Parisian Phoenix Publishing

I recently gave a free workshop on Building Memorable Characters at Easton Area Public Library. 

We have two more workshops scheduled at the library:

Thursday, March 13: Publishing Basics

Thursday, April 10: Poetry in Everyday Life with McKenna Graf, Darrell Parry & Nancy Scott

At our workshop last night, we talked about types of characters and how much development writers should put into them. A side character should never receive as much attention as a protagonist, and a one-off character who only appears one probably doesn’t even need a name.

Some characters are only there to do a job, and it doesn’t matter who does the job as long as someone does it. A perfect example of this type of character is Kirk from The Gilmore Girls. He starts the series as Mick, the DSL installer, and spends a few episodes as a nameless random worker who keeps popping up, before evolving into the Kirk who adds comedic value specifically because he does all of these disconnected jobs. See compilation clip here.

This, in turn, leads me to what may be an unpopular opinion regarding The Gilmore Girls. I can’t stand Lorelei Gilmore the elder. I actually started watching the series because of Lauren Graham, so now that I’m more than half-way in, it’s disheartening to say the least that I love the actress but hate the character.

In the series, Lorelei Gilmore ran away from home when she fell pregnant at age 16. She finds a job at a small town inn and raises the baby on her own, refusing help and maintaining minimal contact with her wealthy parents. The show begins with Lorelei in her early thirties and her daughter getting into an upscale private high school, the same high school Lorelei and her boyfriend attended.

Lorelei is supposed to be the mother figure who never grew up, emotionally immature and best friends with her daughter. And all of these are great tropes for a comedy. My issue with Lorelei stems from my own socio-economic background. We are supposed to believe Lorelei never had any help from her parents yet as a single teen mother, by the time her daughter reaches high school:

• Lorelei owns her own home and car
• Worked her way from chambermaid to the inn manager
• Never learned to cook and has the money to eat out several times a day
• Constantly goes shopping and always has stylish new clothes
• Can treat her daughter to endless trips to Sephora and frequent mani/pedis.

I can’t afford that entire list, and my career trajectory has certainly not been that smooth, and I have two college degrees, a professional history, and was married in a dual-income household. Nothing about Lorelei suggests any struggle.

On the other hand, Emily Gilmore (Lorelei’s mother) might be my favorite character because of the slow reveal we have into her inner workings. She starts as a cold, manipulative stereotype and we gradually see more of what matters to her and who she really is. The key to a lot of this is the subtle revelations of her insecurities.