July Blog chain question
Absolute Write Water Cooler-July Blog chain question
The question Proach asked is this :
“When you write, do you become a part of your characters’ lives? Do you become so involved in your own story that you wish it and your characters are real?”
The question fell right down my alley.As I read the question and thought of my answer, I remembered the face and calm voice of my therapist since he was the first one who spotted my need to extract myself from the silliness of everyday life and escape in fiction, be that through reading or writing.
When I was a child in my parents’ house reading was such an easy way to justify time past. I bow like a pauper before a chest full of treasures, in front of all the writers and their books, with all their marvelous characters enchanting my imagination from an early age. Just like the small and insignificant creek later becomes the mighty Mississippi, the books I read and loved as a child started with a gentle prick to my imagination and blossomed in the splendor of my intellect later in life, especially when I started dabbling in writing myself.
My characters and my stories are everything I am and a bit more . As I got older and realized how fragile reality is, I wrote hoping to capture a fantasy world in some of my stories. In others, memories .took the center stage and even though the characters are real, I always look for the right light shining on them, from the right angle until I identify my core with each and every one of them. There’s a chunk of my heart, my mind or my dreams in every hero or heroine who crossed my white piece of paper before it became a story.. I even toyed with the idea of writing from a heroine point of view. As a character in a fictional story, my heroine has an epiphany :
“You know. She suddenly thought. When you're put under a magnifying glass, the time goes by slower, it actually crawls, and you can do nothing. Nothing remarkable, nothing deserving to be immortalized on a page, in a novel.
As a result,our heroine, already annoyed by all the pressure, walked out the back door taking the backstairs out of the story and slamming the door in the author’s face on her way out!”
”
Bottom line is, and to answer Proach’s question, all my characters are more or less alter egos of myself . I live through them and they exist as a result of my stream of consciousness flooding any and every gap between my reality and fantasy...
Fantasy: the exchange of
assumed roles and real identities. Which displaces which? When the imaginary
world becomes real—tangible—I find it hard to enjoy a moment of pure silence or
trust a smile.
I think that I have the same style like you. Some of the characters that I write are more or less another version of me.
Reply to this
I really enjoyed this post. It's thing probably quite close to most writers' hearts. One of my favourite parts of creating a story is to day dream about it, from inside my characters' heads. It is wonderful how many roles one can play - though I think I need more practice playing evil roles.
Reply to this
Oh that's interesting. Heh. Dragging up certain aspects of your personality and character and expanding on them?
I think I work the other way. My characters are very much separate entities from me (personality, dreams, and all) and I slip into their mind to write from their perspective. It's always interesting to see how others go through this process. =]
Reply to this
I don't believe my characters are aspects of myself, per se, rather parts of my personality that are not allowed to come out to play in the real world. This is especially the case with the nastier and less restrained characters.
The magpied scenes are definitely fictionalized, and the themes are heavily influenced by Hunter Thompson and William Gibson in their disassociation from the everyday. Not that I am anywhere near their work.
I have tried (unsuccessfully) to write a less stylized form, but my brain isn't in the mood to cooperate. Meh...
Brilliant answer.
I've got the feeling that if I ever saw a therapist, I would end up giving them issues. My worldview is ever so slightly contagious.
Reply to this
Very good answer!
I like to live vicariously through my characters. They can do and be all the things I can't.
Reply to this
Oh to be a character. My characters are such massive combinations of others that I'm hard pressed to find myself in them ... and yet if you look you'll see a lot of me! It's neat who you've found yourself there!
Reply to this
If the world was good enough as it is, we would not need to embellish or improve it with our stories. My characters are not "wishfull thinking", at least I don't think so, but I could be wrong.
Reply to this
Ken.
Your characters are bigger than life and not close to wishful thinking. They are a raw vein of collective humanity and a lot of time I see you peeking from behind Glen Wilson .
Reply to this
Interesting thoughts.
Like you, all my characters are a part of me and yet more. Their stories are their own. While we have the ultimate control of our story, we have to open that door (stream of consciousness) which allows our characters to LIVE in the world we've created. If we're in tune with who they are, their likes and dislikes, their fears and joys, they will take on a life of their own.
Sometimes they surprise me and that moment for me, when they do, when they set off in a different direction than I first envisioned or change the circumstances, is a time of satisfaction and joy. It means I've done my job. The world is viable and the characters real.
Reply to this
I also see the characters as extensions of myself. I just hope they don't come out as mary sues.
Reply to this
Interesting. I think I tend to use characters as a way of exploring alternate possibilities. Some are more like me than others. Some grow out of a desire to figure out how the other half lives.
Reply to this
(Sorry for the delay here.) I do wonder about those writers who can remain disconnected from the characters they write about. I don't see how they could do it!
Reply to this