How real are your characters to you?

[mbeachbum]

Just wondering. . . wondering if I'm nuts! :confused:

How many of you have characters that:
a) keep you up at night?
b) wake you up at night?
c) you talk about to your family as though they were real?
d) your family asks you about because you've talked about them so much as if they were real?! :o

That's the way my characters are becoming in my life and I'm just wondering if it's normal or. . . insane???? :cool:

Are there any other luney-tunes out there besides me? :eek::D

[Tommie Lyn]

You just brought back some memories. When I started writing my first novel, I'd filled out personality sheets, etc. on my MC, Ailean MacLachlan, and I thought I knew him pretty well. I could "see" him, could watch him do things, but didn't exactly understand him. But. The other characters were cardboard cutouts I stood up in the scenes for him to play off of.

Then one night, when he was talking something over with his father, Aodh, I had an idea how the scene should be played out, kinda knew what Aodh ought to say, and what should happen next, and then.......Aodh said something entirely different. Shocked me. Scared me. I thought I'd lost my mind. I was afraid to tell anyone.

From that point, Aodh did his own thing, regardless of what I thought. And one by one, the other characters came to life, became real. And it was wonderful, because they started giving me the story, acting it out, and I didn't have to struggle to figure out where the story should go. It began to flow.

Now, I've learned that before I start writing, I need to spend time with the characters getting to know them, letting them become "real." Then they'll give me the story and I won't have to work at it.

[Lookin^Up]

There was a great Twilight Zone episode where a writer could describe a character into his reel-to-reel tape machine, and lo and behold she would appear. It seemed as though he was cheating on his wife with this made-up character, but not only was she not real, neither was his wife! (Neither was Rod Serling at the close!)

I don't think it ever went that far with me, but in my imagination, my characters and I have a great time. We go out together, we walk together and talk heart-to-heart, we go through life's trials together. They willingly change clothes and become someone else for me for a different story; indeed, some of them have half a dozen roles or more in different stories--sometimes even in the same story!

Some characters, however, go through a silent season when they won't talk to me. They insist that I treat them right, or they're out the door. I remember trying to change Mariat Riegel's name to Marion Riegel, but she protested so badly that I had to change it back. I brought in another character named Cimae to fill out one of my stories, and eventually she took over and became prominent in two of them before she decided to leave.

[michaelsnyder]

When it comes to empathy, my characters are as real to me as anyone I know. But other than very basic stuff, I couldn't really tell you what they look like. I've never really been able to do that, and it's a little frustrating actually. But it's funny...I've asked others to describe my characters and they just go on and on and on as if they can see them in the flesh. Very weird...

Mike

[Timber Wolf]

Oh yes, I plead guilty to being a loon.
A - yes
B - yes
C & D - no family around

We are the sane ones, everybody else are the crazies.




....

one night, when he was talking something over with his father, Aodh, I had an idea how the scene should be played out, kinda knew what Aodh ought to say, and what should happen next, and then.......Aodh said something entirely different. Shocked me. Scared me. I thought I'd lost my mind. I was afraid to tell anyone.

....



yep - has happened more than once.

[Tamera]

You mean they're not real? :eek::p

[DrRita]

It always takes me a while to get to know them even though I write personality profiles and the whole thing. I guess I do that with real people too. But once I get to know them, they are as real as anyone I know.

[AnnieJ]

When it comes to empathy, my characters are as real to me as anyone I know. But other than very basic stuff, I couldn't really tell you what they look like. I've never really been able to do that, and it's a little frustrating actually. But it's funny...I've asked others to describe my characters and they just go on and on and on as if they can see them in the flesh. Very weird...

Mike

Yep - they are fairly emotionally real to me, but they do not talk to me or tell me what to do and I try not to get them too nailed down in appearances and even in every action - what makes a character real to the one writer can make them stiff to a reader - readers find reality in writing when they can bring something of themselves into the work.

If I am too set on a character I find myself wanting to make sure the readers see them jst the way I do - in the end that usually means too much telling, too much detail spent on things that don't matter.
But that's me

annie jones

[Tommie Lyn]

Yep - they are fairly emotionally real to me, but they do not talk to me or tell me what to do and I try not to get them too nailed down in appearances and even in every action - what makes a character real to the one writer can make them stiff to a reader - readers find reality in writing when they can bring something of themselves into the work.

If I am too set on a character I find myself wanting to make sure the readers see them jst the way I do - in the end that usually means too much telling, too much detail spent on things that don't matter.
But that's me

annie jones

I don't give much description of my characters. I may mention hair or eye color, if it's important to the story. Or if there is some physical characteristic which has a bearing on an aspect of the story, I'll mention it in context with the action. Some critiquers told me I should give more description (I also don't give much description of physical surroundings, mostly just hints, unless it's important), so I asked two test readers if the lack of description, particularly of the characters, bothered them. Each of them was surprised, and said they thought I had given descriptions, because they knew exactly what the various characters looked like -- compared them to certain actors (and each of them pictured the characters differently).

