Lou.

Lou Lou Lou Lou. This name is just so right for her. There's something in the abruptness about it that fits her so perfectly - almost like it's been abridged, like there's a piece of it missing, but it's not any weaker for it. Lou doesn't sound like a nickname - it just is. Truncated but no less whole.

I write a lot of motherless girls, and I'm sure there's a real Freudian reason behind this but really... I rarely find a mother character who is interesting to me. It feels like there's more tension in writing fathers and daughters (which is probably Freudian in its own right) and this isn't to say that I've never written a mother character - there has been one in and out of different drafts of Other People's Garden Gnomes, and All The Pretty Hipsters certainly had one. My screenplay project last semester had a mother-protagonist, but that felt like something distinctly different. I guess the issue is that I'm reluctant to write an abusive mother, because I worry that it might make people think badly of my mother, who is nothing if not amazing - but if I wrote a mother-daughter relationship like what I have with my mom, there'd be no tension.  So I avoid the topic altogether and write motherless girls.

What I like about Lou already, even so early in the writing process, is that she has very little angst. I think she has a fair degree of anger and frustration, and a drive to rebel and to succeed, but I don't think she spends a large amount of time pondering her lot in life or moping about feelings - she just does things. On of the things I'm really trying to do is have her be a character who moves in a straight line. She's the kind of person who walks into a room and knows exactly what she came into it for. A little bit manipulative, yes, because she only asks questions that she thinks she's capable of getting answers to - hence why she's never asked Marcus much about super powers, because she doesn't think she'll get an answer.

I'm still toying with her first proper scene with Carson, and how she acts in front of her dad as opposed to when he's not around, but I get a sense that there's a fair bit of difference. Just like Marcus has a facade, so does Lou, and they play them against each other. Initially Carson probably sees a good deal more of their "true selves" than either sees of each other's, which is something I would like to play up, because it's a loving and familial relationship but it's one built on lies and presumed ignorance.

Anyways, that's just a sort of introductory idea of the character. I'll probably put something up for Marcus and for Carson later one, although most likely not this weekend. I'm doing a 24-hour play festival - which is something I've really wanted to do for a long time - but it will be sort of hectic. Fun and hectic and just the way I like my life.

So that's Lou. More on her later.