This has been a great week for brainstorming. For one thing, my editor was here and she asked me a restorative question. "What is it about Mr. Darcy for you?"
That question was as if the floodgates opened and I suddenly remembered everything I loved about the written word because I can so clearly point to every detail that I love about Mr. Darcy's character.
In fact, it's incredible to me that none of my writing partners would fight (in a Hunger Games sort of epic battle) for the right to tell what is so great about Mr. Darcy. Seriously? I get to tell you?
My editor said that I just lit up like a Christmas tree, animated as if I were talking about one of my kids. Darcy is, of course, the character I wish I'd created. The character who made me want to create. He was...is...for all intents and purposes, my first love. The character who made me fall in love with reading. A man who wasn't afraid of an intelligent woman. A man who wasn't afraid of her bogan little sister's actions or her family's social status. A man who thought for himself.A man who was unafraid to admit when he was wrong (okay, so that isn't actually based in reality, but still.) Kidding, I'm kidding.
He was (IS!) a man who thinks for himself, whose perceived pride and arrogance is slowly replaced by the truth: his kind, protective and loving nature in his character arc. A man who will take care of things not for the prize it will bring him, but simply because he is a hero. If that isn't an improvement on Cinderella, I don't know what is.
Shoes. Seriously. When you can have Pemberley and Darcy? There is no comparison. And with that very simple question,"What is it about Mr. Darcy?" I remember why I started writing in the first place.
There are close seconds: Mr. Dashwood, (sorry Willoughby -- yes, I lnow it should be the Colonel) Captain Wentworth, but my loyalty is with my first love: Mr. Darcy.
What book made you fall in love with reading?
