It's okay with us if you decide to hold firm at birthday #29, even when your kids are 40. But you need to figure out, especially if you're hoping to have a series featuring the same characters, how you are going to handle their aging process. And on a broader scale, you also need to address the question of whether the events in their lives - all those murders they are solving - are going to have any kind of personal impact. Will confronting murder and mayhem change your characters at all?
Some authors choose not to age their protagonists. In 1930, when we first meet Miss Jane Marple in The Murder at the Vicarage, she is the very model of the 19th century frail spinster, albeit one who always can solve the mystery that has stumped the local constable. Miss Marple isn't a whit older in 1971 when she confronts the deliciously devilish mystery of Nemesis. Dame Agatha did make a conscious decision to modernize the elderly woman and to make Miss Marple a little nicer and not quite as acerbic as she appeared in the first book. But those changes were not because of events that had occurred in St. Mary's Mead, but rather to make the character a little more likeable.
That's quite different from other series where the hero changes, grows and matures over the course of many books. For example, J.W. Jackson, the ex-cop who solves mysteries on Martha's Vineyard, is unmarried in A Beautiful Place to Die, the first book of this wonderful series. By the 18th installment, Vineyard Stalker, J.W. is not only married to the fabulous Zee, but the proud father of two kids. He's older and wiser. J.W.'s detecting skills are as sharp as ever, but we also see different and more nuanced sides of this character because of the changes in his life.(Philip R. Craig was the author of this delightful series and a fine gentleman. He sadly passed away a few weeks ago and will be sorely missed.)
Here are some tips to help you craft characters that can withstand the test of time.
1. Embrace Change, It's Good For You. At the end of your book, make sure that your protagonist has learned something from the experience. The change can be subtle, but your hero should be a little smarter or maybe a little more self-confident having survived the experiences you just spent 200+ pages describing.
2. Old Age Is Just A State of Mind. This is where you need to do some long-term planning (pun intended). Dean James told a story at the Mayhem in the Midlands mystery conference that certainly put us on notice. One of the breakout characters in the first book of his series was a 92-year old woman, a real firecracker that immediately caught on with readers. That's all fine and good, he noted, but how can he have anyone age when he already has a main character who's past 90?
3. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow? Sure we're advocating that your characters change over time, but we're also adding a word of warning. Make sure that you keep the essence of the character that your readers first fell in love with. Regrettably, some authors have changed their protagonists so much over the course of the series that we barely recognize them anymore. That smart, sassy, spunky heroine we met in book one has become a bitter alcoholic in book eight. It may be realistic given all the murder she's encountered, but it sure isn't much fun to read.
Don't be afraid to breathe life into your fictional people. Create three-dimensional characters that you and your readers can really love -or in the case of the bad guys - really love to hate.
Happy Summer Reading & Writing!
Evelyn
