Influential Characters
By Therese Walsh | October 30, 2006 |
USA TODAY recently wrote a piece called The 101 Most Influential People Who Never Lived. Here are the top ten:
1. The Marlboro Man
2. Big Brother
3. King Arthur
4. Santa Claus (St. Nick)
5. Hamlet
6. Dr. Frankenstein’s Monster
7. Siegfried
8. Sherlock Holmes
9. Romeo and Juliet
10. Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde
So I started thinking about it: Which fictional characters have influenced me the most? I remember always wanting to be as good as Laura Ingalls, do the right thing, be kind, etc… Of course, I usually felt more like Nellie Olson, but that’s okay; Laura still influenced me. Santa is a given; I was well-behaved for at least a few weeks out of the year for him. Hmm, Betty Crocker probably had something to do with my early love of brownies, and Popeye for my desire to try to like spinach…again and again from the can (never once raw in a salad). And the shark from Jaws? He can be thanked for my enduring thalassophobia.
Thinking about what it takes to build an influential character reminds me a little of my post about characters who are The Most, but I think there’s more to it than that. To be influential, a character must somehow cement an “If-Then” scenario in our heads. For example: If I eat spinach, then I will be strong. If I buy that box, then I will then be able to make luscious brownies. If I fall in love with someone my family hates, then all will end in disaster, and if I fall in love with a priest, then surely I will never be satisfied. If I smoke that brand of cigarettes, then I will be cool. If I go into the ocean past my ankles, then I will be stalked by a giant predatory fish; I will feel his oversized vampiresque teeth pierce my flesh; I will sense his hatred for all mankind as he’s feasting on my blood and crushing my bones into chunks sized for his slip-oozey throat — Ack!!!
So what do you think? Are there benefits to creating these characters? Which characters have influenced you the most over the course of your life and how?
Therese Walsh (she/her) co-founded Writer Unboxed in 2006 and is the site’s editorial director. She was the editor of WU’s only book, Author in Progress, and runs the Writer Unboxed UnConference.
Her second novel, The Moon Sisters, received starred reviews and was named one of the best books of the year by Library Journal and Book Riot.
Learn more about Therese on her website, and sign up for her newsletter to be among the first to hear about any new projects.
Without a doubt, it was reading about Laura Ingalls’ adventures when I was a kid that made me want to become a writer.
Others that stick out in my mind are Scooby Doo and Shaggy, the gang on Gilligan’s Island, Jane Eyre and Rochester, Sidney Carton in Tale of Two Cities (I cried, my god, I cried when he got the chop), and the bad biker boys in the Outsiders.
But I’m not ashamed to admit the biggest influence on me were those pernicious hobbits. I still dip into the genius of Tolkien every so often. LotR never gets stale or old to me. :-)
My first big influences were all the characters from the Narnia books, followed by LOTR.
Then there was Anne of Green Gables and the March girls from Little Women. Looking back, I realize these books were a precursor to reading (and writing) romance. And maybe I secretly identified just a little bit with Jo, scribbling away in her garret. :)
Hmmm, well, Scarlett O’Hara and Elizabeth Bennett come to mind immediately, as does Genevra from Susan Howatch’s The Wheel of Fortune (a fantastic book, btw). Jo Bettany from Elinor M. Brent-Dyer’s Chalet School series is another writer/heroine I loved reading about for years. Hmmm, will have to think more about this :-) Interesting topic!
Hmm…most influential characters…well, this may sound weird, but I’ve always really liked the story of Samson and Delilah in the Bible. Something about Samson just really fascinated me. I don’t know that I was necessarily influenced by him…
Nancy Drew was a big one for me. I LOVED the thought of becoming a detective and I always like an element of suspense in my novels.
RE: Sidney Carton from A TALE OF TWO CITIES – when I watched it on PBS, I prepared myself with a big box of Kleenex because I knew what was going to happen. And oh, how I BAWLED. ;)
Sidney Carton, Beth March, Jack the faithful bulldog …. maybe in the future we should do a post on literary deaths and how they milked emotion. I definitely sobbed in a few hankies when I was a kid.
and luke skywalker, hans solo, princess leia and obi wan kenobe. oh, and darth vader, of course. i think these characters resonate with our psyches – who we identify with most, what we dislike most about ourselves and/or others. who we’d really like to be like. they teach us how to be brave, regardless of the cost, how to survive a bad ending; they give us hope. they are the cautionary tale. good, thought-provoking blog today, ter.
Loved your post, Therese. I blogged about it today. Some of my favorite characters are Winnie-the-Pooh, Charlie Bucket, Elizabeth Bennett, Scout Finch and Wilbur from Charlotte’s Web. It’s amazing how many make-believe people have impacted my life. :)
Aww, I’d forgotten about Pooh, Brenda, but he influenced me too.
I like the idea of doing a post on literary deaths…or maybe characters who became alive for us. How about characters who’ve influenced the publishing industry: Harry Potter, anyone?
A character that has influenced my writing has been the big alien cylinder in Clarke’s Rama series. It has a sense of wonder and adventure that I enjoy.