Severus Snape (And why he's a brilliant character)

So after my rant about my favorite characters the other day, this post came to mind. Because out of all those characters I'd say probably my favorite is Severus Snape, my favorite character of the Harry Potter series. Especially when Alan Rickman is in mind because he gave such a stellar performance of that character.

I find that I'm not alone in liking Snape. And why should I be? He has a dry sense of humor and a mysterious edge about him... and he switches sides way more than any character ever. Honestly. I think J.K. Rowling just enjoyed throwing him back and forth like that to confuse the readers.

First Snape is bad because he's mean and Harry thinks he wants the philosopher's stone.

But it turns out he was actually protecting Harry the whole time and VOLDEMORT was behind it!

Then in book four it turns out he was a death eater and might still be helping Voldemort.

But it turns out it was Barty Crouch Jr. Disguised as Mad eyed moody and Snape really IS on the good side.

Then in Book 6, Snape kills Dumbledore. Surely he's bad now right?

Nope, in Book 7 the entire thing is revealed and Snape is truly a good guy... OR IS HE?

Yeah. Yeah, he is. But readers everywhere were struggling to figure him out all across the series. Which of course is a mark of a complex character and what makes me love him. He played is role so well that he had the readers confused, therefore it made sense that Voldemort would trust him.

I myself was in denial when I read Dumbledore's death. And when everyone was saying "Well, guess Snape really was evil" I was defending him. Why? Because it didn't make sense that after flip flopping Snape back and forth between good and evil so many times that J.K Rowling would keep him evil. That wouldn't have been a fitting end to his character. Snape is one case where if he had been a straight up villain he would have been less complex. Plus we wouldn't have stumbled on one of my favorite themes in literature.

What is it? Well, I'll tell you.

Redemption.

I love redemption, wherever it is, just so long as it makes sense. I know there are plenty of cynics out there who say that people don't change and once you're bad you're always bad but I've never adopted that point of view. And I'm pretty cynical.

Nothing gives me greater joy (OK maybe some things but, you know) than seeing a character you thought was all bad do something genuinely good. Like when Darth Vader saved Luke from the Emperor. Or when Smegal banished his demons and really tried to help Frodo (Granted he succumbed to Golem again later which was probably one of the saddest things ever, but more on that in another post)

Because I do believe in forgiveness and redemption and change. People are constantly changing because of their environment. Often times evil characters are the product of terrible and heart breaking circumstances. Seeing a "bad guy" triumph in spite of that makes me happy, and it almost assuredly makes them my favorite character in the book.

The sad part about Snape's redemption was he was already dead when it happened and I was beat my head against my bed going "WHY, WHY, WHY!" The chapter where Harry finds out everything about Snape is my favorite chapter in all of the Harry Potter Books. I practically have it memorized because I read it so much.

Not to mention that after I finished the book I went running around to all my friends who doubted Snape going "HAHAHAHA! I was right!" (Including my brother. Best day of my life)

In these next few days I'll be going over my other favorite themes in fiction. Until then!

-Authoress Anonymous

My favorite characters (And how they're predictable)

I'm a predictable person when it comes to what I like. If you know me you can pretty much pick up any book at all and pick out my favorite character. If it's the right type of book. Generally it has to be fantasy, dystopian or adventure based in some way. Not realistic fiction. That's a bit more complex. But with those other genres it's pretty easy.

Basically most of my favorite characters are complex, sarcastic, middle aged men. Which is weird. Because I'm not at middle age yet so you'd think I'd still like the younger love interest.

I do not.

Not that I don't like those characters. I do. I just don't ever find myself as interested in them. Maybe it's because I'm a writer and I'm drawn to a more mysterious character I don't know as much about. If I don't know as much about them then I can fill in the gaps for myself and have a ton of fun thinking what might be their back story before the author themselves reveal it. Maybe it's because I have a very dry wit and you usually don't find that kind of humor in younger characters. Maybe I just like characters with a dark streak or a dark brooding past. Younger characters haven't had much time to have a dark brooding past. They're not even two decades old.

So let's dive into my psyche shall we, and find out why I like the characters I do.

