What We're Writing: Debs on Cars and Characters

DEBORAH CROMBIE: I want to talk about cars. This is partly because I just bought a new car, the first in 17 YEARS, which some of my fellow REDs will be fed up hearing me talk about!  But also because the very emotionally weighty business of making that choice got me thinking about the cars (or the historical equivalents) we give our fictional characters and what it says about them.

In my very first Kincaid/James book I gave Duncan a classic, if slightly worn, red MG Midget. It looked like this.

This is the car my ex and I owned when we lived in England. I never drove it much, because a) right-hand drive, and b) the driver's seat springs were so sprung that I couldn't see out the windscreen! But it was fun, on a sunny day, driving with the top down along the Cheshire lanes in search of afternoon tea. Not so fun when it rained and the top leaked...

So it was partly familiarity that made me give Duncan this car. I also liked that he is a tall guy and I had an image of him disentangling himself from the little low MG. In the very first scene in the book he is driving through the Yorkshire countryside with the top down on a perfect autumn day, a picture of the romantic detective.

There was, on the other hand, nothing sexy about Gemma's little Ford Escort. This was a budget, single-mom-with-baby car and you could imagine the safety seat in the back and the detritus of spare nappies, teething biscuits, and juice drinks.

In short, Duncan was a cool if slightly eccentric guy, and Gemma was underpaid, overwhelmed, and over worked.

Eventually, their lives joined and moved on. With the advent of dogs and children, the Midget no longer suited and Duncan accepted a hand-me-down from his parents, an elderly green Vauxhall estate car. In American parlance, a station wagon, and about as nerdily uncool as one could get, much to now-teenaged Kit's humiliation. 

When the Astra came to an untimely--or timely, depending on your point of view--end, it was Gemma who got the long-deserved new car, a Land Rover Discovery the same copper color as her hair, and Duncan who was left with the little orchid-colored Ford runabout. I spent a lot of time picking out that fictional new car for Gemma--almost as much as I spent picking out my own! But these cars are more than cars, they are a snapshot of the characters' personalities and of the progress--and balance--of their relationship.

So what does the fact that I drove my green Honda Accord for seventeen years say about me? If I was a character in a book, would I be frugal, dull, totally uninterested in cars, or in my image? Or would it say that I form lasting emotional attachments? None of the first things are entirely true, but the second maybe more so--I did love the Accord. And I do, actually, really like cars, and had been daydreaming about something that was a little sporty as well as practical, and RED, so this is what I bought!

With a "parchment", aka white, interior, just to prove I have a thoroughly impractical streak.

So, darling Reds, do you think about what your characters' cars say about them?

And readers, do you notice what cars fictional characters drive, and do those cars lead you to make assumptions? Do you have favorite cars in books?

(Two of my fictional heroes, Inspector Morse and Thomas Nightingale, drive classic Jaguars!)

PS! The car is a Mazda CX-5 in Soul Red Crystal.

PSS!!! I almost forgot the writing update! Besides car shopping, I have been writing!! I'm about to hit 80,000 words, which may not mean much to readers but fellow writers will recognize as a good progress marker, a good two-thirds of the book. I'm reaching the point where, as  Hank said on Monday, I've passed, "Do I really have enough for a book?" and tipped over into, "Oh my God, how am I ever going to get it all in????"

Next time I will try to find a snippet, and we will hope I'll be closing in on THE END.