Hi,
I was wondering if any of you might be able to help me a bit. See, I'm worried if the male main character of my WIP really comes off as male, and to make matters a bit more complicated, I'm not even sure of the extend he should feel male.
Dystan, the character in question, is a magically animated skeleton. He was the son of a warlord who conquered a kingdom, and was supposed to be his heir. He was a rather scrawny sort of boy, though, and not at all big and muscular like his father would have wanted him to be. He didn't like violence, either, and would have preferred to be a healer. Since his father considered such a career only fit for a female, , he became a magician instead.
When Dystan was 16, he died in an accident and was brought back by a witch woman. He retains all his memories as well as his will, and the magic allows him to use all of his five senses and to speak. A drawback is that he is forced to obey the witch's commands, and there's no hope he could ever become free, as the magic requires a link between him and a witch for him to continue existing.
He spends the next sixty years alternating between helping the witch at her house - doing house work, mostly - and running her errands all over the kingdom. He enjoys travelling, as this gives him the illusion of independence. Being a magician, he can also make himself look like an alive person, rather than a skeleton, but looks is as far as the disguise goes.
When the story begins, Dystan meets a young witch called Medella, who has run away from her home and would like some protection in the kingdom she is unfamiliar with. Thinking Dystan is a normal young magician, she also has a crush on him. When Dystan eventually tells her that he is a skeleton, she decides it doesn't matter, since it is his personality and soul that she loves, and physical appearances shouldn't matter.
(And now it might get icky. Just a warning.)
They manage to actually have a relationship, and everything seems to be pretty well until Dystan's witch is killed and someone else steals the control of the magic that animates him. Medella needs to cast a spell of her own to get him back, but she needs to be pregnant to succeed. She does find a man for those purposes and rescues Dystan, ending up in charge of his magic and expecting another man's child.
My question is, basically, to what extend would a reader want me to write about Dystan's feelings about this whole thing, although the significance of the issues he is facing, as a man, is a matter too. First, how would a boy be expected to feel if he wakes up as a skeleton? How would a 16-year-old feel about the loss of control and being forced to do housework, especially if he is from a masculine culture? And if he is a boy from a masculine culture whose masculinity had been regarded as rather feminine by his peers? I think 60 years would be quite enough time to come in terms with his situation, but with the ability to fool people who don't know him very well into believing he is something he is not, I'm not sure what the level of acceptance would be. And would the prospect of having a girl friend, first time in his life, bring up some issues even if he had dealt with them?
Then there's the matter of his girlfriend in theory becoming able to have almost complete control over him, as well as cheating on him - to save him - and being pregnant with someone else's child. How inadequate would that make him feel? How difficult would it be to deal with that knowledge? And what is it like, to a man, to raise someone else's child?
A lot of other things are happening in the story as well, and I'm trying to decide how much focus I should give to the character's concerns. I want him to feel real, but not dwell on these things needlessly, so I would appreciate if you shared your opinion on what problems would definitely need addressing and what, if anything, can just be hand waved away.
Thanks in advance,
Nettle
I was wondering if any of you might be able to help me a bit. See, I'm worried if the male main character of my WIP really comes off as male, and to make matters a bit more complicated, I'm not even sure of the extend he should feel male.
Dystan, the character in question, is a magically animated skeleton. He was the son of a warlord who conquered a kingdom, and was supposed to be his heir. He was a rather scrawny sort of boy, though, and not at all big and muscular like his father would have wanted him to be. He didn't like violence, either, and would have preferred to be a healer. Since his father considered such a career only fit for a female, , he became a magician instead.
When Dystan was 16, he died in an accident and was brought back by a witch woman. He retains all his memories as well as his will, and the magic allows him to use all of his five senses and to speak. A drawback is that he is forced to obey the witch's commands, and there's no hope he could ever become free, as the magic requires a link between him and a witch for him to continue existing.
He spends the next sixty years alternating between helping the witch at her house - doing house work, mostly - and running her errands all over the kingdom. He enjoys travelling, as this gives him the illusion of independence. Being a magician, he can also make himself look like an alive person, rather than a skeleton, but looks is as far as the disguise goes.
When the story begins, Dystan meets a young witch called Medella, who has run away from her home and would like some protection in the kingdom she is unfamiliar with. Thinking Dystan is a normal young magician, she also has a crush on him. When Dystan eventually tells her that he is a skeleton, she decides it doesn't matter, since it is his personality and soul that she loves, and physical appearances shouldn't matter.
(And now it might get icky. Just a warning.)
They manage to actually have a relationship, and everything seems to be pretty well until Dystan's witch is killed and someone else steals the control of the magic that animates him. Medella needs to cast a spell of her own to get him back, but she needs to be pregnant to succeed. She does find a man for those purposes and rescues Dystan, ending up in charge of his magic and expecting another man's child.
My question is, basically, to what extend would a reader want me to write about Dystan's feelings about this whole thing, although the significance of the issues he is facing, as a man, is a matter too. First, how would a boy be expected to feel if he wakes up as a skeleton? How would a 16-year-old feel about the loss of control and being forced to do housework, especially if he is from a masculine culture? And if he is a boy from a masculine culture whose masculinity had been regarded as rather feminine by his peers? I think 60 years would be quite enough time to come in terms with his situation, but with the ability to fool people who don't know him very well into believing he is something he is not, I'm not sure what the level of acceptance would be. And would the prospect of having a girl friend, first time in his life, bring up some issues even if he had dealt with them?
Then there's the matter of his girlfriend in theory becoming able to have almost complete control over him, as well as cheating on him - to save him - and being pregnant with someone else's child. How inadequate would that make him feel? How difficult would it be to deal with that knowledge? And what is it like, to a man, to raise someone else's child?
A lot of other things are happening in the story as well, and I'm trying to decide how much focus I should give to the character's concerns. I want him to feel real, but not dwell on these things needlessly, so I would appreciate if you shared your opinion on what problems would definitely need addressing and what, if anything, can just be hand waved away.
Thanks in advance,
Nettle
)). Men really don't like children, it seems. We pretend to, because its expected of us. So I doubt he'd have much trouble accepting this one. Its hers, he likes her, ergo, he puts up with the child. If he had plans to (ahem) breed with her himself, he might find it a threat, but since he can't, its not an issue. seeing the child might make him feel unpleasant or sad though. I've never raised any child, mine or anyone else's, so I can't really comment on that. However, as a thirtyish male I've certainly considered the possibility, and it is not very distressing. More of an annoyance. 
). But when they do it, they tend to be sloppy about it -- function matters more than form in most things -- except for items that are emblematic of masculine power (cars, guns, swords... anything tool longer than it is wide). 'Clean' too means different things to guys than to women. Guys tend not to have as good a sense of smell and familiar smells don't bother them so much (and a skeleton might have no sense of smell at all); 'clean' is more of a functional than an aesthetic question for them. 'Sure there's dust... but it's clean dust!' Our own crap is never dirty. It's only dirty crap if it's someone else's crap.
