In many of my stories, the main character has lived a rough life. Oftentimes there is abuse, hate, and/or abandonment. Despite these dark upbringings, the main character grows up to be a good person. While he/she may have been mistreated by some, there is always someone else in his life who brought him towards goodness.
Antagonists in my stories vary. Sometimes it is someone who is pure evil, while other times it is just an ordinary person who is prejudiced in some way against the main character. Those prejudiced characters are not necessarily bad. They just have character flaws which make them less good. One such antagonistic character is a person who always sees the glass as half empty. You know people like that – people who are never happy and always have a negative outlook on things. They may not be evil, but we really don’t like them much.
In one of my stories, not necessarily in the Dukarian Legacy, the main character is surrounded by violence. He struggles to separate himself from the evilness, but as the son of a fearsome ruler he is unable to do so. Despite the ugliness in his life, he is optimistic. He finds the good in many people and manages to find joy in the simplest things.
At one point in the story, he tells a pessimistic man, “I can see the stars in a sea of blackness whereas you stand in the sun but all you see are shadows.” © Although this is in a fantasy story, I can see this in real-life situations. Some poor people seem happy despite their lot while some rich people seem never to be satisfied with anything in their lives. It just goes to show that happiness is a state of mind.
Fantasy/Sci-Fi Author Dawn Ross 