Oh Olivia. How I adore her. I like overly rambunctious, hyper-active characters who love life and always want to have fun. To me, that is the essence of Olivia and I've always enjoyed her books because of this joie de vivre. In my current WIP, I have two secondary characters who have the essence of Olivia (should I try and make that into a scent?). And in previous projects, I usually have at least one. But they are always secondary characters.
It occurred to me that I tend to have very saracastic, brooding, sad main characters. Always the too-smart, quiet, melancholy wall-flowers. The girls who are on the brink or the edge of wanting something more. The ones who admire the Olivias but are not totally sure how to get to that place in life. They are never the loud, take-charge of the world kind of people.
To put it in the terms of one of my favorite television shows, My So Called Life, I've always got an Angela Chase and never a Rayanne Graff in the leading role.
I thought how interesting it would be to write a main character with such a passion for life, a la Olivia or Anne of Green Gables. I may try it out next time around.
Do you tend to write a certain type of main character?
