Hi everyone! Welcome to another edition of Romancing the Wasteland. This time, we’re taking a closer look at John, the leading man and titular character of The Wastelander Series. John has always been a reader favourite, ever since I first started getting people to beta read it. Lots of you love him, and he’s close to my heart!
Note: these behind-the-scenes posts are NOT a spoiler-free zone. Due to the nature of these posts, they can’t be. If you hate spoilers, I’d recommend reading the three books in the series before reading these behind-the-scenes posts.
Name: John Madigan
Born: October 12, 2068, in (what was) Ottawa, Ontario
Age: 28 in The Wastelander; 28-29 in The Outsider; 29 in The Sole Survivor
Vocation: Hunter; farmer; survivalist; maintenance mechanic (in first book); outrider (second book on)
Parents: Conor Madigan (father, deceased, machinist in the Old World), Dr. Elena Porter (mother, deceased, medical doctor in the Old World); raised by grandparents, Oisín (Irish language form of Owen, pronounced OH-Sheen; former soldier and farmer) and Aoife Madigan (Irish language name often anglicized as Eva, pronounced EE-fuh; former combat nurse and farmer)
Sibling: Kimmy Madigan (adopted)
Fun Facts: In the OG draft, John was a terrible cook, and this was emphasized for comedic effect until someone (correctly) pointed out that it made zero sense with him being a survivalist. At the time, it was supposed to be like his “one flaw”, but it was too silly to make it work. I also realized that having a man be a competent cook was a lot sexier, so it was a good change!
The weirdest thing about creating John was how I decided on his appearance. I stumbled across this stock photo totally by accident one day, and as soon as I saw it, I was like, “that’s him.” I can’t explain it beyond that! I saw the photo and it sparked my imagination, and I began developing the character around both his appearance and what the story needed.
I wish I had a better story for how I came up with John’s actual character, but I don’t! He and Kimmy both kind of strolled into my head once I decided Claire was the FMC. My MMC had to be a contrast to her: a competent survivalist, somewhat hardened by the world around him, but with a definite moral centre. I wanted him to be something of a contradiction as well in terms of having different sides to his personality: the contrast between his survivor persona and the country boy who loves his grandparents felt compelling to me.
At the very beginning, John was much harder on Claire (in fact, there was the implication that he was prepared to keep her at the camp against her will). However, I didn’t feel like that really fit the vibe I was going for, or the character that he was evolving to be.
I then switched gears and went in the total opposite direction, making their relationship far less adversarial than it even is in the published version. Then I got feedback that he was way too nice to her for how incompetent she was! 😂 There was a lack of conflict that made it all fall together a bit too neatly, so I chose a middle ground and made their initial relationship tense but not Imma-kidnap-you tense.
One of my goals for John was always to make him a male character that showed a real spectrum of emotion (rather than just anger, or Dominant Sexy Guy). Sometimes I feel like that kind of representation is lacking. It’s not that there’s anything wrong with male characters being angry, or the Dominant Sexy Guy (we love him!); it’s more that real human beings contain multitudes, and I didn’t want John to just be a stereotype. I wanted him to feel real, and I also wanted to show him hurt and vulnerable and tearful.
John struggles with his emotions a fair amount, which is less due to ideas about masculinity and more to do with the realities of survival. Still, I wanted to show a male character who genuinely struggles to be vulnerable and open up, and then show him doing it anyway. Show him being brave and giving real emotional intimacy a chance. Of course, Claire is his counterpart there; she has a natural emotional intelligence and empathy that makes it possible for him to relax a little. She’s soft, and that allows him to be as well.
I really believe that this is what makes John feel three-dimensional; we see many different sides of him, and not all of them are good or likable, but in the end, we’re able to still see him as a fundamentally good character who’s trying his best in a very difficult world.
It was important to me that John be “rough” enough to be believable as a survivalist, but to never lose what I felt was the goodness at his core. He tries hard to be decent to people, even when it isn’t easy.
If you’re not familiar with the D&D concept of character alignment, it’s a chart that basically says how moral (or not) your character is and what flavour of good or evil they are (for example, a character can be evil but still operate within the law).
John is very much what I would call a Chaotic Good, i.e. someone who does what they feel is right without particular regard for laws or rules. He follows rules when they make sense and match with his moral compass, but if they don’t, he won’t hesitate to act in accordance with his own conscience. (In contrast, I’d describe Claire as Lawful Good—a character that believes in honour, justice, and doing the right thing, generally in accordance with the law. Kimmy would probably be Neutral Good.)
A good example of this is when he tells Claire about rescuing Allie and hunting down the child predator ring who kidnapped her in The Outsider:
In a world with no law enforcement and no justice system, John believes the only way to truly stop this group is to eliminate them, which is what he does. He takes no particular pleasure in killing them, but feels that in doing so, justice is done.
It’s this concept of cosmic justice that drives him. He also tends to believe that laws should be written to match morality, rather than laws prescribing what is moral. That’s why he’s Chaotic Good.
Music is my #1 inspiration for writing! I’ve written entire chapters based on the feeling a certain song gives me, or the images it inspires. Certain songs capture the feelings or essence of a character for me, so I thought it might be fun to list some songs that have inspired John in the past. (For paid subscribers, I’ve also added this to my archived post on Claire!)
Shot in the Dark - Within Temptation (in general, their album The Unforgiving inspired a LOT of the OG draft of The Outsider)
Without You - Ursine Vulpine & Annaca (I don’t want the world to turn without you is quintessential John, as we see in The Sole Survivor)
Thank you for being a subscriber and supporting my work—it never stops being incredible to me. ❤️
Is there a character you want to see profiled after Kimmy, featuring new art? Reply to this email or comment and let me know!
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