1. I like bad guys

I'm not going to deny it. I have a soft spot for villains. In almost every book, move or anime I have a villain that I just enjoy the hell out of every time they make an appearance. 

I blame this on events deeply rooted in my childhood (Though that makes it sound really dramatic doesn't it?). My main playmate when I was a kid (Four or five) was my brother. My brother was the type of person who loved to stage epic battles between his action figures. Battles between good and evil that involved death and triumph. It's a lot for a five year old to absorb. Especially when said five year old's brother tried to make the battles complex. Like the bad guys sometimes won. Or if the bad guy didn't win and died, he had a son that he left behind. Or he had a tortured past. Or he and the main good guy used to be best friends.

Yep. Guess that explains my dark side. My brother instilled it in me at a young and impressible age.

But I'd like to clarify that my favorite character isn't usually the main bad guy. Like Voldemort wasn't my favorite character in Harry Potter. Sauron wasn't my favorite character in Lord of the Rings. And Lord Citius wasn't my favorite character in Star Wars. I like the side villains because they're generally less evil and more complex. And I can hypothesize a lot more about their fall from grace.

Really villains are just some of the most interesting characters because we want to know, as readers, where they went wrong. How did they fall so far and reach this point? What terrible things brought them to this state? Is there any humanity left in them? Is their hope for redemption?

With the main character and love interest, we nearly always know the good guy is going to make the right decision in the end, even if there are challenges and they are tempted by the bad side. Unless the book or movie is some character study about a fall from grace. Or a Shakespeare play. In YA in particular, the main good guys usually overcome the challenges. It's the side villains who are less predictable. We want to see if maybe there is more to them or if they'll do something good in the end.

And even if they don't we can always write alternate endings.

2. If they aren't a straight villain: They're still screwed up.

Even if my favorite character is on the "Good side", they still are very messed up. They still have done something bad in the past or make a huge mistake over the course of the book, they've had something horrible happen to them and they're jaded because of it, or it's just hard to get a read on them.

Or in my ideal character: All four.

Let's take a look at some of my favorite characters shall we?

Snape (Harry Potter): He's done something bad in the past, he's had horrible things happen to him, he's jaded, he's hard to get a read on and he switches sides about fifty thousand times (Or not really. We just think he does. I LOVE SNAPE!)

Darth Vadar (Like I need to tell you): He's screwed up, has made mistakes but was ultimately redeemed. My favorite kind of villain!

Basta (Inkheart): He's a villain, it is implied that he has had terrible things happen to him and he's not a nice guy over the course of the book. We also never find out in detail what happened to him so gues who's imagination got to go wild!

Joe Solomon (Gallagher Girl's series): He worked for an evil organization in the past, he's made mistakes, it's hard to get a read on him, and he's bad ass (Like James Bond if he wasn't a sexist pig and was actually an interesting character)

Boromir (Lord of the Rings): He was tempted by the ring and almost killed Frodo to get it. That's a pretty big mistake. (Also my second favorite character is Golum so... yeah, do I even need to list what's wrong with him?)

Haymitch (The Hunger Games): Horrible things have happened to him, he's made mistakes, he's jaded and he's a sarcastic drunk as an extra plus!

Spotting the trend now? I could list a lot of others and honestly the only reason that a sarcastic, mysterious, middle aged man with a bad streak isn't my favorite character in every single book I read is because sometimes there isn't one of those in the book.

Funny enough, they aren't my favorite characters because I'm attracted to them or anything like that. I would not want to date these guys. They would be trouble. I do feel like this kind of character is often liked by women who really want a project. Someone to fix. That's fine for them but I'm just that nerdy writer who likes characters because they're good characters.

It's a concept that a lot of people fail to understand when I say: My favorite character is Haymitch. They reply "You like him? Peeta is the hottest."

Since when did your favorite character have to be the one you're attracted to? Thank God I didn't say Effie.

