I remember submitting a short story for a workshop critique and receiving feedback that my villain was too bad and that I needed to include nice character traits so that she would be more well-rounded and believable. It was good feedback. Nobody is totally bad or totally good. However, I wonder if fictional characters have become more interesting and complex than real life? This past weekend the Hallmark Channel aired marathons of Murder She Wrote on Saturday and Robert B. Parker’s Jesse Stone Mysteries on Sunday. Of course, I was watching for purely research purposes, well mostly. During the course of the 48 hours of murder and suspense, I realized that mystery writers have created fictional characters that are a lot more interesting than real people. Jesse Stone is a dog loving, baseball cap wearing, sharp shooting, emotionally tortured, divorced, alcoholic policeman who metes out his own unique brand of justice. Geez, he’s got a lot going on. I love dogs and sometimes wear a baseball cap, but I’m not sure how he has time to solve crimes with all that emotional baggage. Even Jessica Fletcher, award winning, best-selling author, lecturer, gardener, widowed, crime solving sleuth, has a very active social life that carries her all over the world (well, the population of Cabot Cove was dying out so she needed to travel). J.B. Fletcher solves murders that baffle the police in Cabot Cove, NYPD, LAPD, KGB, CIA, MI-6, and a host of other cities, countries, and acronyms. Oh and she writes mystery novels in her spare time.
Genre fiction has often been referred to as escapist fiction by academics and literary snobs. . Ah, I mean purist. I suppose the term escapist was intended as an insult, but it actually works for me. The idea is that people read to escape the doldrums of their everyday lives and get lost in a fictional world. Romance novels are full of beautiful, millionaires who meet, fall in love and live happily ever after. Fantasy novels are littered with buxom beautiful Amazons (whose names have very few vowels and utilize a good number of lesser used letters of the alphabet) who can wield a sword and destroy villages. And cozy mysteries feature smart, crafty amateurs who are smarter than the police with an uncanny knack of solving murders without getting killed.
I’ll be one of the first to admit that my life is pretty dull and consists mostly of work, writing, research, work, eating, housework, sleep, and work (did I mention work). Even though thanks to the Seton Hill University’s Writing Popular Fiction Program, I have met some pretty interesting people including folks from the: CIA, FBI, Marines, Army, Navy, and sword wielding Urban Fantasy writers (yep, I said swords). I also know bestselling romance writers and some darned scary horror writers. Yet, I doubt that any or all would come close to the complexity of a deerstalker cap wearing, pipe smoking, opium using, violin playing, single, crime solving genius. So bring on the escapist fiction.