I Can Feel Your Heartbeat.

I can. Every author can. And honestly, how can you not? When you create someone, a character that you name, clothe, raise, how can you turn your back on them and ignore the life you have just created from your imagination?
This is one of those things that I see some published authors do that makes me want to ram my head into the wall. How can they create characters and let them fall into such neglect and disuse?

As much as I hate to think of it, I'm using Bella Swan as an example.

Isabella Swan. One of what most writers I ask agree is the flattest, most boring and most pathetic protagonists we have ever met in popular literature. A seventeen-year-old girl who falls in love with a vampire and becomes defined by him.

But she could have become so much more.

She has a very strong, stubborn mind, and a very kind spirit. She could have been the diplomat between the wolves and vampire coven, or even the one who dealt with the Volturi when they came to take the coven. She's not stupid, even though in the Twilight saga she definitely has her moments.

Not to mention all of the wasted opportunities she had for characterization: her mother living in Arizona with her new boyfriend (what does she think of her boyfriend, is she mad her parents split, why Arizona?), her time in New Moon getting to know the wolves (does she agree with their philosophy, what does she think of their traditions, why don't the wolves frighten her like normal people, does she believe they're good, which omega wolf does she like best and why, does she worry about Jacob?), and even when she meets the Volturi face to face as an unchanged human. Does she fear them? Why or why not?

With all that characterization potential, what happened to Bella Swan? The answer: She was left. Whether it's the fault of Meyer for not further developing her or the editors or publishing house for not pushing for more characterization, Bella Swan was left a character as willowy as a stalk of sea oats. If she was standing by herself in the rain on a highway, what would she do? Turn around and march home, ignoring the cold Washington rains? Would she try and flag down a car and hitchhike her way home?

The answer: We don't know. If we ask the same question about Katniss Everdeen, Harry Potter, or Percy Jackson, we would have a better time thinking up their reaction. But the problem is, Bella isn't fleshed out enough for us to know, and the fact that she is a character in a published novel kills me.

So for all you writers out there, please take a lesson from the unfortunate Mrs. Edward Cullen. Raise your characters, love them, nurture them, treat them well. Learn who they are and what they want. Become their friend. So that when your time comes to show your characters off to the world they're real and true. They're real people of a fictional story. Because that's what readers want to see.

Pencil calluses and sticky keys,
Brie