Kat wrote an EPIC fanfiction piece for Yuletide (now moved elsewhere, but this will give you an idea of what it is) which has somehow wormed its way into my brian (impulse was to say soul) and we are currently in the early stages of writing a TV series based on it. Its fun and stimulating, and its helping me (and Kat too) work on our humor writing (impulse was to say circuits. The RoseyBot 2010 has defective humor circuits, hopefully in the RoseyBot 2011 will have had some practice by the end of the year and a re-released model will be better equipped to provide you amusement), and work on being NOT SUPER DRAMATIC ALL THE TIME (evidenced by my use of caps).
Anyways, the point is not about the TV show or the fic, or humor writing -- though there may be a post on that in the future -- but rather it is about characters.
Shockingly, I like characters. I think people know this by now, but if not, I like characters. Why does this matter?
Well Kat made a comment about how one of her characters, a jock who was woken up at an odd hour, thought about going for a run. The comment goes something like this "I would never think to go for a run. [He] really has a mind of his own."
I hadn't thought about it much until now, but my response was "Of course he has a mind of his own, he's not you." Funnily enough though, once I did begin to think about it, the thought occurred to me that I remember the first time I thought something similar.
I must have been a freshman in college, and a character of mine, who is all about action, and not sitting still, and chasing after bad guys, was told she was going to have to read, and she threw a minor hissy fit over it. Reading, Sam stated (as her name was Sam), Is for boring people. I don't read.
I have never written a main character (being one of the POV characters) who doesn't read. Some of them are avid readers, others are not, but all of them were well read, and had a certain grasp on why literature was important. Sam was completely different. She wanted nothing to do with books because they bored her.
In other words, she had a mind of her own.
It was invigorating, exciting, and it gave me a whole different set of ideas about characters I already had in the world, and how I was just viewing a tiny facet of all of them. Sam was different and it was a minor miracle to me.
I think its good to get into the minds of other people -- after all it does take all kinds to make the world -- but I find it fascinating how there is a line at which you stand when you're a writer, the line between yourself and your characters, and with each successive character, with more practice, the line begins to sharpen rather then blur.
Has anyone else experienced the first moment when they truly felt separate from their characters? Was it great, or did you feel it was bittersweet?
Yeah. I had a whole thing with Sam about it when he was all like, "HAHAHAHAHA," and I was like, "Buddy. They're not just like... THEY'RE ACTUAL PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" and he, like, was Enlightened. Funny times.
ReplyDeleteBut anyway. I mean, it surprised me, because I put so much of myself into them to make sure they were real...they are so close to original it made me nervous... -slinks around-
Wouldn't it be weird if Luke was me????? o_o
They are separate entities! I remember I was really excited but also confused. My first instinct was to change him to better fit my ideals, but when I tried to I realized I -couldn't-. I guess that was when it really sank it that he was his own thing.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you on the character focus in stories! A real character can pull a bad story into spectacular. Like the Doctor can make cheesy sci-fi into a real adventure because his character is so rich that everything he is interested in becomes compelling (Doctor Who, that is).
"there is a line at which you stand when you're a writer, the line between yourself and your characters, and with each successive character, with more practice, the line begins to sharpen rather then blur." This is quotable brilliance.