Musings of a Lonely Writer! ----- Appearance vs. Personality!

So on this Musings of a Lonely Writer post I am going to discuss the feeling behind a characters physical appearance vs. their personality. I am going to discuss whether a reader wants a beautiful character or a much more normal character or if it even matters. Could perhaps the personality matter more. Or is it a combination of both.

Okay so when I read a novel I read about so many types of characters but I always get the impression that the character is always perfectly perfect in some aspect, either he or she is handsome or beautiful in some way or they are gifted a perfect personality. In real life that is not always the case. But as I’ve said before the rules and aspects of real life and that of the worlds of books aren’t necessarily the same and don’t have to be.

In my writing I have discovered lately that my characters are these ethereal beautiful characters and sometimes that starts to bother me as I want to have a real character who struggles with not only physical but personality limitations. I mean I love characters that are so different then me and are everything I am not but I also want characters that are similar to real people, myself included.

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So I have started writing a story called, “Death of the Heart Song” and my main character has an undesirable first name, Misery, and her physical traits and personality traits are lacking any sort of beauty or desirableness. She is often rude and crude and says what is on her mind and she doesn’t care who you are when she speaks her mind. She lives in a Kingdom that has beautiful musically inclined people and she has no musical abilities and is classified as ugly in her Kingdom. So later she butts heads with the Prince and becomes quite a distraction to him and she has no clue why.

Their relationship as trainer and teacher and as friends and would be lovers (they are about the same age, he has just turned 16 years old and she is about to turn 18 years old) is a fun one to explore and write about but their relationship is not the main part of the story. The Heart Song element is the main part but I won’t get into that long story. The reason I write this at all is to show I have now made a character that is classified as unattractive and I wonder how she would be perceived by a reader. Would her physical lack of beauty or her personality make a reader love or hate her more or would it be a combination of both or would neither matter all that much.

Also I want to point out I didn’t make her unattractive just for the sake of saying to myself or others that I now have an ugly character. She was undesirable and had flaws as she presented herself to me in a dream and I found it fresh and exciting to see a character that is different then most characters I have written about or read about before.

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I wonder if young and old readers alike care more about the physical appearance of a character or the personality or does it matter at all. But I guess it probably varies by each person and by each story and how the author wants to present the said character and how the reader perceives said character.

Also do you think that authors present too perfectly perfect characters or just the right amount of perfect and flawed? I asked my mom and she said she doesn’t think that there are too many perfectly perfect characters. She also said that sometimes attractive traits, like in a romance novel, are sometimes a plus or needed but in other stories it really doesn’t matter.

So in books I wonder if the characters physical or personality traits even matter. I mean they matter a little bit. But I find a book with a much more normal flawed character in many ways is interesting and gives me more in-depth insight into that character and their world or story.

But the writer in me still finds beautiful glorious characters to be fun and intriguing. Personally I still think though that personality means more. My characters are so different personality wise but they are so interesting and funny or sassy or fiery or sweet or crude or bold or brave, ect. I think that what they say and how they say it is much more important and how they react to the good, bad, and ugly themes in their stories brings me closer to them then what they look like.

So beautiful or not or great personality or not I think how they handle themselves and what their story is and how they live it is much more important. And though looks and a good personality often matter I think how they handle themselves makes or breaks a character and makes the reader love or hate or love to hate the character. If an author can get characters to surpass ones ideas about what makes an ideal character then it impresses me and leaves a lasting impression on this lonely reader and makes me want to make the lonely writer in me push the boundaries of my character layouts.

Care to weigh in? Then please leave a comment in the comment section of this post!

Keep Writing! Keep Reading! And Keep Inspiring!

Evanthia

Meaning: (Derives from the words “Ev” and “Anthos” which mean Nice and Rosebud, therefore Evanthia means the Nicely Blossoming Flower.)

Origin: (Greek, English)

Pronunciation: (eh-VAHN-thee-ə, eh-VAHN-thee-a) 

Gender: Female

While looking up Evadne *see on list of posts* I saw this name. It has a beautiful meaning and has an interesting look. It does have a very Greek look about it which I think makes me think of very foreign beautiful person with flowing dark hair and a sun kissed complexion. It has a very ethereal look and feel to it when said so this is a very good name for fairy tales and sci-fi / fantasy novels or even just a regular story in the regular time. It’s diverse and I find it appealing.

Evadne

Meaning: (Good Fortune, Well, Good, Pleasing One, From Greek Ευαδνη (Euadne), which is of unknown meaning, though the first element is derived from Greek ευ (eu) "good". In Greek legend Evadne was the wife of Capaneus. After Capaneus was killed by a lightning bolt sent from Zeus she committed suicide by throwing herself onto his burning body. The name has been used among English speakers since the 17th century.)

Origin: (Ancient Greek, Greek Mythology, Old Greek)

Pronunciation: (eh-VAA-Dneh, iy-VAEDNiy, ee-VAD-nee, ee-VOD-neh)

Gender: Female

I was watching one of those real life crime shows and one of the ladies daughters was named a name similar to this but spelled just a little differently. When I heard it and looked it up this spelling seemed most popular and I instantly liked it. I keep thinking though that I’ve seen or heard this name before or even used it on a character but for the life of me I can’t remember and can’t find any proof to back it up. It’s a beautiful name with a lovely pronunciation. The meanings are divine and the Greek Legend is very interesting if not a bit morbid and sad. It has a nice history of use.

