#complex character

JAMIE OMG HELLO I AM SO SO GLAD YOU ASKED THIS QUESTION!!! and yes!! i completely agree, it is such a fascinating question to really ask between the main character and the reader. i’m so hyped to answer it!! and thank you always, for sending in this ask, i appreciate it more than anything, and i always have so much fun answering these, so thank you as always for asking me!!! <3 you are a gem, jamie!!

When I write my characters, I’m not sure if it really is picked up by anyone, but I ALWAYS work my hardest to make the readers have some sort of connection with the character, whether it be that they’re sarcastic, they’re quiet, they have a complex mind, they have trouble focusing - ANYTHING! And then that makes them relatable to people and for me always forms some sort of relationship between the two - character and reader. 

But now, I am really experimenting with a character who I have quite literally battled with myself. Natia is not like Charlotte Tarvers or Hazel Parker my main two other OCs, not in many senses. Her character is hardwired to be as complex as she is, simply because she is reckless, ruthless, quite literally numb, emotionless, distant, and cold to nearly everyone she interacts with when she’s not putting up a mask to interact with the enemy. 

I’m not sure how many people have watched The 100, but Clarke Griffin for me has always been a a character I really took Natia’s character from in CERTAIN aspects, not all. Clarke has to make many tough decisions in her time, that end up getting people killed and then others get angry at her for it and it is pretty much a difficult and constant cycle like that. Where sometimes you loved her, sometimes you despised her, but you saw the reasons she needed to make those decisions and you truly saw how brave and strong she was as a human being to be even willing to make those decisions. 

So with Natia, for me as the author, it’s been sorta like that, but is one of the main ways I want to get her character across. 

She is not loved or liked by everyone.

She is not careful.

She is not emotional.

She is not caring entirely at all.

She is not sefless.

She is a heavily flawed character, from the output of war and each and every aspect of her is extremely purposeful in a way that, you can look back at an experience of hers and see ‘Oh, so that’s why she’s like that.’ Each aspect of her character is there for a certain reason. There’s a reason she’s not careful, there’s a reason she is not liked by everyone, there is a reason she’s not emotional, there’s a reason she is not caring entirely, there is a reason she is not selfless. There are reasons upon reasons for each aspect and that’s why I ADORE her character. It’s not just throwing things into a pot and saying character, it’s experiences and people and places that make up who she is from the war.

And the relationship of reader to character is to show, you are basically looking at a war-torn child or a product of war - almost like a machine, running off the energy of war to power her through. 

And because of war, decisions have had to be made that have negatively impacted her and her friend group, and that’s where the relation to Clarke Griffin has slowly been brought in - of having to make tough decisions with horrible outcomes. 

And you truly see the struggle of a horribly war-torn human. 

So the relationship between the reader and the character is where you see a war machine at work and you’re supposed to REALLY feel the sense that she’s numb and emotionless and quite possibly heartless. 

But I wanted to show a different character than what I have created before and show my range as a writer, to see for me where my extents can go with it. 

Natia will have to make plenty of tough decisions in her story, but each no matter how horrible in the end, will simply still be here story, good or bad. 

I’m truly trying to show a character who has been struggling through war for 5 years and is so tired and just needs a break, but is so numb to even feeling it all. It’s unlike anything I’ve done before.