Emotional about your characters?

I've had to go take a cold shower after writing a love scene. Does that count?

 

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Counts in my book!

 

seriously, I've become involved with my characters. I write them from a fantasy place in my imagination, yet they somehow seem to become very real to me.
If they are angry, I tend to feel the anger in me as well, and if they are falling in love, I can feel it while I'm writing it, or reading it.

It's very personal to me, for some reason.

 

" As god as my witness, I will never be horny again!" -Scarlet O'Hara

 

It makes sense that we would feel something for our characters since we spend a lot of time CREATING them and DEVELOPING them throughout our stories. But they're not real and anything that happens to them is because of us. So, crying? For real? I don't know if people think their writing is or will be better if they cry off the page while writing or believe they are so deeply invested their characters seem almost real. I like to really focus on the actual writing. I believe I can develop my characters without making them my imaginary friends. See, I've found that the more clear headed I am, the better I write. If I had to hold back tears or was all emotional, I think that could affect my writing in a negative way.

I do understand feeling a bit like I'm going to miss a story when I am near completion. And, yes, the characters are part of that. But I just find there are so many aspects of character development to take into consideration and build from. Making the author cry doesn't really indicate how good of a story you've written or how developed your characters are. You felt something emotional, but did you get it on the page? That's all that really matters, and I guess it really doesn't matter how you get there.

 

Funny note about this, when I was younger, I wrote a scene that made me cry, but later on during a revision, I ended up not liking the scene and nixed it. . Felt it was to much, plus in the revision sort of changed the course of things where the whole scene/episode wasn't necessary.

I think this is a given, I do not think anyone here is implying that, but still you want your readers emotional invested, so it could be a good indicator (Perhaps). May depend on the genre maybe. I wrote a scene where I laughed my ass off, but I am sure when I go back through it, the humor of it won't be as much and it's one scene, like you implied there is an entire book to write. i'm sure an author can cry for one scene, doesn't' mean they are crying through out the book (though if they are, I would personally be worried about that).

 

I'm getting weepy reading this thread.

 

Yep, it has a range of emotions! Happy, sad, angry! Confused!

 

C'mere gravel gimme a hug I'll make you feel all better. *unsheathes her fangs* It might hurt at first, you'll get all emotional you might even cry. Then it'll start to feel like a warm rain on a pleasant spring day. One of the most interesting hugs you'll ever get, I promise. Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a hundred needles in another persons eye.

 

oh come on, I bet you say that to all the boys.

 

I’ve been thinking a lot about this thread this morning. I think my disconnect can be summed up like this: when I read a story like the one @Iain Aschendale linked, I don’t feel sad for Becka or her mother or her father, and I don’t hate “Unka Roy.” I feel sad for the girls that Becka represents. I hate the people that “Unka Roy” represents.

And I think that is (at least part of) the purpose of fiction, right? It's a representation of universal emotion. The circumstances change, sure, but the emotions still exist, even when the characters inhabit other worlds and float through space. Underlying even the most fantastical elements are uniquely human concerns.

So, I don't feel for the fictional characters, mine or otherwise. I feel for the real people they represent, dealing with similar emotions.

I don't know if this makes sense, but I find this stuff fascinating.

 

Only to all the girls, your special gravel.

 

Just came to post this. I agree.

 

Now that I am better awake, I can express myself better at this topic.

Personally, I do feel that there should be some emotional connection between Author and Character and Jannert says it the best. I have compiled the key comments of those who exhibit emotions and those who don't: (I couldn't quote my previous post because it's gone or I would have) as a sort of brief.

Getting all Emotional Now: These are the Pro-Emotional connection is important comments (Mine excluded because I can't quote what's not there any more)

Con-Emotional (It's not important to telling a story, somehow?)

 

I get super emotional about my characters. I have cried a time or two. I don't know if this makes my writing feel more poignant, and I don't really care, since it's gonna happen anyway. If someone else can write effective, emotional scenes without being attached to their characters, more power to 'em I guess. I just can't.

It doesn't keep me from tormenting them, no.

Probably related, I also scare myself when I write scary scenes.

 

So much this Dragon Turtle *arrow pointing up to Dragon's post* I knew I was connected to my MC's I didn't expect to be destroyed by the transformation of the cheerleader from talented and beautiful to unhinged and distraught squirrel girl. Thelma was the first time I've ever killed and felt horrible about it. Everyone has there own writing style I guess mine is to imagine the scene inside my mind in such detail that I'm actually there. I felt the bloody mist spray across Trixies's face, the shock, the horror. Thelma's gentle resignation, knowing she was dying. Letting Trixie know that she would love her forever. Saying all the things that needed said, those that couldn't be said in time were said with a kiss.
This is a familiar feeling. New to writing here, maybe I'll get numb to the feeling and have no problem offing important characters. I hope not... Maybe I really should turn myself in to the psyche ward then.