What I write is not what my characters look like -- it's what I see them doing, saying, and what I know they are thinking and feeling -- it's who they are. And interestingly, when the story is done, when I type "The End," the characters stay with me and continue on with their lives. Of course, at that point, what they are doing is of no interest to anyone but myself so I don't write it down, but I enjoy being privy to it. I have to make a conscious effort to leave them alone, to clear my mind and go on to another project, to get to know new characters and get attached to them so I can write their story.

[Rachel E.]

This is totally me! I plead guilty on all of the above charges.

I had a character in one book, who was supposed to be a thief and be a very minor character. Instead he has taken over a very real part of his own, and rules the roost when he comes into the story. He's difficult to do anything with because he's so much his own person. He's Irish and Very hilarious to boot, so it's hard to know quite what to do with him, because he keeps pushing himself into the story even when I tell him to go sit down!

[Tarin]

How many of you have characters that:
a) keep you up at night? Yes, absolutely. For the most part I've trained them to shut up after eleven - but like all good conflict-driven people, they don't always listen. :rolleyes:

b) wake you up at night? Can't say I've ever had that happen. Sometimes I dream about them though - does that count?

c) you talk about to your family as though they were real? Uh, yes. I think they're about ready to sign me up for a psych ward. :p

d) your family asks you about because you've talked about them so much as if they were real?! If only I had a nickle for every time somebody's given me a knowing grin and asked "Well, how's So-and-so today?" I wouldn't need to write for money. ;)

Seriously, though, it depends greatly on the character. Some of them come to life on the page and spill their guts without my even asking. Some - such as my WIP's MC - cross their arms in defiance and force me to poke and prod and dig for the gems that bring them to life. I like the first type better, but I understand the second much more so.

As for description, as a reader I like to have just a handful of the right kind of details. "Telling details" I've heard them called - something to give me an instant picture of the character in my mind. Personally, I like to know and follow the author's idea of the character, right down to the nearest freckle.

[Michael Scott]

My best writing happens when my characters step out of the carefully constructed profiles I've created for them and start doing their own thing - saying their own thoughts and words.

I find I can't really know a story until this happens.

I don't know if I dream about them or fret about them too much when I'm not writing. On the other hand, I don't consider 'writing' to be that which happens only when I'm putting words on the page. Considering what to write, and developing the story itself, often happens in my imagination long before I start putting words together. So in that sense, yes, I do think about them when I'm not writing.

I wouldn't worry too much about it - unless you have other thoughts speaking to you of whom you're not writing.

[mbeachbum]

Whew! What a relief! :D I'm not alone in this! We can all be "crazies" together! (Oops! I think T.W. said that we're the sane ones, right?)

This is the first long piece - potentially a novel - that I've attempted and it's taking me a long time. But I've noticed that what others have described is now happening in my story - characters that I originally intended to be very minor are speaking up and doing things that are changing their status! I certainly didn't plan it that way but oh! This is so much fun! !thumbsup! Even if this writing goes no further than my immediate family, I'm having a ball with it, even when BJ and crew wake me up to tell me the next event or conversation that needs to be written!

I appreciate your comments about descriptions because I've had similar questions. Just recently, my husband asked me why I went into such detail about a particular room when I haven't done so all along. Happily, I had a fairly logical answer - 1) she woke up and looked around the room and 2) I will later reveal that this room had belonged to his wife.

Anyway, I'm finding that I'm not adding descriptions, just for descriptions' sake. As several have said, I'm relating the relevant details and over several pages and/or chapters, character and place descriptions are becoming more complete.

I find it interesting that characters can continue to be with you, even after the ending of the story. I'll have to think about that one.:rolleyes:

[Katharine]

No, I have not talked about my characters for several months now, but maybe that's because they were taking a break from me and now I'm editing instead of creating. (This means a break for my family members, too!) Really, though, I'd have to say "yes" on all counts, at various points in my WIP process.

But rather early in my first draft, I SAW my male MC in downtown Seattle. We were standing in line at Ivar's on the waterfront, and all of a sudden, I knew that the man next to me was Bob! I tried to maneuver to get a better look at his face, but couldn't manage it. It gave me a weird feeling, and more so because I had never pictured Bob in any detail in my mind. This guy seemed to be a couple of inches taller than my MC, so apparently I'm actually a little taller when I'm writing.

[Lookin^Up]

But it's funny...I've asked others to describe my characters and they just go on and on and on as if they can see them in the flesh. Very weird...
I would count that a blessing. If you have trouble describing your chracters, and someone else comes up with a full description, go with it! Unless some detail doesn't quite fit, like ... they think he's older than you did.

