Tag: character
The creation of a character is one of the more personal things that a writer ever does.
It cuts across all genres. Who is this person? How do they drive the plot? What’s the storyline that drapes around them?
Why do they matter?
Character Studies and Reviews
Any writer who tells you that they put nothing of themselves into their characters is either lying or not really making characters. They may be making mouthpieces to further an agenda.
Or they may be creating stick figures to hang a plot on. They might be impatient and looking to cut to the chase without all of the preliminary bullshit.
But there is always going to be something or other there. If you are writing people with depth and imagination, and you want them to be real, then your own experiences are going to inform them.
And, in a way, that’s why sensitivity readers matter. I am a middle-aged Jewish woman from the northeastern United States. And so, by definition, I cannot possibly be in the head of a slave from the 1770s.
Now, I do, honestly, feel that we writers can craft a character who does not have our shared experience. But we need to approach it well.
Talk to people. Is this believable? Does this person resonate with you? Are they respectful to your heritage, culture, and background?
Shakespeare wrote Lady MacBeth. Agatha Christie wrote Hercule Poirot. And so on, and so forth.
A character should be partly like you, because you inform and shape them. But you don’t have to be exactly like a character in order to be able to write one effectively.
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