REELING AND WRITHING
or,
Miss Dermark's 2015 Advent Calendar
DAY TWENTY
IN STORMS THE FREE SPIRIT
or
YOU KNOW THE ONE WHO WOULD CLIMB UP THE REICHSTAG AND SIT ON ITS DOME, LIVING ON RAINWATER, DEW, OR FROST, FOR A FORTNIGHT AS PROTEST?
Luna Lovegood would do it, and Ty Lee, and Pippi Lângstrump, and Anne/Benio "Haikara-san" Hanamura, Ada Goth, and even the mistress of this blog. Climb up the Reichstag and make a home there. Put a cat in the tumble-dryer. Make a huge kite, with a reel of rope for a string, and crucify herself on it to take to the sky. Quaff a whole bottle of Russian vodka, or at least attempt it before passing out or needing to throw up.
My female leads are always Free Spirits. Asuka Akizuki (though non-binary), Reena Fitzwilliam (leaning on the Lunatic, in a grey area), most of the Ringstetten female leads (and even Queen Christina herself), and now Catherine Saunier. A lot of the plot in
Pleasure Past and Anguish Past gets its satisfaction from Cath fitting the unlikely mold. Her spear counterpart/foil and best friend Étienne, the dandy in distress to save, is a vulnerable, stray, brooding Lost Soul, and she gets a pair of Sancho figures (Jon Tellagorri and Irina Alekseievna Larina, an older and equally eccentric yet down-to-earth mentor, then, after his death, a no-nonsense and iron-hard military girl) to show her the way. And a lot of the plot centers on her dealing with backstabbing, white lies, and other harsh sides of reality... will she turn away from the light and lose her innocence or not? The whole story is a deconstruction and an experiment with Cath as a Free Spirit in a hostile world, based on my own self-discovery. It's a Free Spirit's "Book of Job", (think
The Snow Queen rewritten in the key of
Don Quixote) to see if she can remain sunny in the harshest of storms.
Luna has also got a Sancho "anchor to earth/voice of reason" in Neville. Anne/Benio Hanamura has got Shinobu, her Lieutenant Charming, and her friends Tamaki and Ranmaru. Pippi has the Zettergren siblings (Tommy and Annika), the literal kids next door. Ty Lee's got Mai, Azula, and (post-coat-turn) Suki. Reena and Asuka have István for a voice of reason... and every Ringstetten heroine has her spear counterpart, Christina Vasa her advisors, and my parents and friends fill the same slot in my life.
A male example would be pre-war Aerys Targaryen as he appears in my canonical fiction and AUs (
Game of Wands developing this character prominently). The trauma of being made a POW, and tortured and experimented with, changes Aerys from Free Spirit to Lunatic and sets the whole chain of events in motion. Furthermore, it shapes the life of many others, foremost his Sancho Tywin Lannister, a fallout with whom caused Aerys's imprisonment...
A female example of Free Spirit in
Game of Wands would be Lyanna Stark, one of the point-of-view characters of the same series.
In my Ada Goth stories, like Ada Goth and the Golden Bridegroom, the titular heroine, now a marriageable adolescent, is also a Free Spirit. Ada attends the Alice B. Smith School for the Differently Gifted and studies subjects such as Paper Folding, Advanced Musing, Seeming, Being, and Whistling Choir. The blue and white uniform, with epaulettes and a straw hat, fits her like a glove.
Annotation:
Ada Goth and the Golden Bridegroom is the one with the Lannisters... eh, Sinisters as the villains (except for Ada's kindred spirit Tycho Sinister). Reinterpreted into the Riddellverse as a straitlaced clan of Tory aristocrats, who love logic and industrialism and despise everything creative. The titular golden bridegroom is heir Geoffrey Sinister, Ada's prefect, promised to her since infancy, because the Sinisters sponsored/patronized Lord Goth when he was a ragged bohemian university student (Jephthah's daughter was called Ada: notice the parallel!). Add Lieutenant Letchworth-Crisp and Lara Fulda, add Minty Woodwine (who is Tycho's "Shae"), Wemmick the Elder (whom William Cabbage tends to), Lord Tybalt Sinister with his favourite children Saoirse (it's pronounced SEAR-sha) and Jamie, Geoff's younger siblings Estella and Thomas, Headmistress Alice B. Smith (the Olenna du jour), lots of steampunk, a feud between the Alice B. Smith and the school ship Betty-Jeanne, familiar faces of Betty-Jeanne classmates galore
(Horace Tucker, Tessa "Mouse" Maas, Sylvie Smith [related to Alice B.!], and Jimmy "Spike" Thompson)... references to The Princess Bride (a vicar gives the blessing talking about "mawwage," for instance),
a wedding crashed, a bridegroom unwittingly drinking a strychnine-laced draught, the Chamomiles, husband and wife...
