Library of Characters: Katja L.

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Hi! I’m Katja. I’m a Christian, an extreme bibliophile who devours over 365 books in a year, and an exuberant writer with a talent for starting short stories that explode into book series. I’m also a bilingual French-Canadian and have about a dozen topics I’m excessively passionate about (hint: that’s why I write). I spend my days enjoying little things, growing in faith, learning life, and loving people. I am so excited to be here, and I am so grateful to Lucy for inviting me here 🙂

And now that you know who I am, let’s dive into who the main character of my WIP is!

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Introduce your character to me—who is she and what story is she from? Give a synopsis of her past.

As of November 11, I am currently finishing a story called A Perfectly Messy Christmas which will top out around 15k, I expect. (It was supposed to be 5k, but we won’t mention that.) Although it’s set at Christmas, the point of the story is to share some lessons God has been giving me right now. This story ties into my main series, The Colours of Life. The main character of this story is Isabella Colleen Göransson, who becomes very important in the later books of the series.

Isabella is eighteen, a Christian, and a homeschool graduate just entered university and pursuing a music degree. She teaches piano, loves to read (classics are her bread & butter), and hates driving. She has five younger brothers: Isaiah (17), Jeremy (13), Jedediah (9), Elisha (3), and Enoch (newborn); and her father, a Navy veteran, has just passed away.

What gave/gives you inspiration for her?

Actually, Isabella is based heavily on myself and my closest friend. She is a catalyst for both of us to express what we are currently struggling with and feeling. It makes things interesting, but I love it. 🙂

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On one [picture], Jedediah, Elisha, and Enoch lay on her bedroom floor back home, their feet propped up on her bed and waving happily in the air in cheerful defiance of dirty shoes on a clean comforter. Their merry little faces brought only a stab of homesickness now. Lord, why’d You have to keep us apart? Shouldn’t siblings be together? Don’t You think they need me?

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How has her past shaped what she is now? What is that personality? What are her strengths and weaknesses? 

Having moved around a lot in her life, Isabella struggles to make friends and tends to be a loner. She is an old-fashioned girl with strong morals and a big sense of justice and duty; and she enjoys digging deep and figuring out why something is or isn’t wrong. She struggles with depression and anxiety, has trust issues, and battles lots of self-deprecation, but she’s optimistic, enthusiastic, and extroverted. She’s a very sweet, sensitive person, and thanks to this, as well as her past, she overthinks responsibility and takes on a lot of the burdens around her.

Give a few examples of how she needs to/will grow throughout the story. (Without spoilers😜) 

Isabella has low confidence and God is working hard to teach her to trust Him + not give in to pressure around her. He’s also teaching her to wait, to let go of perfection, and to be brave. ;P

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She tucked her hands beneath her head, frowning thoughtfully. She’d been reading Genesis earlier that year, and been struck by how much waiting happened in the book. As she pondered this truth, the Lord had impressed upon her that she was to wait patiently—wait for Him to lead her and fulfill her dreams. In the meantime, she was to live and serve where she was. The firmness of that conviction did not sway, so why was it so easy to shake up her trust that she had that conviction?

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What is her greatest struggle or fear? 

Her greatest fear is being rejected by those she loves (i.e., most everyone) and her greatest struggle is not beating herself up over the past.

What she most afraid of losing? 

Love. She is terrified of messing up, not measuring up, and being ‘bad enough’ to lose people’s love. This keeps her quiet and secretive, as well as feeding her depression and anxiety.

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But this point of view was condemned by many of her friends and teachers. They wanted her to think five, ten years ahead. To plan life, to build a business. The constant pressure hurt. She battled doubt, worry, and anger so often, wondering if she was mistaken, wishing that God would give her a different direction, believing she was just taking the “easy way out” because of cowardice and laziness.

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Character Appearance:

Isabella is a pale, 5’3 blonde with blue eyes. I know, that’s very lame; but I honestly don’t see my characters in my head very clearly. Their characters matter to me—their appearances are very secondary and blurry detail.

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The stars twinkled on, unchanged since the beginning of the world, the same stars so many souls throughout history had gazed upon. Isabella wondered if this place had ever been a camping spot for a lonely, driven explorer… a group of tired, powerful fur-traders… an independent, nearly uncivilized trapper… perhaps a quiet, sharp-eyed Native or ten. She could almost see the flickering fire, the tall, silent shapes sitting about it, or flitting about preparing a meal. She could almost hear the boisterous laughter and rough talk the Europeans filled the silence with, nearly smell the savoury concoctions of Ahq’on stewpots, nearly touch the fur blankets sparkling in the light.

And all the time, the stars had shone on, the seasons slipped away, God had kept His vigil.