This morning I was thinking about ways to get to know my main character in my latest and greatest manuscript. She's confident, quick-witted, spunky, and loves playing soccer. She's also impulsive, distractable, and yearns to fit in. In my head, she has a birthday around this time of year. Early June, perhaps. So I got to wondering, what's my character's sign?
I have to say, I want to believe in astrology even though logically I know it's silly. I'm an Aquarius through and through -- stubborn, changeable, curious, and idealistic. Despite the fact that I specifically planned on not going to the gym today and chugging along at my job as usual, this was my daily horoscope:
Today much of your mental - and possibly physical - energy could be directed at career matters. You might reevaluate goals and ambitions, Aquarius, and consider other possibilities.
I was completely prepared to write that off as a ridiculous prediction, but here I am starting a new blog to help my writing career. So, who knows? I mean, I have been to see a psychic for myself and my cat...maybe I should just stop fighting it, embrace the crazy, and buy a pack of tarot cards.
I was also fully prepared to discover that my main character, Emily, would need a different birthday if I wanted to align her personality with her zodiac sign. But lo and behold, an early June birthday makes her a Gemini. And the description of a Gemini is almost spot-on to how I envision her:
Gemini people are many sided, quick both in the mind and physically. They are brimming with energy and vitality, they are clever with words. They are intelligent and very adaptable to every situation and every person. Gemini are curious and always want to know what's going on in the world around them. They are not one to sit back and watch the world go by, they want to be involved.
A big aspect of the Gemini personality that I did not give Emily is a talkative nature. It's hard to give your character a trait that you don't possess as an author, but after exploring her astrological sign, I think I might consider letting more of her Gemini-ness rule her character.
One of my goals as a writer is to create well-rounded characters who are believable and relatable. I'll definitely be using the astrological signs as another tool to help gain insight into who my characters are, especially because people tend to have multiple facets that aren't easy to predict.
Along those lines, one of my favorite things about getting to know new people is discovering the contradictory parts of their nature. I have a friend who is amazingly wonderful at pointing out the positives in other people, but can't do the same for herself. And my mom comes across as very conservative and old-school in most respects, but one of her favorite shows is South Park. Being able to give characters these little quirks makes them seem much more human.
So writers, do you know your characters' signs? Do your favorite character's birthdays match up to their sign's traits? Scholastic has an old writing prompt on their website about coming up with a horoscope for your character based on their zodiac sign: http://blog.scholastic.com/ink_splot_26/2011/05/writing-prompt-character-horoscope.html. When I'm ready, I think writing Emily's horoscope will be a blast.
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