[AnnieJ]

I would count that a blessing. If you have trouble describing your chracters, and someone else comes up with a full description, go with it! Unless some detail doesn't quite fit, like ... they think he's older than you did.

It's not a matter of not being able to describe your character, it's about leaving something to your reader's imagination.
Your point about wanting to describe a character and make sure it 'fits' because a reader gets the age wrong - that's what I meant about the temptation to over control what you think the reader needs and then not allowing the reader to bring himself into the story. Unless the character's age is absolutely integral to the story (he's a teen and people think he's 35 maybe) let it go...

I try to think of characters as real people - you don't know everything about anyone, not even your spouse or children. You form ideas about them, opinions, that sometimes are proven wrong - you readers should do the same with your characters.
It's just that I find the most engaging characters in books have gaps that the reader fills in and that's done on purpose from a writer who lets go of a little control.

annie jones

[Timber Wolf]

As a matter of fact I was having a conversation w/ one of my characters last night / this morning. He's still not giving me everything I need to know ho he gets in the situation he told me about. Oh well, it will come as it comes.

[Tommie Lyn]

As a matter of fact I was having a conversation w/ one of my characters last night / this morning. He's still not giving me everything I need to know ho he gets in the situation he told me about. Oh well, it will come as it comes.

I haven't had this happen to me....yet. I don't carry on conversations with my characters. Except once, when I was trying to follow suggestions about interviewing your characters to learn more about them. This was when I first started writing and was trying to learn about my MC of my first novel.

Now, the characters just sort of jump out of the woodwork full-grown and I pretty much know enough about them to start writing. And then I learn more about them as I write...like, for instance, about Lacey Cochran....wow! I had no idea she was an orphan until she told Porter O'Brien (and I was listening in on their conversation....)

[Tarin]

And then I learn more about them as I write...like, for instance, about Lacey Cochran....wow! I had no idea she was an orphan until she told Porter O'Brien (and I was listening in on their conversation....)

This would be me. I don't talk to my characters so much as I listen to them talking to other characters. ;)

[tlm]

There was a great Twilight Zone episode

There was one Twilight Zone story that totally describes how I feel sometimes. There is a man and woman in a town that doesn't seem real. They keep wanting to escape to go somewhere else. Something keeps putting them back where they started from. Before they would be moved back to the place where they started they would hear this loud crumbling noise.

The scene changes, now the man is at a typewriter and the woman is standing over him. He takes a piece of paper out of the machine and crumbles it (the sound we were hearing before--magnified). The woman says something like, "are you having trouble with your characters today?" He says something like, "I can't get them to do what I want. It's like they have a mind of their own."

As an adult writer, I know just what that writer was taking about!

[roseydow]

How many of you have characters that:
a) keep you up at night?
b) wake you up at night?
c) you talk about to your family as though they were real?
d) your family asks you about because you've talked about them so much as if they were real?!

This is where I live when I'm deep into a novel.

Once I was typing furiously and suddenly burst out laughing. My 14 yr old son was passing nearby and he said, "What's funny?" I laughed again and said, "You should have heard what this guy just said." He gave me THE LOOK and said, "You're scary."

Gotta love it,
Rosey Dow

[melw]

my characters seem like part of my family (almost my kids). I know them and sometimes chide them when they do things they shouldn't.

This sounds so weird reading this with my non-writing mind.

MEL

[righter1]

a) keep you up at night?

The characters themselves don't keep me up at night, but sometimes their plot lines and how I'm going to get them out of trouble does.

b) wake you up at night?

Never had this happen.

c) you talk about to your family as though they were real?

Not family in general, but sometimes I'll start babbling to my husband. He listens with half an ear and lets me talk things through. He's learned this is part of the creative process, though he still thinks I'm an odd duck. (I just remind him that he's got to be just as odd to have married me! :D)

d) your family asks you about because you've talked about them so much as if they were real?! :o


Because I don't talk to them about my characters in this way, they don't ask me about them. I do get asked about my plots in general, though. (Hubby's grandmother is so afraid that I'm going to be writing weird Sci-Fi novels because I like Star Wars and Star Trek so much... She should see one of my current projects... it's make her toes curl!)



Overall, I do talk to my characters sometimes. My MC Amanda O'Flannigan especially. Mostly, it's lectures. "You need to open up more" and "You need to help me figure out what to do here" and "No more dragging your feet on this--do you hear me?" I've done character interviews with Amanda and her boyfriend Rick, and overall, Rick's easier to deal with. He puts everything out there for me to see, while Amanda tries to hide stuff. It's rather frustrating. :rolleyes:

[jacks girl]

a) keep you up at night?' They do keep me up till about 3 am often with great ideas and stories.


b) wake you up at night? I as some others do dream some of my story ideas and characters.


c) you talk about to your family as though they were real? My family knows that I write but they are not writers so i don't talk to them about it much.


d) your family asks you about because you've talked about them so much as if they were real?! I do feel as my characters are real. They come to life on paper that some times it is so disappointing that I can't have them over for dinner and see them face to face.

