Character Development

Which came first the author or the characters they've written about?

To be quite honest, I don't truly know.  I suppose it could be both ways.  Numerous authors have said that their stories came to them in a dream.  Is the dream technically supplying the characters or is it the author?  Since it's the author's mind, wouldn't it then be the author?

The mind boggles.

I was asked a question about my writing by one of my readers.  "Have your characters ever awaken you in the middle of the night and nagged at you?"

My answer?  Yes, yes they have.  Numerous times in fact.  It's funny actually.  I'll go to sleep thinking that I have ended my thoughts on a part of my story rather well, only to be awaken by a sort of rumbling in a dream.  Sometimes it's just an echo of a voice and other times, the persona I've imaged in my head, pops into my vision.  They can be such nags when they don't feel like they've been treated properly.  It can be so all-consuming that I have to get out of bed, grab my nearby notebook, and start jotting things down.  At times, it reverberates so violently through my mind that I end up writing chapters of rough information that I will undoubtedly tweak later in the day.

Now hold on! Don't go calling the guys in the white coats just yet.  I haven't gone mad.  I'm not insane, not that a little insanity isn't needed to be any good at telling a good story.  If you don't write, then you may know.

What you need to understand is that though people call writing a process, it's much, much more than that.  When you're writing, you have all these characters from your story, running around in your head.  Each one has their own personality.  Likes, dislikes.  They're constantly attempting to influence what you will write about them next.  No one wants to be put in a bad light, right?

You still think that sounds crazy?  Have you ever talked to yourself?  Chastised yourself for making a mistake...out loud?  Do you keep a journal where each entry begins with "Dear Diary" or some other greeting?

I'm no more crazy than you are.  A writer's characters are a way of getting their own thoughts, aggressions, aggravations, etcetera--I think you get the point--out.

In order to develop characters you need to know how people react in different situations.  Can you tell me that one author can fully know how to write about a killer and his feelings when he goes into a manic episode without truly thinking it through?  You have to imagine yourself in that situation.  Feel everything you can possibly feel without actually going through with the act yourself.  How is it that in another chapter, the writer goes through every feeling a clinically depressed girl has as she struggles with the decision of whether or not to commit suicide, while holding a knife to her wrist?  In still another chapter, that same author can write about the hope of true love, and how it begins as a small bud just stretching from the ground before blooming in the light of day.  Sure they can do research.  They can interview people that have actually experienced such things, but how do you get that exact emotion?  How do they make any reader feel every emotion from each and every one of those characters?

They've drawn you in, by telling you little details in passing.  Sure your experiencing what's happening with the characters in the moment, but you'll read a joke or someone will have a "remember when" moment.  You don't really see them, unless you pay very close attention.

My favorite books are the ones that make me feel what's happening.  I can conjure up an image of the character, feel what they're feeling, put myself in their place.  Those are the books I get involved in and hate when they end.

"Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader--not the fact that it is raining, 

but the feeling of being rained upon."
~E.L. Doctorow

You'd have to be slightly low on sanity in order to write about all the varying human emotions your characters are going to go through.  The good thing is, when writing about them it can keep you sane. I know...WEIRD!

Still don't understand how I'm sane?  Psychologists tell you to keep a journal so that you can analyze your thoughts when you are in a "normal state", or so that they can.  Can't storytelling be a confession of sorts?  A diary of a time in the past or how one wished how things had happened?  A good storyteller feels the emotion when they're writing it so that they can best express it to the reader.  If they're doing their job right, the reader can completely immerse themselves in the world presented.

I can admit that I don't mind the thought of being slightly insane.  If it makes me a better character developer, or writer/author, then I am all for it.  If I can draw my reader in and have them appreciate or love just one character, I'd be more than pleased.  I'd be ecstatic!

So...if I am insane, I don't want treatment.  My own personal character likes the thought of being able to "act out" through my writing.  If my sleep is interrupted by one of my characters/personas because they're angry with a decision I've made about their actions in a scene, I'm glad for it.

Hi, I'm insane.  I converse with myself and the people running around in my head.

Don't be scared; I don't bite.

Hard.


Where's my jacket?

Inspiration in a Day's Activities

So...I'm trying to get into a routine of doing things. I guess you would call it, "setting a schedule," of sorts.  I have certain days that I complete certain household tasks, but I want to be sure to set aside some time to do some things for myself.

It's hard to do that. I know it sounds weird, because most people would be happy to have all the free time in the world to just do nothing.  I, on the other hand, don't mind keeping busy.  I think that's why, when I was in retail, I worked so hard.  It wasn't just the work ethic I was brought up with and taught in school.  I liked being BUSY.

If I sit for too long, I really get bored.  So bored in fact that I wind up taking a nap because if I'm not moving I feel like I should be sleeping.  Part of the reason I nap during the day could also be because I don't sleep well, when I should. I just can't shut the mind off.

What I really want to try to do is set a couple of days a week to just experiment with food. I've done it before.  I've created some good things by experimenting.  I have a chili that family and friends rave over and a cookie that is "demanded" every Christmas. I do get the occasional "Baby, that's a keeper", but I didn't write anything down because, honestly, I took a bunch of leftovers and made something just because I was inspired. What could I really have written down?

Take leftover spaghetti sauce, add Worcestershire sauce, garlic, cinnamon, brown sugar and cilantro. Saute diced onion. Cube leftover chicken and heat in skillet with onion. Pour liquid into pan, coating ingredients, and heat thoroughly in skillet. Serve over rice or breakfast potatoes with carrots, basil tomatoes or corn cob.

That's not a recipe, that's a fun time playing in the kitchen.  And yes...I have done that before. I know people think I'm crazy.  My husband sometimes thinks I'm a pseudo-genius, and that is what drives me.  

I'm a people-pleaser.  If I find that someone enjoys something I've made, I am sure to make it for them anytime they ask for it. If I wrote it down... 

My sister asks for Chicken Estufao everytime she comes home from college for a visit.  My father-in-law asks for my super secret chili recipe or my great-grandmother's Spanish rice or her nut cookies. Actually, my father-in-law's list seems to grow every year. LOL  The husband...he doesn't care so long as it's good.  

Here's the rub, where the dearest, sweet man whom I call "my husband" is concerned.  He's happy with boxed meals.  He doesn't mind frozen TV-dinners.  If it comes in a jar, it's spreadable on bread or a tortilla. If it came in a sealed plastic bag it's snacky delicious.  

What's wrong with all that?  Absolutely nothing.  Except for the fact that I am a "from scratch" kind of girl!  I know boxed/canned/frozen is how a lot of people were brought up--heck I was too--but I watched my grandmother and great-grandmother (the few times I actually saw them) create some magical dishes with a recipe and some fresh ingredients.  

I LOVE getting my hands dirty...in food.  It's cathartic for me.  If I'm angry, I can pound some poultry or nuts with a mallet. If I'm sad, making a sweet treat might help me to feel better when I see the look on the husband's face as he munches.  

If I'm feeling inspired, who knows what I'll accomplish? So that is what I am going to do for myself as often as I possibly can. Play in the little cave that is my kitchen.

Inspiration is the key to fulfillment!

"The greatest gift is a portion of thyself."   ~Ralph Waldo Emerson