Inspiring fictional characters—and who do you identify with?

[Madeleine Conway]

Harriet the Spy - from the book, not the movie. She was my first inspiration. I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that from the ages of 13-16, Scarlett O'Hara was my go-to girl unless I was feeling really miserable, in which case it was Holden Caulfield. I did get over all that.

Subsequently, Francis Crawford, Dorothy Dunnett's clever, muddled hero is my favourite fictional hero. Although he is a terrible, snotty smartarse. Maybe because.

 

[KG Christopher]

I actually don't have anyone I identify with??? I read for the moment and anyone I am reading about at that time, I try and get.

I have been watching this thread for ages and there is no one I can readily identify with...

 

[Chase Gamwell]

I actually don't have anyone I identify with??? I read for the moment and anyone I am reading about at that time, I try and get.

I have been watching this thread for ages and there is no one I can readily identify with...

Don't worry...same for me. There are plenty of characters that I like and enjoy following, but none that I feel I really identify with. Don't know if that's a good or a bad thing (or whether I'm reading way too much into what "identify" is supposed to mean).

 

[Alistair Roberts]

Ditto

 

[Bluma Bezbroda]

@Madeleine Conway Scarlett is a top choice, if you ask me

 

[Jason Byrne]

Of course, the Valar had the ability to cloak themselves in whatever "skin" was most suited to their task, even if it meant appearing as a Siddari. Yavanna seemed to enjoy a human aspect more than the rest. Ulmo, of course kept everything on the low-down, didn't he? Are your Tuatha going to be the forerunners of the Sidhe? The Sidhe can take all sorts of forms, too, even animal like Phookas, etc. I've thought about the Tuatha myslef for many years, often wondering if the Plaintive "longing" that many identify in Irish songs and stories may be a tether back through the ages to the mixed emotions the Gael may have felt, of having supplanted a much older, more adept race, and driven them underground when they may have become allies and even friends? Hmmm.... that kind of puzzling could go on for days and days...

I segregate them into distinct creatures. Tuatha are Seelie Court faeries, Fomorians were Unseelie Court faeries or particular historical significance, and then Arcadia is populated with lesser animals such as leprechauns, elves, green men, joint eaters, and such during the day under their stewardship, and gremlins, redcaps, sluagh, shellycoats, and kelpies at night. Pooka, dullahans, and barghests are among the more dangerous creatures, the apex predators if you will.

I have Fae as being able to exchange appearance with other things — people, animals, objects — but with complex rules about getting their original form back.