Compromises.

In books, characters have to make choices, sacrifices, decisions that will change everything. And in real life, people make decisions too. They make decisions that are so unimportant that they make them without thinking. Whether it’s “what coloured socks will I wear today” or “should I sign out of Facebook, or stay on here staring at the screen for another two hours?” the decisions generally aren’t life-changing.

Making a decision is one thing; but what about compromises? What about the decisions that aren’t so easy to make. What about the decisions which are more than what socks you wear?

In CONSEQUENCE, I had this ridiculous habit of making my male characters perfect. Okay, realistically speaking, Kai couldn’t have been anything less than perfect, or Phoenix wouldn’t have gotten together with him. But Drew could have had more flaws, because Persephone is less picky than Phoenix. But no, they were both unrealistically…good.

In AMEND, this issue was to a lesser extent. My main male characters were Blake, Haden, and Kai. Okay, so Kai got even more perfect with age, but the other two weren’t perfect.

Blake almost had Melinoe executed just to prove a point, and although Haden seems all nice and regretful in AMEND, how much can he have truly changed from who he was in CONSEQUENCE? But despite the fact that they actually have flaws, Haden and Blake are still nice guys. My evil little mind is saying “wait till TRANSCEND”, because that book changes everything, but I’m not going to mention that right now.

Anyway, when I finished writing TRANSCEND, I wrote a book called RELEASE. This book was about one of Phoenix’s daughters, and it was set sixteen years after the end of TRANSCEND. Most of the storylines were incredibly disturbing, but it’s actually one of my favourite out of my books.

Anyway, it was in RELEASE that I had my first extremely flawed male main character. And in PLAYING WITH FIRE, the last book I wrote, my male character was also completely flawed. But the problem is: I don’t particularly like writing characters like that.

Okay, part of me is like “Yeah! Tortured fictional guys! Awesome!” but another part of me is like “No! They need to be good, they need to be kind, they need to be there for the main character, rather than constantly keeping her at arm’s length because they’re so caught up in themselves”.

You see, my female characters basically go through hell for practically the entirety of any book I write, and falling in love with the oh-so-perfect male character is meant to be a little bit of light relief from the “Oh crap! The world’s ending!” storylines.

So when the male characters aren’t ridiculously perfect guys who any girl would fall in love with, this poses a problem. Why? Because the female characters have to think “Is this guy really someone who I want in my life? Is he really good for me? Is liking him a waste of time?”

And what if his flaws are things that go against everything the female character believes in? Then what does she do? And can she stop liking him the moment she finds out that he’s not as totally perfect as he originally appeared to be? The answer to that is almost certainly no.

You’d think, as the writer, I could manipulate my characters into doing what I want, right? But I can’t. They just do whatever they want to, and I’m left trying to keep up. It’s not always the best position to be in, that lack of control. I mean, I don’t always like where the story’s going, yet I don’t get a say.

I mean, Miss Intelligent could end up with Mr Lacking In The Brain Department, and I wouldn’t be able to stop it. They could get married and have Baby Of Average Intelligence (a combination of her intelligence and his lack of it). And I, the author, the creator, the maker of these characters, would have my metaphorical hands tied behind my metaphorical back as my characters threw away their lives for people who aren’t good enough.

But am I so superior to them? Do I not make the same mistakes? Do I not like people who aren’t perfect? Do I not waste time on people who just aren’t worth it? I always thought that because I was like Phoenix, perhaps I would find someone like Kai. What if that’s not true? What if in the real world, there is only Mr Lacking In The Brain Department? There seem to be a lot of him in Cumbria, at any rate.

Funnily enough, I don’t think there has ever been a Mr Lacking In The Brain Department in any of my books. But there are other flaws, and some of my characters have them. The question is: what compromises will my female characters make? Will they choose someone who isn’t what they thought they wanted? Will they choose someone whose fatal flaw is something they hate?

It’s actually not really an issue that's come up in my books before, but it crossed my mind last night. I just couldn’t help thinking about what happens when the female character doesn’t have good judgement, and when the male character isn’t perfect. Do they end up together? How does that turn out? Is there such thing as a happily ever after in a situation like this? And what if these characters actually belong together?

Part of me thinks “No! They couldn’t possibly belong together! Not when he’s not good enough for her!” But what I seem to forget is that my female characters aren’t perfect either. They have flaws of their own. Yet people always choose them… Why should the male characters be different? Why do they deserve less love? Why don’t they deserve a happy ending?

Okay, in an ideal world, Miss Intelligent would end up with Mr Intelligent Compassionate Kind Perfect Guy, and Mr Lacking In The Brain Department would end up with Miss Not So Intelligent Either. Though if the latter got together, there wouldn’t be much hope for the human race (albeit a fictional one).

But what about in a fictional equivalent of the real world, rather than an ideal one? What happens to Miss Intelligent when Mr Intelligent Compassionate Kind Perfect Guy either doesn’t exist, or isn’t in her life? Does she settle for Mr Lacking In The Brain Department? Or Mr Extremely Flawed? Or does she become a hermit who lives at the top of Mount Everest?

Does Miss Intelligent actually accept the compromises that she may have to make, or does she think she’s above them? Does she truly believe that she can spend her life waiting around for Mr Perfect? It seems that Miss Intelligent isn’t quite as intelligent as her name implies, if she really thinks she can reside in the real world without living by its rules.