-Authoress Anonymous

Historical Fantasy (A new direction for me)

Since my novel is currently on submission I find myself sampling some of my other projects, trying to see if something will catch my interest. There's quite a lot to choose from. In addition to the novel series I've finished I also have ten other solid story beginnings. Many are different genres with different messages and audiences. Take a look at the sampling:

1 YA post apocalyptic
2 YA Dystopian (And they're VERY different in premise)
1 Adult Sci Fi
1 YA Fantasy
1 Middle Grade Fantasy
1 YA Fantasy/ Horror
1 YA Dark Contemporary
2 Adult Thrillers (Very very different)
1 Historical fantasy
1 YA romance (That has a slightly religious message going with it. It's like the two things I always avoid in writing: Religion and romance. Heck if I know why I got this idea)

So... ok that's actually 12 ideas. It's grown since I last counted I guess. Long story short, I like a lot of genres and I get a lot of ideas in said genres. The one I'm looking at today is the historical fantasy.

I should point out that I totally didn't expect it to be historical fantasy when I came up with the idea. It was just going to be urban fantasy in a modern day setting. But two nights ago I had a revelation (Don't you love those) and suddenly thought: "This would be so much cooler if it was set in early 1900s England."

What prompted said revelation? I watched Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows for the umpteenth time.  I was really struck by the tone and setting of the movie and I could totally see a lot of the events of my story taking place in that kind of setting. It just looks so dynamic and cool. I think the cinematography also played a hand in that (Honestly, the cinematography is just incredible in that movie... I'm such a film nerd) but the places and buildings themselves also did. I love cobblestone streets and horse drawn carriages. I love how the buildings look elegant and yet really dirty and gritty. I love how busy they were with people and the little shops and markets.

You know what else? I love the costumes. I think men look awesome in those waist coats and hats and canes. The women's fashion is fun to play with too as it was just starting to move away from the traditional bodice and suffocating corset and moving towards more freeing and comfortable fashions. They still looked very elegant though.

There's also a lot of interesting events going on in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Great Britain. Beginning of World War I, a change in the influence of young intellectuals, Jack the Ripper etc. Plenty of good fodder for conflict and intrigue. Not to mention Historical Fantasy is a lot less common right now next to Urban fantasy. I think it would be an interesting experiment.

Of course, what interests me one day will be something different the next. I have the attention span of a flea. But if something does capture my interest I write like crazy on it (That book that's on submission? It's first draft was completed in just under a month. Yup.)

What genres are you sampling right now?

-Authoress Anonymous

Trip of a lifetime (And what I've learned)

Finally I have returned from the unknown of the Baltic: That mysterious, overseas land in which I could not use my cell phone or email or facebook or any other messaging device, less I risk paying an arm and a leg for them.

But seriously, the lack of communication with the outside world did not at all hamper my experience of that wonderful place. I am eternally blessed to have been able to see eight different countries in just ten days. I can add eight more countries to my extensive list of places I've been (A list that only included America until quite recently.)

Since the vacation is fresh in my mind I thought I might talk about what I learned while I was there. Specifically: What I learned about writing.

Settings are fun.

Yeah, that's a bit of a weird thing to learn. But I've never been a particular fan of describing the scenery in minute detail. I'm more of a characters person. The setting is just kind of there. Now that's not to say that I don't love it when older books go into minute detail about their settings. I'm just not very good at it. Description of settings is probably one of my biggest shortcomings in my writing.

Maybe it's because the settings were never solid in my mind. Maybe it's because I've never been to the place I'm writing about because it's fantasy. That all changed when I went to Bornholm (This little island off the coast of Denmark). I remember thinking to myself as we drove through the small town (That contained buildings older than America) "Hey, this could be the setting of this book!"

And the trend continued. I found inspiring buildings, towns and, especially, churches all throughout Europe. From the quaint old town of Tallin to the modern Russia. And I took pictures of EVERYTHING in order to solidify my memory of these amazing places. I hope to use these pictures when I describe my scenery in the future. Maybe it will improve.

It is a shame that many books don't take time to describe their scenery anymore because so many editors, agents and publishers have told us to start with action and GO, GO, GO! I kind of want to see more stories really take their time and linger in the setting. Because even if it's not my strongest point, it can be an amazing tool in the hands of a master.'

-Authoress Anonymous