F is for Free Spirit
No, I'm not selling jeans (more's the pity, too. I always wanted to be cool enough to be in the fashion industry); I'm creating Uber Characters.
Don't look that up; I coined the term. At least, I think I did, just now, as I was writing this. You see, as I've mentioned (yes, I know, ad nauseam, but there are NEW visitors here thanks to A to Z!) my WIP involves following two souls through six or more lifetimes. While that means that each soul will have a new name, history, appearance, and even personality in each lifetime - i.e. the normal characters I need to create - there also needs to be some core identity, some essential piece of each soul that is the same in every life. My hope is that the reader will be able to say, "Oh, I bet this girl is the Damon character from that Greek story," or something like that, anyway. To put it simply, each soul should is some important way be recognizable as itself.
This of course leads to some very metaphysical questions - "What is the essential piece of a soul?" being just one of the many totally unanswerable ones - so I decided to deal with this the best way I knew how: by making each soul a sort of umbrella character for every mortal person in every lifetime it has. You know, as in an Uber Character. One of the first things I did when I started working on this novel was to create character analyses for both souls, complete with detailed psychological profiles.
So this is Uber Character #1: fiercely independent, suspicious of rules and authority of all kinds, and a bit wild - although that wildness can take some very different, and unexpected, forms.
This is the soul I call the Free Spirit. What is the other soul, Uber Character #2? Well, it'll appear somewhere during the A to Z Challenge...but I'm not telling which letter, because it's way more fun that way. Any guesses?
I've known some free spirits, but they weren't really wild. More positive and subdued. They believed in the importance of positive energy.
ReplyDeleteI'd guess your second character is Yin to the Yang, and therefore more soft, stable, supporting and sustaining (and clearly I'm on an alliterative jag this morning! LOL).
ReplyDeleteLaurel
Laurel's Leaves
Uber Character -- excellent term. I'm with Laurel on thinking #2 will be the flip side of #1, but all my alliteration is taking me to C words so I already know I'm wrong.
ReplyDeleteI'm so happy you're doing A to Z! It's nice to be able to finally jump in and see what y'all have come up with.
"suspicious of rules and authority of all kinds" I love characters like that. :)
ReplyDeleteInteresting. So they'll have a persistent personality throughout each of their lives?
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing Uber Character #2 will be reserved.
To make it interesting, I bet the second character is just the opposite!
ReplyDeleteI agree with Alex, my guess is that Uber Character #2 is very much the opposite of #1 in order to make them more easily recognizable and inspire conflict.
ReplyDeleteI'm guessing the second character is the opposite as well! Way to leave us hanging, lady. I'll be back to learn more, for sure!!
ReplyDeleteI'll admit I did wonder about this. I mean, the complexity of creating a core personality that can then show through being several different identities. Quite a challenge!
ReplyDeleteDefinitely think you're going to go with a yin yang balance on these characters. ;)
ReplyDeleteWhen I read the title, I thought the free spirit was going to be you! :)
ReplyDeleteJust a few small questions to consider for writing these characters. Nothing too hard... lol! You are so funny.
Talk about a challenge! Woo, that sounds like a doozy but an absolutely fun concept! Reincarnated souls perhaps?
ReplyDeleteA control freak?
ReplyDeleteI see each of us as two parts: the machine, or physical body, and the spirit that is eternal and housed in the body for a time. In my definition, the soul is a combination of the two.
I love the term uber character.
ReplyDeleteI'm going to love that free spirited one. I like what you said about paring a character down to the essential part of their soul.
ReplyDeleteFree Spirit describes my mom:) I like it
ReplyDeleteOhhhh! I love those traits very interesting character!
ReplyDeleteI have a free-spirited friend, and she resembles your character quite a bit.
ReplyDeleteDamyanti, cohost AZ2014
Interesting concepts here. I like the sound of the Uber Character.
ReplyDeleteI want to hang with Uber Character #1. I'm afraid #2 will be the evil twin.
ReplyDeleteFree Spirits are just great, I have given your blog a shout out from my letter G today http://rosieamber.wordpress.com/
ReplyDeleteA character with a free spirit and a bit of a wild streak is one that's fun to write.
ReplyDeleteElsie
AJ's wHooligan in the A-Z Challenge
I like this idea - souls moving between different lives and different people, but keeping their essential nature. It would be interesting if the same soul worked out to different actual personalities in different lives, based on how the experience of a given life shaped a person according to their initial (soul) nature, combined with the ups or downs of their particular life. Sort of like genetic potential vs. epigenetic expression.
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