your characters and you.

[Iysander]

I am The Compendium

Iysander

I am The Compendium

This is probably going to be taken as cruel, but I'm going to post it anyway in hopes someone understands.

To paraphrase the reviewer SFDebris (while a comedy reviewer, be has videos purely on literary tropes and aspects of storytelling), 'The phrase most commonly said to [geeks] is not"This is real" but "get a life". Many may abuse the phrase, but the point is imagination is powerful and important, but in the end must be remembered as not reality.

To paraphrase Dilbert, when you call something your baby, it may be a cherished part of yourself, but others may see it as a useless blob that soiled itself and hasn't been helped along enough to stand on its own.

Just because something is a tool doesn't mean it is not important or a way to endear an audience. But a tool is not a person. One should not expect to be Pygmalion.

this is all fine and dandy, but is it meant to be advice for me or your own personal opinion? because i think it should go without saying that characters =/= real people.

It's fact, but many people forget it. We get young people here all the time, and sometimes lofty dreams and personal care are mistaken for real work and professional understanding.

The fact is more than they aren't real, it's that, as others have pointed out, is that balance is important. A tool does not love you, but that's no reason to half-a** something with them, dump it on the floor and leave it out in the rain. Caring for a tool is not the same as caring for a person, or even pet, but it is important, just as using the tool well.

okay, fair enough. though i should state that writing as a career isn't what i want. it's more like a passionate hobby, so i like to let loose with it and have fun.

[terradi]

Jin_of_the_thunder

I think some writers happen to be much better at planning and organizing things. I think those same people tend to see writing as a slightly more mechanical process. I could be wrong. I do tend to fly by the seat of my pants in a lot of things, and often I'm partway through writing a story before it occurs to me that I really need to figure out why X character (who was randomly thrown into the mix) needs a backstory. Figuring out where they come from and why they act the way they act ... figuring out which piece best fits the puzzle that I've been constructing is enjoyable. Even if those characters aren't real, just because I write them doesn't mean I can't get a better appreciation of their depth and begin to write them with more clarity as I go.

It's probably worth noting that I get similar levels of satisfaction when I figure out aspects of the world or when I figure out how to run a subplot in such a way that it enriches the story. Because so much of it isn't a conscious construction on my part, when that happens it feels organic rather than mechanical. While I am the god of my own little world, there are just some things that make a lot more sense than others.

[I am The Compendium]

Iysander

I am The Compendium

Iysander

I am The Compendium

This is probably going to be taken as cruel, but I'm going to post it anyway in hopes someone understands.

To paraphrase the reviewer SFDebris (while a comedy reviewer, be has videos purely on literary tropes and aspects of storytelling), 'The phrase most commonly said to [geeks] is not"This is real" but "get a life". Many may abuse the phrase, but the point is imagination is powerful and important, but in the end must be remembered as not reality.

To paraphrase Dilbert, when you call something your baby, it may be a cherished part of yourself, but others may see it as a useless blob that soiled itself and hasn't been helped along enough to stand on its own.

Just because something is a tool doesn't mean it is not important or a way to endear an audience. But a tool is not a person. One should not expect to be Pygmalion.

this is all fine and dandy, but is it meant to be advice for me or your own personal opinion? because i think it should go without saying that characters =/= real people.

It's fact, but many people forget it. We get young people here all the time, and sometimes lofty dreams and personal care are mistaken for real work and professional understanding.

The fact is more than they aren't real, it's that, as others have pointed out, is that balance is important. A tool does not love you, but that's no reason to half-a** something with them, dump it on the floor and leave it out in the rain. Caring for a tool is not the same as caring for a person, or even pet, but it is important, just as using the tool well.

okay, fair enough. though i should state that writing as a career isn't what i want. it's more like a passionate hobby, so i like to let loose with it and have fun.

Doesn't matter. I know craftsmen who work for money, hobby, and both. They care about what they create the same and respect and care for their tools.

[Iysander]

I am The Compendium

well, i didn't say that they shouldn't? you can't just expect every character to work for every purpose without some maintenance or tweaking. that's irresponsible.

[I am The Compendium]

Iysander

I am The Compendium

well, i didn't say that they shouldn't? you can't just expect every character to work for every purpose without some maintenance or tweaking. that's irresponsible.

Well, yeah. People keep tools polished,oiled, and tightened.

[Desi the fuzzy fluffhead]

I connect with my characters. I don't think it's that weird. People feel real emotions over fictional characters. That's kind of the point of characters, often, at least.

Our characters are supposed to be someone people are supposed to relate to. They're supposed to think about them after they finish the book. They're supposed to care.

It's not surprising that we might get attached to them ourselves.


I think, like with themes that subconsciously make their way into our stories, characters can develop that way as well.

Sometimes inspiration does hit, and for me it's super rare, and sometimes I stop believing in it because it only hits me maybe once every 50,000 words and when it does it feel like the story is writing itself.