In the story I am working on (which has been fallow for longer than I care to mention) there are three MCs. Obvioulsy, each is a facet of me, and is given the opportunity to present these facets of me by virtue of who they are and what has happened to them. Mark is the young and innocent, rather selfish me who thinks he is in command of his world and you really can’t tell him anything he doesn’t already know, or so he thinks. Sol is the angry and judgmental me. She is the me that thinks the world is unfair, and sometimes allows herself to create situations which only reinforce this attitude. Gabriel… He is the me I don’t understand. He doesn’t talk to me the way the other two do. And he is my biggest stumbling block in the writing of my story. He has lived in a hospital / concentration camp since he was little more than a baby and has no real idea of the outside world. It’s important to the story that he be this way, but it makes it really hard for me to get into his head, for him to talk to me. How would a person like this really be, especially after he does find his way into the real world with the other two MS’s. My initial intent for Gabriel was to be a balancing point, a fulcrum for the two characters. He’s not becoming much of a fulcrum since he is turning out to be the scared, withdrawn me. There is an existing peripheral character who I have been thinking of as the replacement for the initial role I had for Gabriel, but she is an adult, significantly older than the three young MC’s and… yuck, I just hate the obviousness of her as the stand in. The story I am working on...
I'm not sure what the question is, Wrey. I do think that the roles sound a bit compartmentalized, though (I remember your story, and I think that was something that nagged at the back of my mind then, too. I just couldn't put my finger on it until just now).
I think you're right, Cog. I never planned it that way, but in the end the three MCs did come out rather... polarized (if something with three parts can be polarized.) I guess my question is, why is Gabriel in the story? This is obviously a rhetorical question. He just doesn't talk to me, and I don't know how to get at him. Mark and Sol both came into my head with complete names, faces, manners of speech, families and backgrounds, all of which give them motivation and reasons to do and say what they do. Gabriel is just an enigma to me. I can't get on with this story (which I love and in which I have invested much time and energy) until I can get into his head. What do you do with an MC who shuts you out?
