - in LOST my favorite character is Ben Linus. In Battlestar Galactica, my favorite character is Gaius Baltar.

In Harry Potter, my favorite character (after Ron Weasley) is Severus Snape (even from the beginning).

What can I say? I like em flawed.

Nicole said...

I love when I don't proofread my comments. Aka - I hate it.

Unknown said...

If the evil goes with the genius it would have to be the good idiot all the way!

Theresa Milstein said...

The show sounds like it may be interesting. It's hard to know how I should allocate my goodness vs. intelligence. I'd like to be both!

As for characters, even the good have to have some flaws or it would be boring.

I like HH's Severus Snape comment on Severus Snape. I agree!

Disgruntled Bear said...

I had a lot of sympathy for Severus. He always struck me as more wounded and defensive--rather than evil. We had Voldemort (yeah, I said the name) to incarnate true evil.