[vpwriter]

You mean they're not real? :eek::p

I want my stapler:D

[Thebigguy]

Oh yes, I plead guilty to being a loon.
A - yes
B - yes
C & D - no family around

We are the sane ones, everybody else are the crazies.




yep - has happened more than once.

TW that's just what that guy said in the Tell Tale Heart, oooooo spooky!

[Thebigguy]

WallGreens has them pretty cheap.

[Michael Scott]

This is where I live when I'm deep into a novel.

Once I was typing furiously and suddenly burst out laughing. My 14 yr old son was passing nearby and he said, "What's funny?" I laughed again and said, "You should have heard what this guy just said." He gave me THE LOOK and said, "You're scary."

Gotta love it,
Rosey Dow

Yeah, I've had characters do that to me, too. Sometimes the things they say are really inappropriate!

Like this exchange:

Ron snorted. “Go back into the Old Testament and read some of the things God commanded the Jews to do.”
“Yeah, but that was before the Holocaust,” Dave interjected.
“When God had the Jews attack Jericho, He had them kill every man, woman and child in the city.”
“Except for the hooker,” Dave said, coming back into the room. “That just shows God knows how to party.”

I'm a minister! I never would have said that! But leave it to an agnostic to say something I wouldn't.

[tlm]

Ron snorted. “Go back into the Old Testament and read some of the things God commanded the Jews to do.”
“Yeah, but that was before the Holocaust,” Dave interjected.
“When God had the Jews attack Jericho, He had them kill every man, woman and child in the city.”
“Except for the hooker,” Dave said, coming back into the room. “That just shows God knows how to party.”

That's just too funny!

[vpwriter]

Actually, I stop talking about my characters to other people because they just never really seemed to care all that much. I'll throw ideas at people, but nothing to deep.

[Lookin^Up]

That's what I used to do too, VP, before I joined CW. Now I can talk about my stories and characters and the intricacies of bringing it all together, and everyone understands! Praise God.

[kshsj777]

How many of you have characters that:
a) keep you up at night?
b) wake you up at night?
c) you talk about to your family as though they were real?
d) your family asks you about because you've talked about them so much as if they were real?! :o


a) yes
b) yes
c) no... oh wait... yeah
d) uh... no

[melw]

It was easy to think about things while talking them over. But it was hard to talk about Jessica with a Jessy. Most people seem to glaze over if i talk about my characters. At least i usually sleep without them bothering me too much. I just get annoyed when i can't be or spend time with them.

MEL

[Ed Arrington]

In my first book, THE SOUND OF CHIMES, to be published by Capstone Press, I tried real hard to make the characters not only real to me, but to my readers. Melchizedek, and Jesus were real to me because I study the Word of God intensively every day so as to make sure that anything in the story relating to them was doctrinally correct. My main character, Harry Campbell, at one point, buys his wife, Karen, a beautiful, blue dress for a trip they are taking to Washington, D.C. to see the President of the United States. Shortly after that I surprised my wife with a beautiful blue dress - I told her, "Karen is You - without you and your love I could not write about Karen".

One other thing: It is very true that when I wrote the book, there was never a time any day at some point, that I was NOT thinking about my characters and how God could help me to make them real so the story would touch the heart of people who read the book. I intend to ask the Lord to help me do the same on my next writing project, A WHISPER IN TIME, a story about my life told from a fictional perspective.

Ed Arrington

[Merry]

How real are my characters? Well, very real. I mean, honestly, they're members of an alternative universe who use the writer as a conduit, so that they may, in all desperation, let our world know they are here...

I'll be right back, I forgot my medication. lol!

[righter1]

How real are my characters? Well, very real. I mean, honestly, they're members of an alternative universe who use the writer as a conduit, so that they may, in all desperation, let our world know they are here...

I'll be right back, I forgot my medication. lol!

:eek: What?!??!?! They've got medication for that???? :p

[mbeachbum]

You all are a riot! !thumbsup! And I think we're all crazy!!! :D

**Oh, hush, BJ. I know you want to get back to the ranch but you and your character buddies will just have to wait till I get done talking with these folks!** ;):p

[jacks girl]

Diddo mbeachbum

[righter1]

You all are a riot! !thumbsup! And I think we're all crazy!!! :D

**Oh, hush, BJ. I know you want to get back to the ranch but you and your character buddies will just have to wait till I get done talking with these folks!** ;):p

Diddo mbeachbum

Jacks, you mean you talk to mbeachbum's characters too??? How odd... ;)