Fiction Writers Can Find Characters for Their Stories in Their Own Life Stories →

- RSS

Fiction can entertain, convey an author's point of view, give us connections and bring experience to us in things we would never be able to experience without it.  We learn from fiction, which can influence us as we consider our experiences.

Writers can find their story characters for their novels by looking at their own lives. If a writer or anyone takes this advice to see these future literary characters, they will have relooked at the cast of characters in their own lives and made some choices.  Just prioritizing those choices will contribute to reweaving how they perceive their past.

One approach to finding the characters for the writer’s book could be to pick the ten most influential people in their life. Questions about these ten that will help and serve as a guideline, according to author Carolyn See, professor emerita of English at the University of California, Los Angeles, would be: “Whom do you love? Who betrayed you? Whom did you betray? Who drives you nuts? Who is out of your reach? Who is your role model? Who is your benchmark for insanity?” I would suggest that you also ask who made a difference.

She suggests listing the other type of people you know on the second list. “The ones that gave you the willies. Those who creep you out, and you don’t know why?”. You might also ask who hurt you.

Once you have your two lists, you have the central characters for your stories. This advice is good for writing a novel, but it might be good to understand your own nonfiction life. 

The novelist weaves the plot points from the interaction of their characters.  Often you find great writers talk about how they just listened to the characters and wrote as they put those characters into situations, even suggesting that they were surprised at how the plot worked out.  The characters drive the story.

We do the same with our life’s stories and characters as we reweave, update, and make sense of our lives. Our perception changes as we see the characters and many other things differently over time.

Thoughts on Writing in The Moment and Questions about Whose Moment →

- RSS

What does saying you are “writing in the moment” mean? Sometimes, it means that what you are writing about is something you can observe happening around you at the very moment you are writing. This makes it easier to capture details, as a slow-motion camera’s input gives focus, and the writing is actual to life and a reflection of the “here and now.”

In addition to your particular moment, you can capture a moment in time for the characters in the plot.

What is happening around you now involves many things, and a choice has to be made as to what to include and what not to include. Some events stand out in the moment; you can sense them, almost breathing them in. Then, you capture the moment by using the reasons to direct your thoughts to the details.

A life story can be a series of chosen references to past moments. As you tell or write the story, you choose the particular moments and interpret them differently than when they happened. Seldom do you hear a person tell their own life story the same way each time they mean it unless they are reading it because, in a different moment, more experiences filter the memories and conclusions?

The more life teaches us and the more experiences we have, the more we find that past events seem different when re-examined.

The conclusions we draw from past events, and in those cases where those events strongly influence our self-image, re-examining events can change parts or all of our self-image and lead to reinventing our self-image.

You can write at the moment when the subject of your story is happening, or you can reach back for specific moments, but those moments change each time you reach back for them.

Quotes

“Given another shot at life, I would seize every minute of it, look at it and see it- try it on- live it - exhaust it- and never give that minute back until there was nothing left of it."—Erma Bombeck.

“Don’t Let Yesterday Take Up Too Much Of Today.”–Will Rogers

Four Good Books on Writing

Stephen King on Writing. George Orwell, Why I Write. Mary Karr, The Art of Memoir. Making A Literary Life, Carolyn See.

Click the books to link to the Reviews.

#StephenKing #GeorgeOrwell #Writing #Memoir #WorkMatters #theHumanTouch #EmbraceLife’sRandomness #BrentMJones