Character sketches, #1b

The most important thing I gained from doing Ambrose's character sketch was the idea of his mentor, whom I spontaneously named Robert.

In an earlier post, I decided really liked the idea of Ambrose abandoning his religious identity because he has never experienced real interpersonal love before, so sexual love is irresistible to him.

The idea of his having a distant, incomplete father figure came naturally out of that. It's probably a cliche, but I think it really works here. For one thing, it makes sense to me that Ambrose, a rising star in his church, would have a mentor to shape him and guide his career. It would be difficult to swallow if Ambrose did that all on his own, especially as an orphan with no resources.

(This may have been inspired by the amazing Motherless Brooklyn, which I just read a few weeks ago. Unrelated tangent: Edward Norton is starring in the film version? Neat!)

It also makes sense that Ambrose would have someone he secretly wished were a parental figure but really isn't. It's important that Ambrose's mentor doesn't really love him as a person, and I can buy that he wouldn't.

And I like the idea of one of his caretakers at the orphanage loving Ambrose, but Ambrose not really caring about it because it's worth nothing to him -- it's Robert's love and esteem that he really wants, because Robert's opinion matters; his caretaker (probably a woman) is not someone Ambrose respects, so he doesn't look at her as a full human being (a problem that will be important for Ambrose later on).

So I am happy with this exercise so far. This is the kind of backstory/character detail that might not have occurred to me while I was writing the actual novel, but that adds a lot to my vision of the character. Very good. I will continue to do this for the other main characters, hopefully with similar results.