Merry Christmas! And happy birthday, Sarina!
Yes, Sarina has the misfortune of being born on Christmas day. So, let's talk about her a bit.
Sarina Knight was born on December 25, 1986, to Penny and Wayne Knight. Sarina is also Travis's younger sister. Within the Fragmented timeframe, she's 17 years old. As of today, in 2024, she would be turning 38. Her sign is Capricorn.
Sarina is one of the more interesting characters, being very fun to write, but not the kind of person readers (or people in real life) would want to be around. She's blunt and headstrong, and a bit of a bully.
Maybe more than a bit of a bully.
Writing her, I took a lot of inspiration from the bullies I knew growing up - particularly the girls. Because, yes, women can be bullies. And, yes, it does suck to be their target.
In my experience, most girls are more verbal than they are physical when it comes to bullying. But that's not a hard and fast rule and there are women out there who aren't afraid to fight and get their hands dirty. It depends on personality, I think.
But, in writing Sarina, I wanted to get into the bullying mindset. I say this as someone who's been bullied, but I don't think that anyone ever sees themselves as the bad guy. I also think that everyone understands that voice at the back of our minds that whispers, "It's not my fault." Everyone shifts blame and justifies their own actions, to a degree. And I think that's a key part of the bullying mentality - justifying bad behaviour.
I didn't want Sarina to be bland and hateable. I wanted her to have justification, no matter how weak. And, in the end, she wasn't entirely wrong about everything either.
Life is like that sometimes. You can be wrong or right or everything in between.
Something I didn't get to explore much was Sarina's family dynamic. I have a lot of ideas, but very little made it on page.
We know a little about her relationship with her older brother, Travis. They butt heads a couple times in the novel, but what I didn't get to showcase as much is that Travis actually looks out for Sarina a lot. Their parents are unreliable, so Travis has stepped up on more than one occasion to look out for his younger sister.
Sarina's parents barely made it into the story (mostly featured as Sarina's mother shouting at her from the living room), but there's something to be said about how that captures the nature of their relationship. It's brief, but I think the attitude and emotions are there enough to establish what Sarina's home life is like.
I really enjoy writing family dynamics and how different relationships affect people. Familial relationships often go on to affect other relationships in life too, so it's always worth considering. Whether family is nurturing, cold, chaotic, or even a mix of all three... I like seeing how that changes people and their expectations.
Anyway…
The holidays are here! And, personally, I have plans for today.
I'll be blogging more, probably at the end of January. Fragmented is very close to being finished. We have a few more chapters, the epilogue, and then we'll be done.
So…
Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! And happy reading!