A sequel, Ada Goth and the Dashing Lieutenant, is in the making. With the Chamomiles adopting Sylvie Smith, Jon-Jolyon closing in on Ada, Lord Goth falling terminally ill during a war of liberation on the Dalcretian coast, William seeking a way to get to Ada, Lara feeling scorned and up to something, Tycho and Minty sure to appear, as well as Countess Pippi Shortstocking, new characters, new surprises, an unlikely spin on the kiss of Judas Iscariot, references to The Princess Bride and to the Fourth Story of the Snow Queen, time travel, new students at Alice B. Smith, the death of more than one relevant character, Ada getting her first steps in art, invention, and science while fleeing the harsh rebukes she will endure as an orphan maid at the School for the Differently Gifted, a decision whether to choose her humble kindred spirit/childhood friend or the wealthy, dashing officer who promises her everything she wishes...
The Free Spirit
- A possible Cloudcuckoolander prone to flights of fancy and acts of whim.
- The FREE SPIRIT: eternal optimist, she dances to unheard tunes. Playful and fun-loving, she travels through life with a hop, skip and a jump, always stopping to smell the flowers and admire the pretty colors. She acts on a whim and follows her heart, not her head.
- The Free Spirit’s driving force is self-direction. She wants to dance to her own tune and doesn’t want the world to judge her for that. She is very sincere, upbeat and imaginative. She is impulsive and can meddle in other’s lives and problems. Other people would describe her as all-over the place and undisciplined. She doesn’t fit into a mold. For natural conflict you can pair her with straight men who would frown at her outside-the-box behavior. She is very comfortable with being herself and all she wants is for others to let her be. These characters are more likely to show up in romantic comedy.
Ex. Luna Lovegood
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- Free Spirit = ECCENTRIC. Jo March, Little Women. Confident, artistic, unique, chatterbox, whimsical, authentic. feisty, entertaining, sassy, wild for the 1800s (jumping fences & yelling hello).
- The Free Spirit This woman dances to the beat of her own drum. She is very playful and fun loving. She stops to smell the flowers whenever she can and admires the colors of the world. Ruled by pure emotion, she follows her heart rather than her head.
Now, let's really get to know the Free Spirit!
The Good Side
>Full of charm
>Extremely helpful to others
>Full of seemingly endless energy
>She has great instincts, her gut leads her right
>Sees everything and everyone just as they are
The Bad Side
>Very often late for things
>Whimsical, head in the clouds
>Doesn't make good or solid decisions
>Can hurt those that love her as she lives moment to moment without thinking first
>Doesn't conform without a fight (a loud one)
Remember, some of the good traits can be bad ones and vice versa depending on how you want to use them. Take them to extremes and see what happens!
The Free Spirit
Next up, the Free Spirit. Playful and fun loving, this heroine travels through life with a hop, skip and a jump, always stopping to smell the flowers and admire the pretty colors. She acts on a whim and follows her heart, not her head. An "original," she sets trends, not follows them, and is looking for new experiences. She might be a bit on the ditzy side, or perhaps she the well-intentioned busybody who leaves a trail of victims of her good deeds. A Free Spirit in the midst of a bar fight? Chances are, some inadvertent act or statement of hers set off the whole dispute, but she be oblivious to that fact. Instead, she'll choose a side to root for, and stand in the middle of the room, throwing mock punches in moral support of the one she favors. She'll resist others' efforts to pull her safety, thriving on the excitement offered by such a wild event. When it's all over, she'll be high as a kite on the adrenaline rush. Danger? Pshaw.
Skipping through life, the Free Spirit is genuine, fun-loving and
energetic. She may be a handful for anyone who has to deal with
her, but she makes the experience worthwhile in her zany, highspirited
way. Impossible to be mad at for any length of time, she
charms the socks off everybody who gets sucked into her orbit.