Elysande

Meaning: (Ely: Jehovah is God, High, Ascent, Name of a river in South Wales and a cathedral and town in Cambridgeshire, England. Also possibly a variant of Eli. Sande: Defender of Men, Protector of Mankind, Shining Upon Man, Sand, Sandy Plain, and Sande is a variant form of Alexandra (Greek): Latinate feminine version of Alexander. Sande is also a derivative of Cassandra (Greek).)

Origin: (German, Hebrew, English, Greek, Norwegian)

Pronunciation: (Ely: EE-liy, IYLay Sande: SAEND Elysande: EE-liy-SAEND, IYLay-SAEND)

Gender: Uni-Sex

I forget where I saw this name but when I saw it I really liked it but like a lot of names now I had to break up the parts of the names to get the meanings. This reminds me of names I’ve seen ending in Sande as well like Melisande *see on list of posts*. The meanings are nice and strong. The pronunciation is pretty good and easy enough.

I think it is a nice name but I am not enamored with it but I do think it is pretty and reminds me of a Goddesses name or maybe someone from Greek Mythology.

Fanthorpe

Meaning: (Fan: From France, Bee Thorpe: Hamlet or Small Village, This is an ancient name of Anglo-Saxon and Old Scandinavian origin, and is a locational surname from any of the places in England named with Old Norse or Old Danish element "thorp", or the rarer Olde English pre 7th Century "throp". Generally, "thorp(e)" in a place name indicates that it was an area of Danish settlement. The word means a small hamlet or village that grew by colonisation from a larger settlement, and was originally an outlying farm dependent on a nearby village. In the modern idiom there are a number of variant forms of the surname, ranging from Thorpe, Thorp, Tharp and Turp, to Thro(u)p, Thrupp and Thripp. Thomas Thorpe (died 1461) was speaker of the House of Commons from 1431 - 1452. Francis Thorpe (1595 - 1665), who was educated at Cambridge was a witness at Stafford's trial and became a colonel in the parliamentary army, and was later appointed judge for the northern circuit and delivered a "charge" at York justifying Charles 1's execution and also refused to try the northern insurgents. The first recorded spelling of the family name is shown to be that of William de Torp, which was dated 1158, in the "Pipe Rolls of Northumberland", during the reign of King Henry 11, known as "The Builder of Churches", 1154 - 1189. Surnames became necessary when governments introduced personal taxation. In England this was known as Poll Tax. Throughout the centuries, surnames in every country have continued to "develop" often leading to astonishing variants of the original spelling. http://www.surnamedb.com/Surname/Thorpe )

Origin: (Latin, Chinese, Middle English)

Pronunciation: (fan-THORP, FAHN-thorpe, if you want to hear how Thorpe is pronounced then got to this site and run your cursor over the word to hear how it is said: http://www.howjsay.com/index.php?word=Thorpe )

Gender: Uni-Sex

I was reading a Phyllis A. Whitney novel a few months back and this was a place in the novel. I have been putting off adding it as the name has no definite meaning until I separated the parts of the name, Fan and Thorpe. The meanings are decent and the name looks interesting but would look even better if used as just a surname.

This name is very foreign and unique and seems an outer space like name to me, like “I’ll meet you on planet Fanthorpe mate. The shipments in of 1000 hexes of gents jooce, so game on.” That was an awful line, lol, so no need to tell me that sucked lol!

Genevra

Meaning: (Fair, white wave, Smooth, Yielding, Juniper Tree, Lady of the People, Tribal Woman, Of the Race of Women, River Mouth, Variant of Ginevra, Italian form of Guinevere. This is also the Italian name for the city of Geneva, Switzerland. It is also sometimes associated with the Italian word ginepro meaning “Juniper”.)

Origin: (Italian, Old French, Old Welsh, Germanic, Celtic, English)

Pronunciation: (jee-NEV-rah, jeh-NEHV-rə, Z-eh-NEY-VRah)

Gender: Female

This is the name of an outfit on I think Pearson Renaissance Shoppe website. The spelling throws me off because I prefer Geneva *see on list of posts*, which I’ve used in a novel before. I think this was the full name of Ron Weasley’s sister Ginny in the Harry Potter Novels. The meanings are beautiful and I see it is an Italian form of Guinevere and if it came down to it I would choose Guinevere over Genevra as the spelling as I said throws me off.

It is a beautiful name but I am not totally sold on it as one of my characters names but I started this blog to help other authors and this might be a perfect name for one of their characters names.

Eydis

Meaning: (Goddess of the Island, Derived from the Old Norse elements Ey "Good Fortune" or "Island" and Dís "Goddess".)

Origin: (Ancient Scandinavian, Icelandic, Old Norse)

Pronunciation: (AYDiy-Z, EY-dees)

Gender: Uni-sex

This is the name of an outfit on I think Pearson Renaissance Shoppe or Arm Street websites. This does have a very Medieval or Renaissance look which I love. The meaning is absolutely divine. I could see an actual island being named this as it would be kind of cool or even having a Kingdom or World being named this would be really pretty as well.

The name because of the spelling is one I might not remember but I mean if I saw it in a novel I would definitely think it was unique and awesome and at least I would know how to pronounce it, which is a plus.