M is for Main Characters

My stories often, but not always, start with main characters. Occasionally they’ll start with a concept or setting but usually the main character function as the seed from which the story grows. That’s just how I roll, I guess.

A long time ago I had one main character. I kept adding adventures and character traits to her until I, at first, was forced to decide that she’d been reincarnated several times and, eventually, decide that she be split up into several different characters. For a long time I really wanted to keep her intact, but eventually it just got silly. I just liked the idea of one, epic heroine! Nowadays, I try to make an effort to not write the same main character over and over again. I won’t say I succeed all that well, but to my credit at least not all of them are redheads these days.

My main character in the story I’m doing for Camp NaNoWriMo right now is called Eremine, or Remi for short. I’m not sure if I’m keeping that name. She looks a bit like Sharon Robinson but with hair like Alex Kingston’s (you know, the lady who plays River Song) but darker. She’s in her 50s and has no children (like a lot of my older MCs) but isn’t particularly bothered by that (unlike a lot of my older MCs). For about the first 5 paragraphs she’s a madam at a brothel, but then she meets a time-traveler and is given the opportunity of previously unimagined freedom. That’s about all I’ll say about her for now except that I think I’m just a bit in love with her.