Vive la difference

See? I was right about the blonde part.

Sometimes when Nan Reinhardt and I travel together or are just having lunch—which we can make into an Occasion, believe me—we get to talking about our differences. Our thinking is the same on so many things that we are sometimes startled by what’s not alike. Basic likenesses:

• We were born in the same decade
• In the same state
• We have siblings
• We’re writers
• We love road trips
• We drive SUVs
• We wear aprons when we cook
• We only cook when we have to
• We have long marriages with men we still love
• We like shoes
• And purses
• And Starbucks
• And mom-and-pop restaurants
• We have traveled together for several years now and never turned on the television set in a hotel room. We’re not sure they worked.
• We’re both natural blondes

Okay, until we got to the last one, are you with me? And that’s just the beginning. But then there’s the other side. The Dark Side.

• Nan is a city girl who likes for there to be noise, lights, and people around
• I am a country girl who likes quiet, darkness, and privacy—I mean, people are good, but ¼ mile away is plenty close enough
• She uses sweetener from pink packages—mine must be yellow
• Our family dynamics are so different that sometimes we just look at each other and say, “Really?”
• She doesn’t like salad dressing or pasta, whereas my day is incomplete if I don’t have one of those. It’s better if I have both.
• While we both like driving, she doesn’t mind traffic. I don’t even like being second in line for a left turn.
• Nan knits. I sew.
• She loves to swim. I’m afraid of water.
• She knows a lot about wine and how to choose it. I like pretty bottles and drink moscato. And the occasional rum and coke…
• I’m really not a natural blonde. I think she is.

And now, the reason for these lists. Yes, there is one. It serves as a reminder that we need to make our people different from each other. Maybe you don’t have a problem with this in your writing, and I’m glad for you if you don’t, but I do. I don’t think it matters that much to many readers if your heroines and heroes are much alike from book to book—I for one count on my favorite authors’ protagonists being identifiable. But within the book, the best friends and the sisters and the college roommates and people-in-the-next-cubicles need to be as different as they are alike.

I want my books to have ensemble casts with whole bunches of likable characters. But I don’t want them to be all alike. For example, look at the casts of Happy Days, M*A*S*H, and The West Wing
(yes, that is how seldom I watch TV--those are still favorites). I loved each and every repeating character on those shows (with Frank Burns being a notable exception), and they had many likenesses among them. Just as important, though, were their differences.

If secondary characters don't matter to you, maybe those dissimilarities don't matter, either. If that's the case, I’m not sure you should listen to me on this (she said belatedly) because I’m one of those to whom secondary characters are as important as the better-represented hero and heroine. 

So. What do you think?

Have a great week.

Liz