Oh, and she should exist to teach my main character an important lesson. And a love interest! Gorgeous and quirky. That takes care of the diversity problem. Quirky enough to get his jokes, but won't overshadow the main character, which is in no way like me. 'My protagonist should have a best friend like Colonel. Putting the letters down, he paced the floor, dialogue and plot points bombarding his head like unformed constellations. I'd rather philosophize on Venn diagrams of octopi and dogs.' Fans won't be able to relate to him! Also, research is hard. but as an extra twist, his quirkiness would be the result of autism. White male, middle-class range, intelligent, quirky. John picked up the letters, rearranging them in his head: 'Hem, arrow, hero. 'That's it! I'll write a book about anagrams! That's nerdy and chic, and in no way like my last protagonist's obsession with famous last words.' 'Eureka!' he yelled, glasses sliding down his nose in his excitement. His brother Hank had been kicking his butt, but had to leave to mediate on the metaphysics of ice-cream trucks before he could finish spelling 'hamartia' (luckily).Īs he was idly staring at his unused letters, it hit him.

His eyes drifted to a map taped on the wall, then to an unfinished Scrabble game from last night. Something to show his critics that he wasn't a one-trick pony yet out-of-there enough to show his nerdfighters that he was one of them. His last novel, Looking for Alaska, had done moderately well, but he wanted to do something different this time. John Green sat at his desk, quietly contemplating the ghettoization of scrambled eggs as a breakfast food and brainstorming ideas for his new book. A reenactment of the moment An Abundance of Katherines was conceived:

An abundance of katherines goodreads