 Mystery: May 28, 2014 Issue [#6345] |
  Mystery
This week: Characters Are People, Too! Edited by: Gaby  
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Our character is but the stamp on our souls of the free choices of good and evil we have made through life.
~ John C. Geikie
Every man, as to character, is the creature of the age in which he lives. Very few are able to raise themselves above the ideas of their times.
~ Voltaire
Character is higher than intellect. A great soul will be strong to live, as well as strong to think.
~ Ralph Waldo Emerson
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What is the one thing you do most in life? Think. You think before you act; before you speak; before you make a fool of yourself. Perhaps not. We all have our bad moments. We think up the characters we write about, think up their personalities, and then we work on them and expand them.
A few days ago, I searched for something - probably completely irrelevant - and stumbled upon the simplest of words:
Characters are people, too.
Straight forward but powerful. It stuck with me and made me think. I've seen writers try to get their point across with beautiful prose weaved into their writing, or go on and on, just to make a U-turn and explain what they meant in the first place. We all do it. Sometimes, we forget that simple does work best in some cases. But I digress.
Many times, I've told a writer to make their character come alive; give them their personality! But why? I've never given it much thought. A character is supposed to jump off the page and grab you by the hand to lead you down their path. It's why we read. We want to do more than just read a story, we want to be in it; experience different worlds; escape the reality of our lives for at least a little while.
In the world of any writer, the characters are people! They aren't caricatures, a drawing on a white piece of paper, or just our imaginary friends. They are so much more than that! Give them their world and don't put any restrictions on them. How would you like it if someone told you that you couldn't do something you clearly think is right for you?
Think about this for a second. You think them up, write about them on a page so when someone reads about them, they'll be pulled into the story by them. You want your reader to forget the time, day, and the year they're in. From the moment they open the book the reader should get lost in that world and spend the rest of their time with the people you wrote about.
And what if you're told that the character/person you wrote about just doesn't fit into the story? What if you're told that they didn't grab the reader's attention at all? It's a hard blow. You'll sit there and edit, change things around, force a personality on someone who clearly isn't made for it. I have a feeling that no matter how hard we try to rearrange things, it'll never be good enough. Why? Many reasons, but the most important one is that, once you write about someone, their personality grows with or without your permission. When that happens, your story is bound to change. If you don't let it follow its course, if you are stuck on what you want your story to be, no one will be happy. Not you, not the character/person you're writing about, nor your reader.
Sometimes, it's not easy finding the right person for the right story. You have to let them come to you and not force them to jump into something they weren't meant for. I see two ways out of this.
 A blank canvas for a personality - believe it or not, you will create the right person and will let them grow by themselves. That's all you do. You don't add a story to them, you don't try to push them into many directions, you sit and write about them. Anything and everything you can think of. It's your baby. Let him/her grow up on his/her own and have the personality you both end up working on. This is your child and you're the parent. What do you teach your kid? Do they even care about it? Everyones personality and character expand over time. You'll know when they're ready. Then, you'll know their story.
You have a story but not the right person for it - As I mentioned before, don't just drag some innocent soul into it without thinking things through. Let them come to you. You're the one who has the story. Tell it. Mull it over. Consider things properly. If you built it, they will come. Okay, so I borrowed that quote, but it's true.
You're the person standing all alone in the middle of a football/baseball/soccer field. Thousands of people are sitting in the bleachers, watching, waiting to hear what your story is about. You cannot just go up to someone and say "Hey, listen. You'll be in this story". They might not want to participate at all!
So you start talking about your tale and eventually, those who are curious will step forward. Those who think it's interesting but don't like being on the front lines will stand behind those. There will be introductions as you meet them one by one. You'll have your main people as well as the minor people, less involved, but important, either way.
No one ever said it's easy to be a writer and only writers know how true that is. How many have started to write something, and wrote and wrote, but there wasn't an end in sight? You become bored with the story itself because it's not going anywhere? I've done it so many times! I didn't think things through. I just made a compilation of people, made them get together and figured, I've got this. Nope. Didn't happen. Didn't lead to anything, hadn't produced anything interesting. After so much hard work, sleepless nights, you're ready to throw those people away. Don't!
Let them be. Take them out of the equation you've created and give them breathing room. When they are ready, they will come to you and tell you where they belong. Remember, characters are people, too! 
Below, amongst my newsletter picks, I've added a story, written just recently by a good friend of mine. I usually avoid that as much as I can, but I think it fits this particular article even though it might not be a mystery. It shows what happens when we struggle to come up with something that contains restrictions. It's worth a read. It shows many different muses coming together to help out a single person who had trouble figuring out what to write about. It's definitely outside the box writing and it produced something worth reading. She let it all come to her. You should try it.
'til next time!
~ Gaby 
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Under the waves lives a mysterious race, which were once human...
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Quick-Quill  wrote:
That is why I love WDC. I had a time when I wanted to write something for fun but not thoughts were coming through. I hit the contest search, usually just pull up an old contest newsletter and start going through them until I find something interesting. It doesn't need to be for a contest but the prompts can tickle the creative juice/muse and I have something to say.
Most definitely! Contests are one of the biggest sources of inspiration, even if we don't enter them. Although, I feel bad when I don't but used the prompt anyway. 
TessaT  wrote:
Thank you for the excellent newsletter! I am (again) stirring up my motivation which can be so easily lost in the process. Thanks for the reminder to remember why I write and how much I've learned by sticking with in through the fears and doubts in my own mind. Very well said!
Thank you! Any time! Sometimes, we are our own worst enemy when it comes to writing.
blue jellybaby wrote:
Great newsletter, Gaby! I think every one of us doubts ourselves and our writing every now and again but what you've written here is perfectly true and I'm saving it so if I ever find myself lacking in confidence again, I'll be able to go back to it 
Thanks, Jo! If I have those moments of doubt, send me this way as well. I tend to forget about my own advice.
Uday K ~ House Ravenclaw! wrote:
This newsletter couldn't have come at a better time! I have just started writing though I have always wanted to write. But even now, I cannot count the number of times that I have stared at a blank page on Microsoft Word, hating myself that I can't think of anything to write about. In my daily life though, there are several instances where I'd be thinking about something and then exclaiming to myself "Now that would make a great story!". It's just when it comes to actually putting my thoughts to words that my brain freezes. I dawdle for a while and then give up thinking "No I need something better than that!" It's only now that I've embraced the fact that whatever I write doesn't have to be great. I mean, who was I kidding? What matters more is that I actually write something. So thanks again for the second push! I really needed that.
I'm sure glad that I could be of help!  Those moments are the worst - great ideas, nowhere to write them down. Even if you do, you change your mind later on. You never know which one will be average and which will be that great story you always knew you could write. Don't doubt yourself. I rather accept that I'm an average writer and keep at it, good-bad-horrible, than give up completely. Quitting is not an option! 
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