The Choosing Ones

Happy Labor Day!

This past weekend I was asked what my favorite and least favorite writing tropes are. Among my least favorite were:

1. The hunky, violent, abusive love interest
2. The "strong female character" who does nothing to further the story OR is just all the masculine ideals in a female body
3. When characters have little to no motivation for doing what they do (I'm looking at you, Zack Snyder)

Seriously, why is she even there?

And my favorites?

1. Breaking the fourth wall
2. When the villain is defeated not by brute strength but by some cunning plot set up well in advance by the heroes
3. When the hero has to decide to be a hero, turning his/her back on a normal life
4. A character is special because of who, not what, they are

I want to talk about this last one in today's post.

This isn't the "Chosen One" idea, where someone is born special and is destined to save the world because they're the Chosen One. This is actually the opposite of that, so I sometimes call this character the "Choosing One."

*thunder sounds as the post title is stated in the post*

The more I read and write, the more I find myself drawn to the characters who are not born special. They are not royalty, they have no special powers, and no one has made a prophecy about them. In fact, there's no reason for these characters to be part of the heroic team, or even to be the protagonist. They are perfectly justified in staying home.

But they don't.

These characters are good people, heroic people, not because of any outside force pressuring them to be (though that can be very fun when said CO (Chosen One) rebels against those pressures), but because they want to do the right thing, even when it's hard.

Really, any of the hobbits fit this description.

I really admire these characters. Not only are they good because they want to be good, they aren't inherently special. They show that anyone can be heroic, not just someone with a special power, or foretold destiny, or whatever. I find it so much interesting to see a normal person, who wants to help and do the right thing, put in situations where he or she feels maybe a little inadequate and wonders why he or she is even part of this fight. But then, rise above it and do the right thing anyway.

This is the kind of heroism I respect more, and I love seeing it. These characters aren't perfect, but they're heroes because that's who they are, not what they are. In my own writing, I tend toward these kinds of characters: the nobodies who are somebody not because they are Chosen, but because they Choose.

Here are this week's debuts:

Middle Grade:
Eric Bell - Alan Cole is Not a Coward (9/5)

Young Adult:
Katherine Locke - The Girl With the Red Balloon (9/1)
Linsey Miller - Mask of Shadows (9/5)
Heather Fawcett - Even the Darkest Stars (9/5)
F.M. Boughan - Cinderella Necromancer (9/5)
McCall Hoyle - The Thing With Feathers (9/5)
Meg Kassel - Black Bird of the Gallows (9/5)