My husband’s sister and her husband live in Africa where they work as translators. My sister-in-law speaks French fluently and perfectly accented. Her husband speaks 5 or 6 languages, including Swahili.
For years they lived in Nairobi, Kenya. Life there; apart from election violence over a year ago, living in a guarded housing compound, and occasional run-ins with police (who aren’t like our police); was pretty tame compared to life in their current home in Bunia, Congo. Congo hasn’t historically been the calmest place on the globe to live.
Their day to day life is an adventure: for fresh water, reliable utilities, and even a safe place to live. Their country is exotic…the plants and wildlife are different, the language and customs are different.
In many ways, it’s the perfect place to write. But they’re not writers.
In contrast, I look at my life in suburban America. My adventures are pretty tame in comparison. Will I find my daughter’s missing library book before it becomes overdue? Will I make my deadline? Why is the washing machine making that strange noise?
Some of us write fantasy and sci-fi and the appeal there is completely clear—it’s the escape from reality for readers.
But what about those of us who write using everyday settings about everyday people? What’s the appeal there?
I think it must be that our readers can imagine themselves in the same circumstances. That we’ve made a connection with the ordinary reader. That we’ve either 1) created people like themselves who are suddenly facing extraordinary circumstances (they’re accused of murder, won the lottery, gotten lost in a snowstorm), or 2) we’ve created extraordinary people that our readers wish they could be, but aren’t.
My two protagonists both fall under the first category, I think…ordinary people who have been put in extraordinary situations.
What about you? Do your characters fall into either category? Both? Or do you write a genre where the extraordinary part is the escape from reality?
Elizabeth – It sounds as though your husband’s sister and her family have a very adventurous life! I’m not sure that I would want to live that way. You ask an interesting question, too, about ordinary settings. I think people do tend to identify with “ordinary” people. I also like your comment about people who are thrust into extraordinary circumstances. I keep both of those thoughts in the back of my mind as I write, since I use what you’d call an ordinary setting.
What a great place to live, I think.
I think we relate to ordinary characters with ordinary lives because that’s what we are. And wouldn’t we love to be thrust into a mystery situation that we could solve. As long as it didn’t involve our families. I just want to put that out there. :)
My current WIP has a mostly ordinary kid in an extraordinary situation and setting.
I hadn’t noticed th cover for your new Memphis BBQ book on the side bar before–it looks great! Congrats!
I think it’s appealing to read ordinary people in extraordinary circumstances (whether it’s sci-fi or being framed for a murder you didn’t commit), and extraordinary people in any situation (as long as you maintain sympathy with the reader).
It’s ordinary people in ordinary circumstances that gets boring (except your sister might find it a relief!).
I tend to identify with ordinary people having extraordinary experiences, so that will probably be a more comfortable zone for me to write in.
karen
I usually write about fairly ordinary people thrust into extraordinary circumstances. I guess it’s the “write what you know” thing–except for the extraordinary circumstances part. I’m a boring guy.
I’m especially fond of the “ordinary people” as book characters. It’s hardly a feat for a mountain climber to rescue a trapped hiker; that’s what he does. But what if it’s someone who’s afraid of heights who has to do the rescuing? Or respond appropriately in the middle of a bank robbery.
It’s being able to say, “In those circumstances, I hope I could behave as well” that connects the readers.
(Sorry I’m not around much; moving, going to SleuthFest, Written in the Stars, and then house hunting in Colorado. Not a lot of Internet access/time.
I write in ordinary settings, most of them real places. But the extraordinary part is a combination of character and circumstance. I try to make the setting play a part in all of it.
Also, I have an award for you at my blog.
I’m pretty mundane when it comes to creating extraordinary places. But I love creating ordinary people facing the most dramatic life challenges you can dream of. Something about showcases the redemptive side of our Savior appeals to me. I guess because He saves me from so much.
I think I write a mix of the two. In some ways, my characters are ordinary people who get caught up in extraordinary circumstances. On the other hand, the plot takes place in a 1930s manor house and several people are titled. But, people are people regardless of their financial circumstances.
Literary fiction’s all about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary, isn’t it? That’s what I’m aiming for, in any case.
Wow, I both admire and fear for your husband’s sister and her husband.
I write ordinary people who might do out of the ordinary things, but they are mostly ordinary caught up in something extraordinary.
Helen
Straight From Hel
I was lucky enough to visit Nairobi, but can only imagine some of the challenges your husband’s sister and her husband faced by living there and now face in the Congo. Maybe they will write about it one of these days.
My characters tend to be ordinary people facing extraordinary circumstances.
I blend both. I forget where I got this, but I remember reading how we should feel free to have our characters say things we might be afraid to say or do.
That is one of my favorite parts of writing.
~ Wendy
I think for me, it’s a mixture of both. Some of my books have the oddest characters and some of them are ordinary. Though, some people can make ordinary America unusual. Great post.
ann
I have a childhood friend whom I always thought was kind of doofus and dorky, who in the 70’s went to Africa with the Peace Corps, eventually got several degrees and learned serveral languages, and now is an internationally known figure in the world of banking who constantly travels throughout Africa and the Mideast. You just never know how some people will turn out based on their childhoods.
