A lot of readers of the Ferry's Tale series asked me to write about how I created my characters. So I think it's fair to start with the protagonist of the series, Ferry Donovan.
Ferry is a changeling. According to Wikipedia, in Irish folklore, a changeling was believed to be a child that had been left in place of a human child stolen by the fairies. The theme of the swapped child is common in medieval literature and reflects concern over infants thought to be afflicted with unexplained diseases, disorders, or developmental disabilities.
A changeling is typically identifiable via a number of traits; in Irish legend, a fairy child may appear sickly and won't grow in size like a normal child, and may have notable physical life of characteristics such as a beard or long teeth. They may also display intelligence far beyond their apparent years, as well as possess uncanny insight. A common way that a changeling could identify itself is through displaying unusual behaviour when it thinks it's alone, such as jumping about, dancing, or playing an instrument — though this last example is found only within Irish and Scottish legend.
This is how a changeling is described in Arthur Spiderwick's Field Guide to the Fantastical World Around You, one of my favorite books.
In Romanian folklore, there are a lot of old tales about stolen babies. They say an unbaptised child should always be watched because the fairies love human babies and they would steal the child and take him (they are mostly looking for boys) into their world. There are actually countless tales about whirlwinds lifting an unsupervised baby in the air and taking him afar.
A changeling is not a nice-looking baby. And Ferry is no exception. In The Moonlight Boy, he has white hair and fair skin, his eyes change color, he has narrow eyes, and pointed ears. His strange appearance frightens his human mother and pushes her to hide him away from the world for nine years.
When Ferry goes to school, he looks like a 13 or 14-years-old, he's thin and tall, and has long limbs. He also behaves oddly: he can see and hear things other people can't. He can run very fast and climb the trees higher than anyone else. He's also very good with plants.
However, Ferry Donovan is not the typical changeling. He is actually Prince Garrett of Akna, brought to the world of humans by his fairy guardians to be hidden from the enemies of his homeland. That's why, when under the moonlight, there are bright marks appearing on his forehead, the marks of the Great Fairies of Akna.
In time, Ferry's appearance begins to change. Therefore, in The Lost Son, because of the time he spent among humans, he looks pretty much like an ordinary teenager. The marks on his forehead, his white hair, and his pointed ears are the only signs reminding of his fairy nature.
Character inspiration
Ferry is not inspired by a real person. He was born out of my love for fairies and the need to write about a boy character in a literary world dominated by strong female characters. Yet, there are a lot of sources that inspired me to write his character. In terms of his appearance, Jack Frost was the most important of them. But in terms of his personality, I wanted him to be as close as a normal boy, despite his magical fairy abilities.
In the beginning, Ferry was supposed to be the protagonist of a book called Finding Magic, a stand-alone book about a fairy teenage boy living among humans who discovers his magical abilities. But then, I thought about writing him as a fairy-child, and that's how The Moonlight Boy was born. What began as a Wattpad experiment turned out to be the beginning of a book series of five with an intricate plot and a complex storyline that spreads to several imaginary worlds and timelines.
Here's a rough outline of The Moonlight Boy when I thought it should be a stand-alone book with my Romglish side notes (Romglish means Romanian English ;)).
To portray Ferry's character better, I created character sheets for each book. Here it's his character sheet for The Moonlight Boy, in case some of you need a tip on how to make a character file.
However, his character changed a lot in The Lost Son. I wanted him to be as reliable as possible, a character with whom the readers could easily identify. That is why Ferry is not perfect as most of the protagonists usually are.
Ferry can be clueless, reckless, undecided, impatient, impulsive, too curious, or too passionate about things or people he loves. He's not the brightest of the characters either.
But he can also be very caring, a loyal friend, compassionate, kind, gentle, brave, generous, a loving son, and very determined in terms of his love interest. His fairy nature is not dominant in the first two books (except when he throws things at Sage, but that was an emergency ;)). And that makes him human, sometimes more human than humans themselves.
What defines Ferry the most is his kind heart, something he learned from his human mother who had a huge influence on him. It is his kind-hearted nature that makes him so likable, being loved and appreciated by the people around him, despite his odd physical appearance or his behaviour. He's flawed, but not because he needs character development, as some readers kindly suggested. He's flawed because one has to make mistakes in order to learn from them.
In the end, I just want to say that what started as a project to elevate my other stories on Wattpad (yes, I wanted to know how the platform worked to promote the Whispered Tales series which was already written), turned out to be a fantastic writing journey that brought this amazing fandom into my life and makes every single day worth it.
PS: Ferry is my favorite character in this series, in case you were wondering. That's why he ended up being the protagonist ;).
What do you think about Ferry Donovan? What do you like/dislike about him? As always, your insight is very, very important to me :).
Pictures courtesy of @Pinterest.