I'm working on characters for a novel, getting a feel for how they work in my head again. It's been a while since I looked in on them, and the story and the characters have shifted and changed a lot over that time. I've written sequels to their story that failed, tried to write their story a few times to have it die on the page. Sometimes change is good, both for the story and the character. (For example, the 'sequel' idea failed utterly because the one character simply could not be the other as an adult. Which has led to re-thinking both characters. Again.)
I have found that I tend to approach characters from the central question of what lies they tell to themselves and to other people. The starting point, in my head, is where they are the most dishonest, how they fake honesty and so forth. We're different people depending on who we chat with and when, and why: in a lot of ways, we never let go of our masks, or we convince ourselves we do so well that said desire becomes a mask in and of itself. As an author, the fun part is finding the bits of myself in each character, and building -- or removing -- masks around that as the story and character dictate.
So I am looking at their masks, at the lives they choose to lead, the lives chosen for them and the costs (and sacrifices) of such things, sure in the knowledge that no one truly believes themselves the villain of their own story and wondering what would happen if someone did....
That was an awesome post... I agree with the notion of parts of ourselves existing in every character we write (the heros as well as the villains), and about where the characters are most dishonest. I think I spend more time thinking about the line between where a character will betray another more than any other aspect of their personality.
ReplyDelete...hmmm might this be why we both write pretty screwed up characters? ...though I can't compete in sheer number ;)
Quite possibly :)
ReplyDeleteThough now that I think about it, it would be interesting to try and find a novel without characters that are screwed up at some level, since that is a pretty significant part of being human. Mind you, having a character with flaws isn't quite the same as they being screwed up, but one could argue it's just a matter of degree.
...interesting to find a novel of yours? ...or a novel in general without screwed up characters?
ReplyDeleteWell, I suppose we would have to determine a plumb-line to which we would then compare other characters (including our own). Though, that plumb-line would have to be a character that we could agree on, one that would be considered *normal*. The base-line, if you will.
...any ideas?
It would need to be some novel whose characters are relentlessly ordinary. Which, given the necessary of characters to cause/attract conflict might not exist. So, relative to the novel they are in, most characters might be considered dark or weird.
ReplyDeleteExcept for that genre of YA (and arguably chick lit) that exists to Make A Point, like a bumper sticker.