Ha ha! I love this. It’s actually the inspiration for my WIP – one character who turns her mundane life into an adventure every day, and the other whose life of adventure has become something of a rut.
I chuckled about your comparison’s between your days and your relatives’. Yes, high intensity when we can’t find that library book!
Ordinary folks relate to ordinary folks. But, they want them to have extraordinary experiences. We writers help them out.
I think all writing is fantasy in some way. Because even when we write about ordinary people in ordinary circumstances, we are in control of what happens to them, and we can create a happy ending. In lieu of a happy ending we create a world that is psychologically understandable thanks to the handy narrator.
A romance delivers the fantasy of an exciting new love and great sex.
A mystery delivers the fantasy of an adventure and solves a crime neatly.
Every book serves its purpose to fulfill someone’s fantasies, no matter how big or how small.
Great post!
– Liz
My writing is certainly escape for myself. I think it is so funny to create scenes and have my characters do things I am far too sensible or cowardly to do myself.
With regard to Africa, we spent six months in Ethiopia several years ago. I found it very exotic, but my children got used to monkeys and donkeys in a few months. So the exotic setting is probably every day to someone else.
You nailed the description of the two basic characters.
And yeah, I write sci-fi to escape!
I think mine are a blend…
My characters are normal, everyday people and circumstances propel them into becoming so much more.
I’ve had a pretty experience-filled life, done a lot of things many people never have done, so I do have a larger-than-most basket of unusual and unique experiences and adventurous, even perilous ones, to draw from when writing my characters. Also I’ve mixed it up with people from all walks of life, religions, races/ethnic backgrounds, etc., from the high class, educated, and even uppity to shady underworld types and everything in-between, so it’s pretty easy for me to come up with realistic seeming characters that are what the “normal” person would consider “unusual.”
Even so, I still do research on and do interviews with those exceptional peeps I’ve had little or no contact with in their particular, shall we say, “oddities?” LOL
Good subject and thoughts on the matter, Elisabeth, as is usual. (wink)
Marvin D Wilson
“I think that’s fun…I love books where an ordinary person with a kind of dull life suddenly comes alive. Great transformation stories.”
Yes, although in this case the ordinary person has always made every detail life a wonderful adventure. It’s the man of adventure whose dull life is transformed.
I think your next book aught to feature your in-laws. Man, do they have ready made adventures or what?
AND…I saw yesterday’s post about your new book. Another cool cover. Great for you, Elizabeth. Good job.
Best Wishes Galen Kindley
Imagineering Fiction Blog
Margot–I think when readers go, “Wow–this could happen to someone like me!” then they start imagining themselves in the protagonist’s place. A safe adventure!
Journaling Woman–It would definitely be a mental challenge…solving a puzzle. That’s the appeal of mysteries, I think–and the readers don’t have an emotional stake because it *doesn’t* involve their family–just a protagonist they can relate to and identify with.
Paul–Sounds like a situation a lot of young readers will be able to relate to.
Lorel–Thanks! I just got the cover a couple of days ago.
And good point…ordinary people in ordinary circumstances? It’s boring.
Karen –I like those too…I can imagine myself in the book.
Simon–Sounds like a good plan!
Helen—I think those are my favorite types of stories.
Jane–I wish they would! I’m very interested in the different life they lead. And in the fascinating life you’ve had too, Jane.
Alan–Oh definitely. If I wrote what I knew, there’d be no murdered people in my books! And people would be falling asleep as they read. :)
Wendy–That’s great, isn’t it? We can almost live through our characters.
Ann–I’ve found some of my best characters from ordinary America. :) Because they’re really NOT so ordinary, are they?
Arlee–Isn’t that something? It’s not something I could ever do myself…I’ve gotten really used to my creature comforts! But sometimes I’m still a little envious. :)
Terry–Good luck with your move! And you’re so right…it’s easier for readers to relate to and support a character that’s ordinary and faces big internal challenges.
Mary–And it’s great to provide readers that escape, isn’t it? All those years of daydreaming served us well!
Liz–Wow–what a great way of thinking of it! And you’re absolutely right–we’re delivering an escape to the reader, just offering different avenues for them to take it.
Carol–I think I’d like that combination. :) And thanks so much! I’m so late with my comments today…I’ll pop by your blog!
Tamika–I think that would be a very satisfying story line for readers in the Christian market, too. It would work well with a theme of Grace.
Elspeth–Are they? Reminds me of that Fitzgerald/Hemingway exchange. Fitz: “The rich are different from you and me.” Hemingway: “Yes. They have money.”
Alex–And I guess you could even have it be multi-layered–you’ve got the exciting setting, AND you can have an exciting person in the setting or an ordinary person who gets transported to the exotic place.
Diane–I can see that about yours..
The Daring Novelist–I think that’s fun…I love books where an ordinary person with a kind of dull life suddenly comes alive. Great transformation stories.
Marvin–See, you’re one of those people who HAS an exciting background to draw on. Darn you! :)
Dorte–What a great experience! I bet your kids DID get accustomed to it really quickly. And a good point on what qualifies as an extraordinary life…it’s usually what’s happening to someone else!
Galen–Thanks! :) I like the cover, too. And you’re right…they’d be natural characters for an adventure story.
Jemi–So they rise to the occasion…which really gives the character some depth, too.