I'm about halfway through reading Murder at the Vicarage by Agatha Christie. It's the first of the Miss Marple books, and I'm wondering if Dame Agatha had planned to start a series when she wrote it. My guess is no.
The book is written in first person from the perspective of the vicar. Miss Marple is, at this point anyway, a secondary or even tertiary character. She's the old busybody who lives next door to the vicarage. One of many old busybodies in the village. But she is more fully fleshed than any of the other characters. Was this on purpose? Or did Christie just fall in love with the character and give her more attention than the protagonist? Was the format a purposeful device to introduce Miss Marple?
I know there are biographies of Agatha Christie. I don't know whether any of them go into these issues. Would anyone other than a writer care? But I'm smelling more research in my future. Of course the big question is, does this impact what I'm doing with my own mysteries?
Possibly. What if in HM, Caleb becomes the stronger character? Pulls a Fonzie, so to speak. Is this something to protect against in the writing by making sure Sloan is the more interesting of the two? Do I slight Caleb in order to elevate Sloan? Would it really matter?
I think I need to trust my gut and just write it. There should be room for two, or more, strong characters.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Ooh, that's an interesting question. Hrm...
Yeah, if Caleb takes over, that could complicate things. However, I think at this point you don't need to worry too much about it. Heck, there are oodles of Buffy fans whose favorite character is Willow, or Xander, or Giles, etc. They still watch Buffy, though. Don't they?
Yeah, I think it depends on the strength of said character.
There's always the opportunity for spin-off, as well. Consider the Joe Pike novel by Robert Crais...sometimes just a new perspective is interesting. I don't know if that qualifies as "taking over" really...
Post a Comment