Purple Prose + Novel

Crushing On Your Character

As writers, we spent a lot of time getting to know our characters. Between the characterization questionnaires and revisions, we know everything about them, or at least we should. If you don’t, then I suggest you check out this post.

Maybe there’s one character that embodies aspects you want in a mate (aka boyfriend/husband), and before you know it, you’re crushing on that individual. You dream about the character. Fantasize about him while you work. Create, in your head while exercising, witty dialogue between him and another character.

Has this happened to you, or am I just weird?

Now, what happens if you are a YA writer? You’re in your twenties, thirties, or forties, and he’s only seventeen. I recently read an interview with Maggie Stiefvater on Sherrie Petersen’s blog. She wouldn’t fall in love with her teenage male characters for several reasons, including, “. . . most of them are underage, so it would be jailbait.”

True enough, if you were crushing on a real teenager. But is this true for fiction?

I think not.

When I write, I become my seventeen-year-old main character. It helps me make her emotions real. I’m not forty, anymore. It’s my seventeen-year-old self who’s crushing on the hot character. My forty-year-old self is in love with my forty-year-old (and utterly sexy) husband. See? There’s a huge difference.

So what do you think. Is it okay to crush on a character, especially if you write YA? And have you fallen in love any characters, whether it’s one from your novel or from someone else’s?

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Crushing On Your Character + Novel