Writers out there, you baffle me.
I was at Books of Wonder last night for the launch of the DELIGHTFUL Arlaina Tibensky's AND THEN THINGS FALL APART, her literary-reference-and-comedy-filled YA contemporary.
She was answering questions and, as is wont to happen when writers get in a room together, someone asked her about how she writes, and how her characters develop. Charmingly, she said that her characters develop through her "making them do things." That they just sort of spring up one day, "wearing a cute little outfit." She also said that her book, once she gets an ending in mind, just sort of comes out, moving somehow in the direction of that ending.
Of course, for me, a non-writer, that all sounds very strange. Of course the characters don't literally spring up one day--you have to write them. But it's interesting shorthand for how it feels when a story is just right.
How does it feel for you? How, in the WORLD do you do it!?
I personally feel as if an entire world unfolds inside my head. I know I am controlling the world, but with senses completely different from the ones I use to make an omelette or drive a car. To give my characters a type of embodiment, I cast them much like a film is cast with actors playing parts. I cast my characters using people I know, or perhaps even actors I have watched countless times in interviews, etc. Once I can see the way they move, and "hear" the sound of their voice inside my head, my little film starts to roll, and the story begins to unfold. I feel as if I am "pulled in" to this world until I no longer feel attached to the other world around me. I am my characters as much as they are me. Or maybe I need lots and lots of medication. :)
ReplyDeleteFor me, characters talk to me. They tell me a little bit about their story, and if they're interesting, I'll keep listening and filling in the blanks. Sometimes I'll have an entire story dumped in my head within a few seconds, but that's more with short stories. Yeah, it sounds totally weird. I'll admit that.
ReplyDeleteFor me, it's a really strange thing. I get an idea for a character or group of characters, then think ' Hmmmm. I wonder how he/she would react if this happened.'. And that tends to be the beginning of a book. From there, they take me on a journey which is often not the one I thought it would be.
ReplyDeleteI often feel like I have no control over what the characters do or say, even though I'm the one writing them. They kind of take off on their own.
It's the three C's for me; Concept, Conflict, and Character, all in that order. Coming up with a unique concept is...well it's hard these days. After that, what's at stake given the concept eases into place, and THEN and only then (for me, at least) does the character who can handle the concept and conflicts inherent to the tale reveal themselves...in all their glory; or as the case might be, lack thereof.
ReplyDeleteI have to admit, I feel like I have to work at the brainstorming part of my stories more than some creative types (of whom I am so jealous!) describe. The plot, especially, takes work to dream up. But characters do seem to show up as fully formed ideas--it's like Athena sprouting from Zeus' head, except I'm not as cool as Zeus and there's no migraine afterward. It's very cinematic--I see them, hear them, they already have tics and mannerisms and favorite clothes.
ReplyDeleteThen I have to figure out what to DO with them in terms of plot! And that takes pages of looseleaf paper and hours of plot sketches and thinking and "what-if this and that" and foiled starts.
It's just so cool to hear you guys talk about it. I mean, agents definitely do a lot of editorial massaging, and editors even moreso. But there's got to be that raw material...
ReplyDeleteFor me, it's a process of "what if". What if a troll became a tooth fairy? What if the monster under the bed is real and trying to kill children? What if the Black Death wasn't the plague, but was a war between humans and fae?
ReplyDeleteI imagine a lot of writers work this way, and that's why rhetorical questions are so over used in query letters :)
It starts with a scene for me; there's usually two or three people, and I have to look at them to figure out why they're there and what they're thinking. And then it's one person's point of view I take off with, but almost always I end up switching to the person that he or she is looking at. Then I realize that there are other people in scenes that come before and after, and I look at them until I know what their story is as well.
ReplyDeleteThe actual writing process, for me, is pretty simple: I jot out incomplete sentences for each major scene in sequence, adding brief details I need to remember or to jog myself to the next scene. It's less than a paragraph long, and I refer back to it as I go to make sure I hit all the notes. But by the time I'm halfway through it's usually irrelevant; my characters know where they have to go, and then they show me where else I need to take them.
It´s funny. I always joke with my best friend who is writing too. We always say tha characters do what they want. You have a plan for them but they don´t, they just do whatever they want and don´t give a c**p what do you think. I believe that happen to most of writers
ReplyDeleteThis is a fantastic question. And as interesting for me, a writer, to read the responses as for a non-writer. I begin with a first sentence. No context, no characters, no setting. I have scraps of paper all over the place with first sentences that imply a direction somewhere. In redraft those sentences are almost always changed, but without their initial inspiration I find myself nowhere.
ReplyDeleteI find it fascinating to read these, too. There are as many different ways to write as there are writers, I suppose. For me, it's like watching a movie. I watch and listen and write it down. Sometimes a whole book comes to me in a matter of weeks, so I type as fast as I can to get down the bare bones plot.
ReplyDeleteBut sometimes I keep seeing the same scene over and over, with slightly different characters and outcomes. I usually know the ending, but never how my characters are going to arrive there.
And then there are the stories where an unexpected character barges in and takes over and I realize that my M/C isn't the M/C at all. We were just waiting for the real star to show up.
My characters enter my head as I write, not as people I can see but people I can feel. Their hair color, height, weight, etc. then comes from who they feel like and any ethnic/social histories that I've figured out in the moment. I think about stories and possibilities constantly; creating personalities comes naturally.
ReplyDeleteMy narrative itself helps me create conflicts, wishes, needs, and urges for my characters. I often tweak them through the narrative structure. It seems that I must see my characters live before I know who they truly are.
I make it up, of course... i.e., 'Fiction'
ReplyDeletelol
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