Do You Talk to Your Characters?

I can't talk to my characters. I can't even think of them that way. They're all me. It's like Jungian dream theory. Sometimes I'm a spectator, but even then, it's more like an out of body experience. Most of the time I'm behind the eyes of my characters. I can only understand them if I am them, even the most despicable among them. I draw on all sorts of sources, friends, family, ex-girlfriends, childhood bullies, historical figures, whatever, but if I'm writing them, I have to understand them from the inside, or it reads false.

In a "conversation with my character" scenario, I wouldn't trust them to tell me enough of the truth, and I wouldn't trust my ability to know the difference. I also fear I would become permanently disconnected from them, so I don't even want to attempt it as an exercise, at least not with a piece that's important to me, but then again, they all are.

Even when I stumble across something that hadn't occurred to me and changes everything but absolutely has to be incorporated, I feel the change from within the character. They still evolve, sometimes drastically, long after conception, but again, it reminds me of dreaming, in that the thing that just changed has now always been true.

I can rewrite something a dozen times, and it's still true. The things I alter felt unreal to me as the characters, even if it's due to shifts within themselves after the original attempt.

I make myself cry sometimes, even when I'm writing sub-par prose, because I'm so emotionally involved from the inside. Oddly though, none of this prevents me from physically or emotionally destroying characters, or having them make terrible and self-destructive decisions. I will never spare anyone just because I am them. The story comes first, and I think my (over?)involvement actually helps me identify the best sacrifices and the most horrible things for them to do to each other when the story demands it.

ETA half a day later: Some of what I'm talking about happens away from the keyboard, so in a way, I guess I'm participating in a similar exercise, albeit from a more solipsistic, fractured perspective. I definitely see the value in your methodology. I just can't separate myself from them in that way.

 

Now you know you've gone overboard when you feel like you're in love with one of your characters. Yea, I know that's weird.
Most people, at one point or another, can recall that feeling of falling in love when it's at that infatuation stage. Thoughts of that particular person of your desire make you tingly inside. You can't keep your eyes off of them when they're in the room. You think about them night and day. Butterflies in the tummy when you see them. All you want is to be with them.

Yea, I've been there. I'm already incredibly emotional in the first place, and as an artist, I tend to completely immerse myself in whatever it is I am working on, and writing my novels is not different.

Lock me up, I guess! But in a funny way, when I go off on it like that is when I know that it's good.

 

All the time, it helps to iron out plot elements and character tensions ahead of time. And really, all dialogue should be composed in role play, so I use it for that as well.

 

I am a writer without imaginary friends. I kind of don't understand talking to characters because I made them up and I can make them say anything I want. And really only what matters is what matters for the story. Playing this sort of game would be a distraction from writing for me. I understand making characters real and complex, but the way I see it is it happens on the page. And we are all making up our characters with the free will to make them do and say whatever we want. I try not to think of my characters separate from my story. I believe such a divide could hurt my work. I do understand writers have all different kinds of approaches, but when people seem to be developing characters through these sorts of methods, I have to wonder how beneficial it really is for the story.

 

I quite fancy my teenage male character, even though he's twenty five years too young, so that sounds icky.
I suppose I drew a teenage boy that I would have fancied as a teenage girl, and there's plenty of me that remembers being a teen girl.
Probably best not to over think this one!

 

I rather believe a lot of these sentimental (and non-sentimental) musings about our characters are going to vary widely between writers and the sort of material they write.
I happen to write literary with a strong romantic element, so it's hard for me to imagine not having some sort of emotional connection to my characters.
If I were writing sci-fi or action/adventure, I would probably want my characters to kick ass and die gallantly.

 

why not? I've been writing my MC between the ages of 20 and 22 now, and oh how I remember being that age. Best and worst years of my life. I'd give anything to relive it, bad and good.
Instead, I write about it, for better or worse.

 

Not me. I was an idiot then, but now I am able to hide it much better.

 

I don't talk to my characters, but I am constantly surprised by what they end up saying. (My wife doesn't get this and thinks I'm nuts.) I think I know how they are going to react and respond, but then as I'm writing they end up saying something else and taking me off in slightly different directions. I think I know the words I'll end up giving them, but until I write it I can't be sure.

 

I prefer to observe them instead. I mentally watch them move about their day to day lives. Sometimes I play a montage of their life events from birth to whichever age they are presently. It helps me understand their current goals and motives better. Other times, I insert a placeholder character to "interview" them, so that I can watch the interaction and take notes on how they respond to various questions about themselves.

Its enlightening, I guess.

 

I understand this. I too do much of the same thing, although I tend to become my characters and act out moments in their lives. I get to feel what thay feel, and understand their depth of emotion. I suppose that makes me slightly insane, but I dont mind.

 

Within five years of writing I started adopting some of my character's mannerisms and habits as my own, especially my bedtime ritual. I find meself saying goodnight to me own pillows before wedging meself between them like a sandwich and I am not ashamed to admit that it makes me feel incredibly comfy.

 

The only time my characters are 'real' are when I'm writing, because then they speak.

I can't make them do anything, because if the action doesn't mesh with the character, I writer-block myself. Outside of writing? I tried a few times to have a conversation with them as imaginative exercise, but I'm just not that creative. Once I made a deal with myself to act like one of my characters for a few hours. It was totally weird and didn't tell me anything new about this guy, so I shrugged and went back to writing, because then and only then can he express himself. I discover why this guy is who he is, e.g. why he is so excrutiatingly careful to not make a sound while walking.

Sometimes I discover a new facet of them outside writing when I search for solutions to storyboard-problems, and then this character 'changes' as this new/old side gets illuminated. It's a bit like making real-life friends. You get to know them better and better as both of you sit in a pub and they let slip little tidbits about their past, every other time. You share jokes and there's the odd disagreement, but all of that builds a picture in your mind of who this other guy is and how you expect him to act. Until he does something unexpected and you reverse the picture in your head