As Jasmine suggested in her email, I completed a bit of a character profiling activity – and kind of fell in love with my two characters.
Let’s flesh them out:
Lola Lufuit (pronounced Loo-fwee)
- Age: 38
- Female
- Caucasian
- Upper Class French living in London – you would never guess her riches from her personality (old money).
- Owns and runs a quirky vintage handbag boutique.
- Very fair skin with rosy cheeks, strawberry blonde hair usually in a French twist. Wears pink and only pink – head to toe from magenta to mauve.
- Extremely well-groomed, never seen without a swipe of pink lipstick.
- Exceptionally bubbly and warm – has a contagious effervescence to her personality. Nutty in a good way.
- Lola idolizes Coco Chanel and is constantly quoting her.
- No partner or family – she was an only child and her parents passed away in an accident in Paris while she was studying in London. She will never, ever take off her late mother’s pearl necklace – it is her prized possession.
- Lola has a string of loyal customers who are more like family.
- Her children are her two dogs whom she loves whole heartedly, and even has a huge painting of them hung up in the entrance hall of her spacious and luxurious French-style apartment. There is Coco the male white French Bulldog, and Chanel the pink Toy Poodle.
- Lola is extremely loving and has a huge heart. Her only enemy is the rat that lives in the bin outside the store. She absolutely loves chocolate and hates coriander (understandably).
- The widowed owner of the Italian restaurant on the same road as her store has eyes for her, but she is completely oblivious to this.
- Lola would pick tea and cake over a night out any day. She has bouts of loneliness but finds comfort in the company of her beloved dogs. She talks to them as if they were people.
Marco Lissimo
- Age: 45
- Male
- Caucasian
- Middle class Italian living in London.
- Owns and runs a successful family restaurant inherited from his retired parents. Marco is an only child and moved to London with his parents when he was 7.
- Tan skin, thick, dark hair. Thick eyebrows. Medium build. Always wearing a cardigan. Attractive for his age.
- Marco is very friendly and approachable. Treats customers like family. All of the women in the area are besotted with him, but he only has eyes for his 9-year-old daughter and Lola Lufuit.
- He lives in the apartment above the restaurant with his daughter who he will do absolutely anything for. His wife passed away when his daughter was 3. He hasn’t dated anyone since his wife passed of cancer.
- He feels guilty in regards to having feelings for a woman other than his late wife.
- Marco is extremely protective of his daughter, at times too protective, but cannot fathom the idea of ever losing her. He despises greediness and poorly cooked pasta. His daughter will often hang around Lola lufuit’s store after school while her dad is working, and considers Lola one of her best friends.
I started with Lola, who was initially inspired by the minor character, Ms. Razzberry Pink, from my favourite childhood book series, ‘Beacon Street Girls’ (Annie Bryant). Lola is the kind of person I dream of meeting. Her heart is so pure and she is so full of love and light, despite the loss she has faced. The conception of Lola led me to the creation of her potential love interest, Marco, whose existence stemmed from Lola’s story. Both characters have experienced immense tragedy yet still manage to look at the world with a positivity that radiates onto everyone that meets them. A sense of community and family is imperative to both characters, regardless of their personal situations.
Lola and Marco would fit perfectly into a film of the rom-com genre. Although light and fluffy, their story would carry dark undertones, and their eventual romance would be sweet and satisfying to witness. A part of me wishes I could enter an alternate universe and actually witness the characters in action – to see if they would actually fall in love without a script forcing them to do so. Sometimes we write characters to be ‘made’ for each other, when in actuality, maybe they wouldn’t end up together in real life. Hmm…
I found this activity to be really organic and somewhat therapeutic. I have no intentions to write the script for Marco and Lola as I do not want to be held responsible for the outcome of their story together.
