Welcome to Gaia! ::

Awe! You'll get through it. *Hugs* Forget about that stupid query letter. Find something to do. This is the perfect time to find a new hobby...or sleep a lot. That's what I do. blaugh

We all know how you feel. We all get these damn bouts. That's why were here, to support each other during these hard times and to cheer each other on when we succeed. You wrote a query letter. That's something to be celebrated. Be happy, not worried.

Go Phade! mrgreen

Hahaha, when I was reading your post I was thinking exactly the same on PMS xD.

Ah, Gaia Devil Imp Potions are racist... As for your writing, I'm sure you will kick yourself in gear. Take a break perhaps?

PHADE RANT #8

August 10, 2010

Tools

Yes, I'm double-posting today.

While I don't make a point of habitually posting in the Writer's Forum, I do float around and read what people have to say. Aside from the few jerk-offs who feel the need to tear any opposing viewpoint apart down to the last little detail, I find most of it rather interesting. But there's one thing that a lot of people are saying that I simply can't agree with.







See a pattern here?

I call bullshit on this.

If characters are tools, then they're nothing but cold, hard, and emotionless things--nothing that's going to capture the reader's fancy. If that's the case, why have them at all? Saying your characters aren't real or your characters are tools is like saying you as a person aren't real or your emotions are simply tools to get you through life.

While they may not be physical entities, characters do indeed exist as a part of the author. The different personalities an author gives their characters are similar to the different aspects of the authors own personality. They have to be; that's how you, as the author, connect with your characters. If you can't connect with them, what makes you think the reader will be able to?

Then there's the whole "My Characters Talk To Me!" thing, or "My Characters Write Themselves/The Story!"


I disagree with that. People who claim their characters talk to them aren't necessarily lying. I don't believe you can mentally sit down and have a conversation with your character about how great your day has been or how horrible the last movie you saw was, but I do believe its possible to communicate with your character.


There is a connection between author and character, especially if this is a character you as the author have worked with for an extended period of time and know inside out. If you read through a paragraph and at the end determine that what your character just did is something they wouldn't normally do, that's communicating with them. You wrote what you wanted to happen, but your character, through the past actions they've taken, are saying they wouldn't do such a thing. And yes, I'm aware that you as the author make their mindsets and force them to do whatever you please, but after you've created them, you can't have them do something they normally wouldn't, even if you want them to. If you do, it feels forced and unnatural. Likewise, if you sat back and said, "yeah, s/he would do that in this situation," that's also communicating with the character--it shows you understand them.

If the action is blatantly out of character, the fault is yours as the author. But there are times when you just know a character so well that you can sit down and write non-stop about their adventures. You can put them in a situation and just know what they do to get out of it without having to sit back and think about it--it just happens. That kind of character influence, where it feels like the character took over, is perfectly acceptable. If this happens, chances are what you've written is true to that particular character. Even if it doesn't work in the context of your story and you have to go edit it, you still had that moment where the character "took over." This was put better by an acquaintance:


Then there's the idea that all characters are offshoots of the writer.


Again, I disagree. Every character ever created has a little bit of the author in them. How the author reacts to a situation will be reflected in their character, even if it's unintentional. It's not a matter of ensuring such a thing does or doesn't happen, it's a matter of worldly experience.

You couldn't effectively show that the character is giddy or furious without having been giddy or furious yourself. You witness others in such moods, but you can't capture the essence of the character's current frame of mind without having experienced it yourself. It's a matter of writing what you know, and therefore, your experience and emotions is implanted in your characters, however little.

In terms of them all reacting similarly, I don't believe that's always the case. A character that's always serious is going to act differently than a character who takes life as a joke. The serious character could very well be the serious side of the author simply blown out of proportion to create the personality of that particular character. Likewise with the one who goofs around.

You're the one writing about them, technically dictating everything they do, but chances are that's what they would have done on their own, anyway. They have to be their own little people in their own respect.

If the author can't see them as people, how can the reader be expected to?

That is why I hate to go onto the WF now. Seriously, I spend 80% of my time on Gaia in this guild. How can your invest yourself in your writing without investing yourself in your characters? How can you write a lovable character if you don't care of them? If you don't fall in love when they do, don't cry when they are sad? When I am writing I become my character. I even go so far to act out their actions. Perhaps that makes me a little crazy and eccentric, but I think my writing speaks for itself.

I'm not here to judge how anybody writes. If it works for them to be completely detached to their creations and see them as only a tool then good for them. But for me, and many others, we see our books as a babies, and therefore our characters too. To me my characters are real. And I love them like my own child.

And yes you do put a little bit of yourself into your characters. I like to say that I'll live 1000 lives before I die. Because when I'm writing, just for a little while, I become that character. And I hope to share those lives with my readers.

Edit: Pour tu!
http://www.gaiaonline.com/forum/writers/i-love-my-characters/t.64156813_1/

KaNugget, refer to Desert's opinion of people in the WF.

Desert, it's okay to rant. Note the title of my journal. XD

It's all a matter of opinion. You have do what works best for you. The WF for some reason thinks there is only one way. Don't they know there are 8 different kinds of intelligences and that we all learn different ways?

I admit it. I don't have the natural talent for writing, so I have to compensate with that by using other methods that wouldn't work for the natural writer. I need my ideas to be physically written down for me to understand and comprehend them. So people only need their head.

Everyone is different? Why can't we just understand that and help each other?

KaNugget - Oh don't get me wrong, I fully understand people have different ways of doing things. I know that very much haha. When revising my A Levels I couldn't sit there and read a revision book like the rest of my year. I wrote out the entire two revision books, transferred them to spider diagrams which covered my bedroom walls and narrowed them down again to small revision cards. It's like that with writing. Luckily I've always written and it is natural for me to do so. Personally, I cannot comprehend actually really working hard on my stories and it not being just a natural flow.
Sorry if I was being a bit picky! I don't meet writers outside Gaia so...I don't have anyone to see doing their own thing.

Phade - I must have seen that film, being a fan of both of the actors, especially Brendan Fraser! Haptic learning is a combination of two ways isn't it?