Creating attractive characters
Whilst I was doing the 12 characters meme, I had a thought. (Just occasionally this happens to me.) Admittedly it wasn't a new thought, but now I've got a place to air it. What makes a fictional character attractive? I don't mean in TV and films, because then we're seeing the actor/costume/ make up and hearing a voice. I don't just mean likable or admirable either, or who we might want to be - for example, I identified strongly with Titty Walker as a little girl and would like and admire her if she was a real person and I met her. I like and admire Brother Cadfael and Thursday Next and John Walker and Horatio Hornblower and Helena Justina, but if they were real life people (and we were appropriately similar to each other in age, occupied the same universe etc) I still wouldn't have any romantic feeling towards them. Now admittedly, you could point out that Thursday, Helena and myself all have committed and monogamous relationships with our husbands/ boyfriends and Brother Cadfael has taken a vow of celibacy. We only see John Walker between the ages of about 12/13 to 16/17, but then I had read all Ransome's books by the time I got to that age and still never thought "I wish I had a boyfriend like John Walker", despite hardly ever meeting any boys whom I hadn't known since playgroup. It might have been because I was so convinced John would end up with Nancy Blackett of course. And we are definitely given to believe that Hornblower is attractive to women - but, no. Not to me.
So can you be attracted, romantically, to someone through the medium of the printed word alone.
Hmm.
Marcus Didius Falco, Mr Darcy, very slightly and totally against my better judgement- Mr Rochester, Hugh Beringar, some Georgette Heyer heroes, no one by Thomas Hardy, absolutely under no circumstances whatsoever Heathcliffe. Not one of Elinor Brent-Dyer's suitable doctors. Both F'lar and F'nor from the Dragonriders of Pern series. None of the characters from the Honor Harrington series - and heaven knows there's enough of them to choose from.
And then I started to ask questions - mostly they got misinterpreted. People replied about characters in TV series and films and even specifically actors rather than book characters. Reading what people had to say in fanfiction/ reviews was a bit more enlightening.
Anyway for what it's worth here are my hypotheses.
Heterosexual or bisexual (so far as we know) male authors seem particularly able to write female characters who are particularly attractive to heterosexual male readers and (less evidence)lesbian and bisexual female readers, even if that doesn't seem to be the intention of the author.
Heterosexual or bisexual (so far as we know) female authors seem particularly able to write male characters who are particularly attractive to heterosexual female readers.
There are other hypotheses that should logically follow, eg gay male writers should be able better able to write male characters who are attractive to heterosexual women and gay men but not romantically attractive female characters but I really don't have any evidence for these logical follow-ons.
So what do people think? Has anyone got any instances which would disprove any of my hypotheses?
And does fanfiction alter things in this respect?
So can you be attracted, romantically, to someone through the medium of the printed word alone.
Hmm.
Marcus Didius Falco, Mr Darcy, very slightly and totally against my better judgement- Mr Rochester, Hugh Beringar, some Georgette Heyer heroes, no one by Thomas Hardy, absolutely under no circumstances whatsoever Heathcliffe. Not one of Elinor Brent-Dyer's suitable doctors. Both F'lar and F'nor from the Dragonriders of Pern series. None of the characters from the Honor Harrington series - and heaven knows there's enough of them to choose from.
And then I started to ask questions - mostly they got misinterpreted. People replied about characters in TV series and films and even specifically actors rather than book characters. Reading what people had to say in fanfiction/ reviews was a bit more enlightening.
Anyway for what it's worth here are my hypotheses.
Heterosexual or bisexual (so far as we know) male authors seem particularly able to write female characters who are particularly attractive to heterosexual male readers and (less evidence)lesbian and bisexual female readers, even if that doesn't seem to be the intention of the author.
Heterosexual or bisexual (so far as we know) female authors seem particularly able to write male characters who are particularly attractive to heterosexual female readers.
There are other hypotheses that should logically follow, eg gay male writers should be able better able to write male characters who are attractive to heterosexual women and gay men but not romantically attractive female characters but I really don't have any evidence for these logical follow-ons.
So what do people think? Has anyone got any instances which would disprove any of my hypotheses?
And does fanfiction alter things in this respect?