X is for...Xander

Tonight's blog post is brought to you by the letter 'X'!

I've mentioned my book a couple of times during this challenge, but today, I thought this letter would be the perfect opportunity to introduce you to one of the characters in my novel - Xander.

I've tried to find a picture that best sums him up, but to be honest, purple haired/eyed men are pretty thin on the ground (thanks for nothing google...) - so these pictures are the best I can come up with:

  

Xander doesn't have long emo hair though - his hair is actually quite short. Next time I do this challenge/a post on Xander, I'll definitely ask a few of my more arty friends to draw a proper picture of him for you.

Anyway, moving on from the aesthetics, Xander is a pretty cool guy. He's Anais' boyfriend and boy, does he have a lot of running around to do when it comes to her! The thing that I like most about Xander is that he allows Anais to grow and be her own person, without trying to impose his views or beliefs on her. He supports her decisions, even when he doesn't totally agree with them. He's not possessive, he doesn't mind if she wants to do her own thing and they don't declare their love for each other after three days - they both realise that they're young, and they're having fun.

Xander has a pretty sarcastic sense of humour, which is great because Anais is equally as snarky (if not more so). He's loyal almost to a fault, and he has strong opinions on what's right and wrong. In fact, he struggles with the concept of the world not being simply black or white - if it were up to him, every choice would either be right or wrong.

Which brings me onto his role in the second book. To be honest, I've been struggling lately with what to do with Xander. He's such a sweet, caring guy and I love that he's always got Anais' back, but here's the thing...nice guys aren't that interesting to read about. I feel like he needs something 'more' to definite him, other than being Anais' boyfriend who also just happens to be good with computers.

The rest of the Synthetica series is going to be dark. I can feel it in my bones. There's no place in these books for a nice guy who's happy to let someone else take the lead. Xander is going to have to grow as a character, and fast. I already have one major plot planned out for him - at first, it absolutely broke my heart but the idea just wouldn't go away, and now I can't wait to get started and write it. Let's just say that after the next book, Xander's perception of right and wrong is going to shift in a major way ;).

Oh, and I think I'm totally going to use the below picture as my inspiration for Xander's motives in the next book. I love Xander and everything, but like I said, I'm looking forward to pushing him (and me) out of his comfort zone, and exploring his dark side:

Kinda cool, don't cha think ;)?