Are we expected to know our characters, or at least our protagonists, better than we know ourselves? Sorry for the brevity, this has just been troubling me a lot lately. I can't say I know myself too well but at the same time it seems daunting to have to create a character from scratch that's even more complex than I feel myself to be.
Posted by pantros (Member # 3237) on :
Yes, as human beings our psyche keeps parts of ourselves hidden from our awareness. And there is always a chance that your favorite food in the world is chocolate covered blowfish gizzards, but since you haven't tried them, you don't really know it.
As a writer, you need to know more about your protagonist than he ever will.
Do you need to take the time to write it all down? No, that would take the rest of your life and be really boring. But if someone asked you any question about how your main character would react in a situation, you must be able to answer it.
How would your character react to a giraffe jumping out of a manhole and offering to sell him a SONY WEGA big screen TV for thirty bucks?
Would he reach for his wallet, stop stunned, shoot it and take the TV or just keep walking, not believing any of it?
Posted by sojoyful (Member # 2997) on :
quote:Yes, as human beings our psyche keeps parts of ourselves hidden from our awareness.
Case in point, I have no idea what I would do if that giraffe accosted me.
As far as your question, my opinion would be yes and no. Yes, because we have to be able to know exactly how they will behave in all situations (like patros said). But no, because really, they only have to be able to react to the situations we put them in. So while, within the domain of the story, we know them better than ourselves, within the domain of all existance, we probably don't know them any better than we know, say, a good friend. Yes, we know a lot, but not everything.
[This message has been edited by sojoyful (edited November 30, 2005).]
Posted by djvdakota (Member # 2002) on :
Good answers.
I'd also add that you have to be more honest about your main character than you would be about yourself. You have to reveal all the pertinent dirty little details that all the rest of us try to keep hidden in our closets.
Posted by Robert Nowall (Member # 2764) on :
The last time I worked on something where I tried to get to know everything there was to know about the characters, I kind of fell in love with my lead character---and that seemed so ridiculous and pointless to me that, in the end, I could never get the novel past the first two chapters. After that I learned a little about them as I wrote, but not enough for *that* to happen. (Besides, the character in question was six thousand years in the future and about as many light years away...she wasn't likely to walk up to me and introduce herself, alas...)
Posted by sojoyful (Member # 2997) on :
Robert Nowall: That has happened to me, also! But one day on the subway I was thinking about it, and I realized to my amusement that the character would never agree to such a thing because he's too devoted to another character. I actually imagined lines of dialog wherein he told me that it just could not be. I laughed out loud, and the people around me thought I was nuts.
[This message has been edited by sojoyful (edited November 30, 2005).]
Posted by Minister (Member # 2213) on :
Just say, "Sorry, I'm a writer." If your subways are like the ones here in NYC, that explains almost any behavior to everyone's satisfaction.
Posted by Elan (Member # 2442) on :
I sometimes feel like a psychotherapist as I watch my characters interact and react with each other. I know in MY mind why my characters react the way they do. But they don't always see it.
Posted by pantros (Member # 3237) on :
for the subway situation.
After you realize you just laughed aloud at an internal joke, glance around at all the people staring at you and giggle incessently.
Posted by franc li (Member # 3850) on :
I think part of the joy of writing is finding things out about your character as they go into different situations. At least, I've found that in my short fiction.
M. Scott Peck insisted that authors can't really create a human soul. And maybe we don't. Maybe Ender is not really Ender, but a reflection of the most Ender-ish person we know. I mean, I wouldn't argue that we actually create a human soul in the sense that real souls exist. But I do think an author can create the impression of a soul in the same way a painter creates impressions of things.