Main Characters & Rambling

The more I think about this idea, the more things I discover.  It may sound weird, but it really is a discovery process, as though the completed book is resting in my head and I am slowly analyzing every aspect of it until I understand it.  There's already a pretty beefy theme of destiny vs. free will throughout, well, the entire damn idea, but the more I think about it, it really comes down to what a person does during those times that's important.  There's a positive and negative to both parts of the cycle; it's up to the individual to decide what part they want to play in the grand scheme of things.  If the world is a stage, as Shakespeare wrote (and Rush masterfully paraphrased), then I like to believe it is the most unique play of all; one where the actors are allowed to write their own script, and play whatever they wish to play.  But enough pseudo-intellectual trash, for there's much more important things to cover, such as the main character of the story.

That's right, there's a tentative main character for this trainwreck.  Now, as I may have mentioned in the past, I am absolutely terrible at two things: Names and protagonists.  Tell me to make a setting, and I'll throw out a thousand ideas a minute.  Ask me for a supporting cast, and I can have twenty behind-the-scenes players ready before you can inhale.  But if you really wanna stop me in my tracks, ask me to describe my main character, and I turn into a bumbling idiot.  Better yet, ask what the main character's name is; if I don't cry or run away, I probably didn't hear you properly.

However, that is not the case this time.  Beyond all hope, I have the rough concepts of a main character in mind.  I do mean rough; name, age, family history, background, and overall everything aside from what he's like is entirely up in the air still.  For a placeholder, his name is currently Isaac (There are many ways in which this is corny; if you share a birthday with me, you can guess why), he is between 18 and 20 (currently 19 as a placeholder), and is, if the name was no indication, a male.  Physical description is as follows: nil.  That will wait until much, much later; for now, I want to get who he is down first, as opposed to what he looks like.

He's a very naive individual; very trusting, and with a very large heart.  His desire to help others is his greatest asset and weakness.  And, since a character being described as naive and overly trusting necessitates a betrayal, there will be a point in the story where he finds that things have gone rather pear-shaped, and what was once black and white has gone many shades of gray.  This leads to the all-important jading of the character, and that's where things start to get really, really important in regards to my views on this character.

First and foremost: I am an optimist.  At least, most of the time; I am prone to pessimism from time to time, but I generally think good about people, life, and everything.  The main character, in a fashion, follows this; he is a very optimistic individual towards the start of the book, and the betrayal will be a heart-wrenching tragedy for him.  However, the important part for me is that, though he's hardened by the experience, he doesn't lose his optimism.  Sure, he'll be slower to trust people, and take great caution in choosing his actions from then on, but he'll still choose to do what he feels to be the right thing, no matter how strong the opposition.

I personally believe that a great many wrongs in the world are allowed to continue because people refuse to take a stand.  I don't blame them, and I can't pretend I'm not one of them; there are plenty of times when I could have helped someone and chose not to.  But the world isn't just a cold, heartless place; there really are people out there who do kind things for the sake of doing kind things.  And for all the corruption and waste that occurs across the globe, there's compassion and generosity as well.  It's something easily forgotten, and hard to believe sometimes, but it's there, if you look in the right places.

The main character is one of those people; he set out on a foolish journey to save the world, he got tricked, and still resolved to save the world.  And that's about it for this note; I didn't expect a serious tone, but hey, what can ya do?  I've come to learn that I really have no control over what I write; any attempts to edit or change what first pops out on the page often leads to disaster and swearing.