Because she is impulsive, she often finds herself in jams and
needs help getting out of them. Luckily for her, there is usually
someone around to pick up the pieces. Or else, her crazy logic
will save the day. Either way, she lands on her feet, ready for the
next adventure.
VIRTUES: Sincere The Free Spirit always lets people know right where she
stands. She is not conniving because it is so much easier to be
honest and truthful. Being a genuine person is her natural
instinct, and this is a woman who always follows her instincts.
Upbeat Life inevitably seems to work out for this woman. Her
sunny disposition makes it easy for her to see the bright side of
every situation. The Free Spirit has nine lives, and she believes in
the possibilities of tomorrow. She knows there is a solution to
every problem, she merely has to figure out who to call.
Imaginative The Free Spirit is amazingly resourceful and
ingenious when she needs to be. She might stumble along the
way, but she accomplishes the task set before her.
FLAWS: Impulsive Oh, if only this woman would think just a little before
she goes out the door in the morning. The Free Spirit sometimes
(unintentionally, of course) hurts people because she speaks
before she thinks and acts before she plans. Meddling A long
rocky road, paved with good intentions, stretches behind this
woman. The Free Spirit has a finger in everybody's pie and loves
to stir her friends' pots. She is uncontrollably drawn to interfere,
regardless of the wishes of her victims. Undisciplined Jill of all
trades but master of none, the Free Spirit rarely sticks with
anything for long. Erratic, she never writes things down and
constantly forgets her commitments. She flies by the seat of her
pants, which makes fulfilling promises impossible.
Free Spirit Character Archetype
The free spirit archetype is a quirky, talkative, charming, and unpredictable individual.
The free spirit character archetype will lighten a serious story, add comedy to a light tale, and just the right amount of unpredictability to any plot. Some well-known free spirits include Lisa Kudrow as Phoebe inFriends, Meg Ryan as Kathleen in You’ve Got Mail, and Emma in Emma by Jane Austen.
The Free Spirit is Eccentric
Following normal conventions is boring to a free spirit. Life should be lived with a splash, is her motto. Her eccentricity shows in her quirky habits, her unusual clothing, her hobbies, and her interests.
She may be an astrologer or an artist. She might be an actor or entertainer. Whatever she chooses as her career, it will be something where her creativity can shine and where the lines of convention and norms are blurry.
The Free Spirit is Talkative
The free spirit character archetype loves to talk. She is one of those characters that will chat about anything and everything, charming some people and irritating others, but everyone still thinks she is adorable.
Her charm lies in the fact that she can tune in to others’ feelings and be empathetic. Her empathy sometimes makes her think she knows more about how people are feeling than they themselves know, and she often sets herself up as a matchmaker.
At the same time, her ideas sometimes appear so far fetched that others don’t understand her. This comes across humorously. She finds enjoyment in the littlest things, and shares them by telling endless tales.
The free spirit goes with the flow like a leaf floating on the surface of the water.
Free Spirit Relationships
The free spirit is sincere, upbeat, and cheers everyone up. Because she is so much fun to be around, she always receives invitations to parties and events. People don’t take her seriously because of her unusual ideas and habits. Yet she can be highly intelligent, which makes these relationships frustrating for her.
In romance, the free spirit is most likely to fall for a character that is indulgent and patient. Even though he may not understand her process, he sits back and enjoys the show. The free spirit paired with the warrior will lead to humorous escapades.
Free Spirit Role in Stories
The free spirit serves equally well as the antagonist or the protagonist in a novel. As a protagonist, she injects humor, good feelings, fun, and excitement to the plot. As the antagonist, she is the person who makes everything go wrong for the hero/heroine.
The free spirit is always lighthearted, no matter what role she plays. She brings a ray of sunshine to even the darkest of stories, but she shines with her brightest light in comedies.
There is also an evil version:
The Lunatic
- Insane version of The Free Spirit who is less eccentric and more "unbalanced madwoman."
- The LUNATIC: the unbalanced madwoman, she draws others into her crazy environment. The drum to which she marches misses many a beat, but to her, it is the rest of the world that is out of step. Don’t even try to understand her logic – she is unfathomable.
Examples:
