What is Normal?

I just read a post about how a normal character is boring.

What is normal anyways?

Is it the person who keeps to themselves and never has more than one or two friends? Some would consider that boring.

How about the blonde bombshell who doesn’t get what is going on about her except that so and so is not wearing the latest fashion?

Do all your characters live in a mansion or do some of them grow up in a trailer park?

I think there are many different versions of normal. What may seem normal to one person stands out to someone else. It is a difference in personalities and perceptions.

But if you think about it, each different type of personality can be considered normal to that type of personality.

I recently heard that Passive/Aggressive personalities happen to be the most common type. This is followed by the Manipulator, Manic Depressive, and Socio Paths, just to name a few.

If one of the above people read your book and it happened to have a character with their personality type they too might say that the character is boring.

This is where they say, one should write the story for themselves and not for the reader. You cannot possibly make every reader happy unless you wrote a book using all the personalities combined in one story. The character would have to have split personalities, so, unless you are about to write a novel like “Sybil” then don’t try it.

Keep it simple and write the story you would want to read. Chances are there are a whole slew of other readers out there just like you.

ROW80 Update:

I’m still going at it. I have not worked on Road Salt since the day before Christmas. Or, I should say, I have not opened the file since the day before Christmas. I have to say that because it has been on my mind for the past few days.

I guess it is plotting time once again.

At first I thought I was at the end of the book and then added more to it. Now I have given it more thought and I see another addition in the works for the ending of the book. Maybe it won’t end so much on a dark note after all.

My goal is to bring the ending full circle back to the beginning of the book to answer the question Carol asks Karla, “Please forgive me.” She will have her answer at the end of the book.

My characters need a bit more building too. Or at least one Character does. That is Max, Karla’s new boyfriend. Even though he is present in the story, he seems to have a very minor part until the end. I will have to see if I can develop him some more and find a way to create his character for the readers to relate to or feel sorry for him. But I have to remember I am the first reader of the story, and that I am writing for me first and for most. If I can relate or feel sorry for him then hopefully everyone else will stand a chance of doing the same.

The weekend is coming up fast. I will give it a big push starting on Saturday. I have no other plans for this Holiday weekend beside our annual Chinese Food Feast on New Year’s Eve Night.

One Last Thing: