I had that thought, too, when I was posting. We may not be able to have all of that from one character, but different characters can play different roles in the story - have different impacts on readers.
The Impact of Characters
- Thread starter Louanne Learning
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I had that thought, too, when I was posting. We may not be able to have all of that from one character, but different characters can play different roles in the story - have different impacts on readers.
Lovely topic, Louanne,
Sorry for the quotes people.
I read somewhere that there are 3 levels to creating meaningful characters.
1. Characters based from people you know.
2. Characters are who you think should sound like.
3. Characters who tell you what to write.
I thought about this a lot because it is natural to base dialogue or a personality on someone you know but I began to realise that characters who make the greatest impact are the characters who are 'alive.'
What I mean by this is that it goes back to the a well-known piece of advice that great stories are if you throw someone into this situation what would they do? And that is the question with characters too. Throw them into a situation and what would they do? And say? I could imagine what a friend would say if I threw them into a situation, but that's them and not the character (I will explain more.) If I think about how they should react in that situation, it is closer to a real character, but throwing a character into the situation, the character will tell me what they would do, because as a writer you have to know your character.
Your character is not a version of your friend because I don't expect your friend to have lived the same life as your character but thinking what they would say is not delving into your character deeper enough. When a character tells you what to write; when they pause, or stutter or show their frustration and anger... how you write these words comes from their core and is built up by their experience growing up. Yes their anger maybe similar to a friend, but all our angers are comes from a different place. So I'm not sure if going to an emotional level is quite enough, it is building a rich history of the character that will give the most genuine of feel to the reader.
I think that is the goal every writer should aspire to. If a writer can form a connection between a character and the reader, it doesn't really matter about the storyline. I saw this one video on YouTube, in which the person said that people connect with the character more than a story. It is memorable characters that leave lasting impressions ... and I think this is very true.
Does scary dreams count?
I've been working a lot on my stories lately that has been centered around one character, and this character keeps talking to me when I sleep... she is quite annoying.
That is... a great word to describe a character.
Completely agree! This ties with the silliness I wrote above in that, I feel, a reader can connect with a character (good or bad) if they are authentic and their progression is consistent to their beliefs. I always find it slightly worrying when a timid character suddenly becomes so confident and assured of themselves after meeting another character who 'changes' their lives. It is very Hollywood and this 'overcoming' adversity that creates a completely changed person isn't very real. It may make a happy story and good feel, but in regards to the title of this thread and whether a character carries any impact for a reader later on... I don't think so.
Sorry for the quotes people.
I read somewhere that there are 3 levels to creating meaningful characters.
1. Characters based from people you know.
2. Characters are who you think should sound like.
3. Characters who tell you what to write.
I thought about this a lot because it is natural to base dialogue or a personality on someone you know but I began to realise that characters who make the greatest impact are the characters who are 'alive.'
What I mean by this is that it goes back to the a well-known piece of advice that great stories are if you throw someone into this situation what would they do? And that is the question with characters too. Throw them into a situation and what would they do? And say? I could imagine what a friend would say if I threw them into a situation, but that's them and not the character (I will explain more.) If I think about how they should react in that situation, it is closer to a real character, but throwing a character into the situation, the character will tell me what they would do, because as a writer you have to know your character.
Your character is not a version of your friend because I don't expect your friend to have lived the same life as your character but thinking what they would say is not delving into your character deeper enough. When a character tells you what to write; when they pause, or stutter or show their frustration and anger... how you write these words comes from their core and is built up by their experience growing up. Yes their anger maybe similar to a friend, but all our angers are comes from a different place. So I'm not sure if going to an emotional level is quite enough, it is building a rich history of the character that will give the most genuine of feel to the reader.
I think that is the goal every writer should aspire to. If a writer can form a connection between a character and the reader, it doesn't really matter about the storyline. I saw this one video on YouTube, in which the person said that people connect with the character more than a story. It is memorable characters that leave lasting impressions ... and I think this is very true.
Does scary dreams count?
I've been working a lot on my stories lately that has been centered around one character, and this character keeps talking to me when I sleep... she is quite annoying.
That is... a great word to describe a character.
Completely agree! This ties with the silliness I wrote above in that, I feel, a reader can connect with a character (good or bad) if they are authentic and their progression is consistent to their beliefs. I always find it slightly worrying when a timid character suddenly becomes so confident and assured of themselves after meeting another character who 'changes' their lives. It is very Hollywood and this 'overcoming' adversity that creates a completely changed person isn't very real. It may make a happy story and good feel, but in regards to the title of this thread and whether a character carries any impact for a reader later on... I don't think so.
Well, there are those that stuck with me in a traumatizing or sickening way when I was too young for them.
Many of them are from things I both read and watched, so I don't always remember which was which.
From Wide Sargasso Sea, the flaming parrot and Amélie.
From Lord Jim, Jim and his redeeming sacrifice at the end.
Similarly, from Taras Bulba, the character shot through his steel cuirasse at the end, whatever it's properly called.
From The Sea Wolf, Wolf Larsen.
From The Green-Eyed Blonde, a schlocky 1950s film a banysitter watched on TV rerun one afternoon, the girl who joins an escape from a girls' prison and gets hung up crossing the barbed wire and just hangs there on her stomach until dead.
From Norwegian Wood, Naoko.
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