 

I think it's interesting how much disdain there can be on either side of this topic. People who don't get emotionally attached feel that those who do are being sentimental over nothing, people who do get emotionally attached feel that writing can only have impact if it has an impact on them first. I don't have a conclusion to that -- I just think it's interesting.

I fall more on the side of non-attachment. I like my characters, but I also really like fuckin' with'em, and I get a lot of enjoyment out of the sense that what I'm writing will hit a prospective reader hard in the ol' feelings. I have gotten emotional over writing certain things, but it's rare, and more likely to happen when I'm writing a fictionalized version of something I've personally gone through rather than when I just write something objectively emotionally devastating.

I'll also acknowledge that I don't tend to get super attached to other peoples' characters, either, and am generally a low-empathy person. I generally only connect to something if I can relate to it personally, but I don't want to let that narrow the scope of emotional arcs that I write.

 

This makes total sense, and for some reason I'm the opposite. When I'm writing something difficult based on an experience I've actually had, I feel very matter-of-fact about it. Versus, like... the time I cried the most while writing, it was a scene where my MC had to send her little brother's ghost to the "other side." I cried like a BABY. I don't even have a brother.

 

No disdain here, at least I hope not. I believe everyone should feel how they feel in there skin. I feel very paradoxical, torn. On the one side I have my characters I care deeply about, and surprisingly the secondary characters I didn't feel very much for turned my feelings into a bloody mess. I know I have to kill off the characters for my story.

 

I think there's definitely some sort of a catharsis-by-proxy thing some writers get (and readers too) by 'experiencing' something they'd never be able to experience in reality, and that can hit a lot harder than feelings you've already gone through, because you have experience (when will I stop using this word) processing the real stuff -- confronting something that's emotionally new and unexpected in fiction can be just as challenging / rewarding as confronting it irl.

At least that's what I reckon. I don't get it myself so I'm really just comin' up with shit

 

Nah, I think you're onto something actually!

 

I had also noticed this, which is why I complied the comments for or against, and I do agree, and of course I fall into this as well as a Pro-Attachment type. and to be honest, I cannot really understand having no attachment for your characters, but that may be a personal block on my part. I am the type that gets attached to other people's characters like Mega Man, Samus or Link for instance. and of course Mad Max and Vazquez from Aliens. .

But there is something else I've been pondering. What if there is a disconnect or something missing from discussion, which really in the end shouldn't be an argument as we all have our own styles and ways of writing. Such as genre, POV, etc.

for instance, and @Homer Potvin can correct me here, but he writes in First Person and usually the goal in that case is to put the reader in the shoes of the MC, so in that sense they become the MC, it's the same for video games, like RPGs or Shooters, where the character has no personality, doesn't' speak, etc.. so that the reader becomes more immerse. where as someone like me, Writes in 3rd person, where you are in a sense experiencing or watching the lives of someone else, where it maybe more important to have the reader care about these characters, so they keep reading, so it maybe more important for the author to care as well for them. And Ironically, I prefer to play games in third person, so I have a tendency to care about these characters such as Samus, Mega Man, Link or even Alloy from Horizon Dawn, where I accompanied them on their adventure (though I was in control of them)

But this is just what I was thinking, based off of my own personal experiences and thoughts. for all I know, I maybe talking out of my ass. LOL.

Edit: I am just feeling that something is missing, causing the disconnect and division.

 

I am the type that gets attached to other people's characters like Mega Man, Samus or Link for instance. and of course Mad Max and Vazquez from Aliens.

JW you just won the internet by referencing those characters in one sentence my friend. I'm feeling very close to you right now, also very thirsty. I'll settle for liking your post a thousand times.

 

Oh yeah, I definitely think there shouldn't be an argument for the same reason -- some folks can get real territorial about their method of writing and imo almost any sort of "this is the only way to do it" proclamation is rarely worth engaging with, to be honest.

But that's an interesting connection between how you view PCs in games and POVs in writing! I prefer to play in 1p but I write in an admittedly very close 3p. I'd be very interested in getting more data on those preferences to see if there's any widespread correlation.

Also ... Vasquez ...

 

My Pleasure

Yes, Yes, I think we can all share in the love for Pvt. 1st class Jenette Vasquez.

Just keep in mind, it's just my personal thoughts based off my personal experiences and not based on any scientific facts. I would also like to get more data on this, maybe compile some sort of report, maybe it already exists, maybe we should conduct an unscientific pull here on WF.