Ryanne's Characterization

I'm writing this post to explain one of my characters a little bit more. Though I feel like a lot of people understand why certain characters act the way they do, I'm not sure if everyone does. The number one response about characterization in BlackMoon Beginning is that Ryanne is annoying. That doesn't bother me at all; in fact, I like it! It means that I was able to convey something to those who are reading it.

With Ryanne, I think the first thing you have consider is her background. She never had a fatherly figure in her life. Her mother died in a car crash where she was supposed to receive the impact. She didn't have any friends and Adam and Lily made sure her senior year sucked. Besides her mom, Ryanne was mostly alone her whole life. So when she is thrown into a situation where she gets major attention, she doesn't know what to do with that.

I wanted Ryanne to be real. I've read a ton of YA novels of similar genre where the main heroine comes into some power and suddenly becomes this all-knowing, fully confident, look-at-me-I'm-awesome girl. Granted, I've never come into any magical gifts or been told that I was responsible for fulfilling a mage prophecy, but I don't think it would happen like that. I think it would be a struggle to come to terms with everything and I wanted to portray that with Ryanne.

Though I didn't intend to, I did add a lot of my personality into her character. Ryanne had no self-confidence, but could you blame her? When enough people tell you the same things over and over again, you start to believe them. No one was telling her otherwise, so why shouldn't she believe them?

I feel like we all, well most of us,  have a little bit of Ryanne inside of us. We don't have as much self-confidence as we should, we second-guess the actions of those around us, we wonder what others think, etc. Some of us act like one way on the outside, but we're a completely different person underneath. I know I am.

I've never been a confident person. I was that girl in the back of the classroom. I didn't speak up or draw attention to myself. I expressed myself through art and writing. I have a few close friends. I even did homework at lunch. I was THAT student.

When I first expressed wanting to write, people said "Oh, that's great," and then they dropped it. A lot of people have told me that they never expected me to publish BlackMoon Beginnings. That would bring a lot of attention to myself and my writing and I just wasn't that type of person. As I started to think about publishing more and more, I started to think about the people who would be reading my story. Are there any other shy girls out that have a loud voice inside of them? Writing is how I get voice out. I've been told that my writing and my situation has inspired others to write. That is my strongest reason to push forward.

Ryanne's character spoke to me and I wanted others to connect with her as I did. All Ryanne had growing up was her mother. Suddenly, she's surrounded by others that truly care for her and want to keep her safe. She doesn't fully understand her new family dynamic or what to do with it.

Since there are four novels in the Prophesized Series, I wanted Ryanne to grow across all the books. I didn't want her to stagnate after coming into her powers in BlackMoon Beginnings. She's going to continue to struggle to come to terms with everything. Please keep that in mind when you are reading Scorching Secrets!

I hope this message didn't offend anyone who has stated that Ryanne was annoying in reviews. That was not my intention and I'm sorry if I did that. If you have any other character questions, don't be afraid to ask!

I've been on a 90s kick recently. I used to love Nsync :)

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