Soooo....
I've been thinking--I mean wrap-my-skull round the telephone pole kinda cogitating--about the MC in my novel (maybe 25% into my treatment and working up setting and character details--plus logistics. You can never forget logistics).
Getting a new thought for me is rather like a beekeeper chasing a bee across the grass patch and finally, ever so carefully, sneaking up on it until--AHA!!--he catches it under a mason jar. Bzzz. Bzzz. Anyway, I had a thought that maybe a way to really crawl up inside the soul of this character is to go back and review some of my favorite MCs from novel's past.
Then I thought: Hey! What if everybody did it? Wouldn't that be fun. (Say yes. Please say yes.)
So I'll start: Not too long ago, I read "Catch 22" by Joseph Heller. Great book, BTW. But dark and sad and profound in a very funny, nutty kind of way. The MC is this guy named Yossarian. He's an Army Air Corps navigator in World War II who gets caught up in alot of sad business and does his best not to get killed. The point of the book is about how silly military life can get, and seeing as I'm sitting in the desert (they told me the desert is just the beach without the ocean. I think they lied) performing what some may consider military duties, I can relate.
Two competing and seemingly incompatible traits make up Yossarian's character: To not die, but also to suck the marrow out of life in a very safe, undangerous way. So, a signature description: "He had decided to live forever, or die in the attempt." I love this. It smacks of cleverness.
My feeling is that this contradiction is what makes him tick throughout the book. Also, he is constantly in conflict with superiors and doesn't really respect authority, both also traits that someone I know (who me?) resembles from time to time. Thus he's been much on my mind lately.
So what about you? Any favorites? Any MCs out there floating through your thoughts or sneaking their way onto your page? Lay it on us, my man!