Everyman and Everywoman

Day 18 - our heroine reflects on the man who is no hero

To prove I have been working hard at my Writers' Holiday, today's post is about books and writing.

One of my favourite radio plays, later rewritten as a book trilogy in 5 parts, and then later again turned into a film, is ‘The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’ by Douglas Adams. I have brought the original 1975 BBC recordings away with me to keep me amused while driving.

The main character in the story is Arthur Dent, an ordinary man who finds himself caught up in the most extraordinary of circumstances. Bulldozers turn up one morning without warning to demolish his house ready for a new bypass. While he is still coming to terms with this apparent bureaucratic incompetence, the Earth is itself destroyed to make way for an intergalactic space highway. Arthur is rescued and finds himself at the centre of an improbable (and very funny) series of space travelling adventures.

It is essential to the story that Arthur be unremarkable. He is ‘Everyman’, the representation of the average person with whom the reader can relate. In time Arthur bumbles his way to achieve hero status, the reader cheering him on all the way.

And that is what I want the characters in my stories to be - identifiable women and men who when faced by challenges find a way to win through. I hope my time here at Fishguard will provide inspiration for the better crafting of my fictional stories.