Do you ever find yourself developing an emotional attachment to your characters?

Yes but don't 1 in 4 people get a terminal illness at some point in their lifetime? You should slap at least one of your characters with that at the end.

Okay, kind of kidding in the above sentence. Though I think some stories--especially ones that have a more 'epic' feel--should have the odd falling piano. It's what I find ridiculous about the first four seasons of Game of Thrones (keep them spoilers to yerselves); unless I'm not correctly recalling, and this is excluding its history

Spoiler: broad/vague spoiler

, everyone seems to be victim of foul play in one way or another. The "Everybody dies" subline? Psh, more like "Everyone is murdered/maimed/gutted/flayed/all four." Natural events, be they fatal or not, are nice for a more realistic feel.

 

Ok since GoT was mentioned, I think GRRM is rather smug with this "everyone is killable" mindset. I mean, he always trusts he can replace good characters with other good ones. One day this very mindset could betray him.

 

interesting

 

I like and care about my characters, but that's not going to stop me from putting them through hell. Let nothing get in the way of your story telling.

 

I can see your point. There may come a day when he realizes that the character that could've easily solved the problem was killed in an earlier book, but maybe that's exactly what he wants. The person who know (or would know) the answer to your situation isn't always going to be around for whatever reason, and the fact that they're not around may very well be the thing that makes the issue get worse. Do we have people standing around waiting for a convenient time to step in and make things right? Nope, not always. And when that happens, the results might vary from mild to catastrophic. It wouldn't surprise me if this was his mindset from the very beginning.

 

Note SPOILERS: Actually while we're on GoT, I haven't read the books but love the show and for me the deaths have shifted from being gut-wrenching-but-powerful to just capricious and useless. I wasn't fully on board with the idea of Oberyn Mattel getting offered how he did and as quickly as he did - and I thought there was no purpose in what happened to Ygritte. As a writer I didn't think that either of those were good for the plot, even if the plot is about the senselessness of war

 

I guess what I don't like is when I feel like I can see the author's hand clearly and it seems like he's taking pleasure in finding creative ways to off people for his amusement...Both of the above examples felt like GRRM breaking the fourth wall and reminding us that really Westeros is his Lego City and he can smash it for fun. It made it less real for me.

 

I get your point, but what I wanted to say is that he kills fan favorites because he's sure we'll like the new ones he introduces. What if we don't?

I keep watching because I want to see how it all ends, regardless of which characters are standing by the end, but people who watch because of characters might be turned off by what he does.

 

I'm writing about a woman who wants to escape from her verbally abusive father (and out of New York) and then have her go celebrate her new single life at a Goth club. Then out of nowhere, this person just changes her views and the world she thought she knew very well.

I love this character to pieces and if it were up to me, I wouldn't have written it this way. I would have let her taste the world and have a normal life.

But now, I'm having her taste the world. Quite literally

But no normal life.

 

It's very interesting you say that. There have been neurological studies done which prove a reader identifies with the characters they read about for up to 1 year and some longer.

It makes sense that the author could become even more related.

It's one of the main reasons we love to read. We put ourselves into the characters position and get to experience that world. The experience stimulates our emotions.

John Krone

 

If you don't have an emotional reaction then it's unlikely that your readers will. Then what you are left with is just another piece of boring writing.

 

I have been working with my current characters for six years, and I have always written in the first person, so I have spent a lot of time in my main characters head. I do definitely care for her and I hate doing mean things to her, but in the past two books she has been revealed as a werewolf, kidnapped by a crazy person and almost dies (several times). She has also lost a lot of friends from her pack in the year timeline of these two books. And I think judging by the ideas I have for the third book, she is about to have an even harder time over the next several months.

I love my characters there's no doubt about it, but I understand killing characters off to create an upheaval in the story, I did it at the start of the second book. I haven't decided if all of my four main characters will get out alive at the end of the third book, I've actually been thinking about killing one of them off towards the end. I'm not too attached to all four of these characters especially since I only just introduced the fourth one, but since my POV main character is attached to them, I still have a smaller emotional connection to them.

Amanda

 

First of all, let's scrap the term "your characters". Am I emotionally attached to the characters about whom I am writing?

Absolutely. I am writing about a character who is a reboot of a character from the book that emotionally affected me more than any other fictional story. It affected me so much because I love this character and I felt personally hurt by the things that hurt the character.

The very reason I am writing this reboot is because I care so much about the protagonist. Not that I am revising the story to give it a happy ending -- it is actually quite a bit more tragic than the original -- but rather, I think the character's story is so compelling that it deserves to be told to the world in the best way that I can fathom.

 

I agree with those that mentioned the readers point of view. As a reader, I get attached to characters. So if I write a character and don't feel any attachment, I'll assume my readers definitely aren't getting attached, which to me means my story is lacking.

However, I'm aware that not all authors become attached to their characters. I read somewhere that Chuck Palahniuk said he didn't get attached to most of his characters. (I wish I had a link to a source. It would make me so much more credible. ) I think he mentioned that one character in Choke was based on a guy he once knew so he felt something for that one character, but most of the others didn't mean much to him personally.

I love, love, love Palahniuk's books, but as a reader, I can feel a detachment from the characters myself. I don't really care if they live or die. Actually most of his characters aren't that likeable. I'm reading more for the unique plots and the masterful story telling. So his lack of character attachment really does translate over to the readers.

 

I formed such a crush for one of my female MC's, I had a realdoll made in her likeness. She left me for a J.Crew mannequin almost a year ago.

 

I love lots of fictional characters. I remember when my favourite character died, I think I was singing sad songs for days xD

Of course then there's my characters. Like it's something about their characters that make me so giddy about them. Then when I put them in a bad situation I just stiffen up. Though I can handle putting them through some hoops, it gives them a reason to come back stronger

 

I care a lot about my characters, each and every one. If I didn't, I wouldn't want to bother writing about them. I do feel a bit guilty about when I have to write a character out, put them through hardships or kill one off, but the main character and their story comes first in my books, and if MC's sister has to fall off a cliff, she will fall off a cliff.

 

Yes, often, and it is not always a bad thing. I find myself planning to kill a character and then growing so in love with them that I can't bring myself to do it, or it proves to be difficult at the least.

 

Not only do most people form emotional attachment to their characters, but most people SHOULD feel an emotional attachment.

Let me put it this way.

You create a character for someone else to read, you want the reader to relate, or at the very least, feel something for that character. If you never feel any attachment for your character...how can you expect the reader to?

So yes. I do get attached to my characters, but I try not to let it influence the narrative in a negative way. If he's gotta get bruised, or broken, or dead, you better believe he's going to bite the dust.

 

Its good you are attached to your characters, you should be. The author and the audience should have some sort of emotional response to a character, be it love or hate. Sometimes you have to kill a character or hurt them to reflect the dangerous setting or plot. Yeah it feels messed up but it tells a great story. Especially since a character usually has some piece of the author in them.
There is this character I killed off, I absolutely loved writing his dialogue and now sometimes I'll be writing a scene and i think wow it would be great if he could say this here.
They say kill your darlings when writing but just think about where you want the story to go.

I've had a nightmare before where I met my characters in real life and they issued some biblical pay back.

 

yes, sometimes it happens like that.am a victim