I know several authors who either have told me they have actually seen their characters or heard them speak, such as Helen Holick and her pirate Jesamiah Acorne from her Sea Witch
series. She described how she drew him out of his fictional dimension while sitting on a beach, looking up at last to see him there, smiling back at her. Something makes me quite confident that she did see him. For one thing, he's a delightful and memrable character!Laura Vosika, author of The Bluebells of Scotland, today told me how a minor character whose scene she tried to change simply refused to let it happen. If you are an author you know exactly what she means. I like to write character panels where the heroes and villains of my stories get together to discuss a plot change. In several that I wrote for An Involuntary King
, two of the characters, the king and the mercenary in love with the queen, invariably disrupt the prgress of the discussion, with traded insults and the King blowing his top. More than either of these examples is the experience I know many authors have that their characters take over, that at most they are channeling the characters, not creating them. It has happened to me often that I wake up from the writing trance to discover the story has gone a way I did not plan, and several fictional beings are grinning triumphantly in my direction.Of course, my assertion of another dimension is tongue in cheek. It is comforting however, as my characters are so real to me that I cannot bear the idea that they don't somehow exist, that they always did and always will in that wonderful dimension crowded with these astonishing, magical creatures.
Authors, share your own experience in the Comments section below.. and readers, tell us how you can tell when an author has released a particularly compelling character from this other dimension.
Hi, Nan, I love the story about Helen Holicke and Jesamiah Acorne. I have also had that experience-- twice! With a book I wrote years ago, I walked into a car repair shop and was struck to see my character, exact face, shade of hair, everything. More recently, on a trip overseas, one of the men who gave a talk to my group was Shawn/Niall. Everything about him. I tried hard not to stare too obviously. I'm sure he wouldn't have believed my explanation, lol!
ReplyDeleteI wish I could explain how it is possible to 'know' a living person 'is' your character. It isn't possible. Or to explain how characters can behave on their own without the authors' consent. They just do. Maybe somewhere subconsciously, we know them so well, we know what they would say or do and refuse to write anything else. Maybe we are drawing on someone we knew without realizing it? Or maybe, just as they say we all have doubles, so do our characters!
Your idea is exactly the premise behind Inkheart. No wonder I loved that movie! We probably all wish our characters would come to life!
Not too long ago, I had decided one of the characters in my unpublished manuscript just had to go. She was part of a plotline I wasn't comfortable with anymore, so I sat down to write her out of the story. This was a rather spoiled and flamboyant young lady, and she wouldn't go easily. Finally, when she saw I was determined to get rid of that plotline, she talked me into letting her stay -- in an entirely different role!
ReplyDeleteTwo things have really opened my eyes to the "reality" of characters: writing my own stories, and reading The Great Good Thing by Roderick Townley, in which characters lounge around waiting for someone to open the book, then jump into place to act out their roles. It's a wonderful concept.