Emotional about your characters?

Sometimes I feel the most emotionally connected to my characters after I’m through late revisions and I can go back and read as a reader, if I did a decent job.

While I’m writing, I feel like I’m crafting or digging for something I can’t really see.

 

, hmmmm.... you make an interesting point.

 

Mine is the reverse and back again: emotion when I first write it, then I go into craft mode, and then hopefully back to emotion again on the re-read later, as you said.

 

I just wanted to throw this out there.

I run in erotic romance circles. I’ve heard many of my friends and fellow authors say they don’t get turned on by their own sex scenes... even though (obviously) their readers do.

I think it’s the same kind of thing. For some people, it’s all about craft.

Sorry if that’s too raunchy for this forum, just thought I’d mention it.

 

I hope to get to that point. My last novel I started writing before I knew the characters. The second draft was almost a total rewrite. I’d get the emotional content when I was trying to fall asleep.

 

So saucy finger-painting?

 

I will say—

A lot of my writing is based on intuition and feelings. If I get stuck in a story, I will often re-read the whole draft, pretend I’m a reader, and see how it makes me feel.

I wish I had a better understanding of the “craft” perspective, because it sounds a lot more straightforward. A lot of the time I feel like I’m fumbling around in the dark, hoping to strike something good.

 

I will throw some oil on troubled waters here. I was passionate about flying, I was passionate about my Navy career, I was and still am passionate about my engineering work, I was and still am passionate about ham radio, and now I am passionate about writing. I am passionate about running, high-speed biking, and yes, I am passionate about beating kids half my age. It works for me, it always has.

In my opinion, for me and for @K McIntyre, it is important for us (her and I, you only if you feel that way too) to be emotionally connected to our characters, because if we are, the readers will be too. And we both have some success in our works, and our works are listed on this forum under member publications. We have no interest in hiding behind some specious anonymity, beyond just putting a barrier up against getting hate mail via e-mail and telephone.

 

I think this may be a fallacy - not that readers connect emotionally to your writing, but that readers will automatically connect to writing just because the author is passionate about it.

I read quite a bit of writing from people who clearly care deeply about their characters and their projects, but I don't get sucked in because they aren't presenting their passion in a form that's accessible to me. I mean, even those who say passion is necessary can't argue that it's sufficient, can they? There has to be more than just passion; incomprehensible drivel is incomprehensible drivel, no matter how in love with the characters the author is.

So saying that it's important for you to be emotionally connected to your characters because if you are readers will be doesn't make sense to me. It's important for you to be emotionally connected to your characters and you think this helps readers be emotionally connected? Okay, maybe. But I think it's a mistake, and potentially a serious one, if writers think that an emotional connection is ALL that's needed.

ETA: Not saying that's the case with your writing - I know you worked hard on the craft as well. I'm just thinking about the logic of the statement, not applying it to anyone.

 

I've read a couple of Bay's books (and I need to read more of them dammit!), and a couple by another author who I personally know is mega-emotionally attached to her characters. And as a reader, I can tell you that I felt similar emotional connection with all of their characters. Bay not feeling emotionally connected to her characters didn't make a whit of difference - I still cried during the rough parts and cheered for the HEA reading both author's books. I'd have never known that the two of them had completely different approaches to their writing based what was written on the page.

 

Hey, are you me? Because that's totally how I feel 95% of the time.

 

I felt like this until I stopped relying so much on instinct when writing, just going by that and hoping it would feel right. Instead I started to look at the mechanics and techniques I was using without thinking about them, and started to think about them more and how I could deploy them better.

 

I had to deliberately sit down and really work through the craft side, for sure. I don't think it's something that comes as automatically as the emotion side.

ETA: And, on reflection, I can't say I find writing as engrossing as I did when I was writing with pure emotion. It's still interesting, but I'm not as obsessed with it. But I don't think I could go back if I tried... I just don't have that much emotion stored up and sitting around, waiting to gush out!

 

*refrains from making erotica joke*

 

I'm really trying to learn this with help from a friend and mentor who's a successfully published author, but it's really hard because my writing roots (fanfiction for a show and pairing that I was super passionate about) are just so messy, illogical and emotional. I used to come across this in dance all the time; it's way harder to unlearn bad or messy technique than it is to learn how to do it properly in the first place. I'm trying to get better about approaching my writing more intellectually, because I think it will help with my productivity and lessen the time I have to spend editing my MS before they're in submittable shape. But it's really hard because I'm not wired that at all in the first place.

 

It's not easy, but it can certainly help. Suddenly that passage which "just didn't feel right" becomes visually filled with technique holes you can see. It's like one of those visual puzzles you have to stare at from different angles and then suddenly you can see the rabbit. Or whatever it was that was hidden

 

Personally, the only time that hurt me while killing a character off was while murdering my MC’s beloved dog. He was the only comfort she had, and truly I felt terrible taking that away from her. I’ve only cried about once over my story once, though, when I was detailing another MC’s past experiences with abuse. I strive to make myself cry (or at least feel strongly) while writing, as I think that that’s the way that the readers will also feel the emotional connection.
I’ve felt for other characters more strongly, such as (admittedly) Sherlock (from BBC’s Sherlock). But I don’t think there’s any problem in crying or feeling emotionally close to your character. If you can separate that from the technical aspects of writing when you go over and revise than I think that’s perfect.

 

, You killed the Dog. My MC's all have dogs. In fact one of these dogs saves it's MC from killing himself during an anxiety attack.

 

So, back on topic and this time with a more hardline approach.

Personally, in my world view. Passion and Caring are vital for good story, lasting story telling, You have to love what you are doing or what is the point. If writing boils down to a paycheck then what is the point. Now, as i've stated before being published is not my primary goal, making money is nice and may happen one day. Perhaps my stories will have Faleena level success without the Trade Mark nonsense.

And as for being emotional, go right ahead and be emotional, it doesn't mean your story is better or more impact, it just means what you wrote resonates better with you. Yeah, I have written scenes that had be laughing my ass off for a couple hours, or some that brought tears to my eyes. again, doesn't mean my scene is funnier or more impact, only that it resonates with me and will most likely resonate with others who read my stories. If it ever comes to that.

As for characters, I think it helps to an extent to care about them, I care about my characters, fuck I love my charters, they are fucking awesome as far as i'm concerned, and think about them quite often out of the context of their own stories.. but I am in a mental state where I recognize they are fictional , i'm not having tea parties with them or asking them how their day was for a long day of being written (Or neglected) . This also doesn't hinder my abilities to write what needs to be written, if a Character needs to die, they die. If they are to get raped, have their eye slashed out, or become comatose after exerting their mental/magic powers beyond their healthy abilities. then yeah, I do it.


Again, I dont' write for money, I write because it's what I do. as Shenanigiator's sig line says.
"My characters do the storytelling. I'm just here to type and edit,"

and that is pretty much my writing style in a nutshell.

 

Has anyone won the thread yet?

 

Only those who stay away, unfortunately I'm a stubborn bastard.

 

Apologies if I've already said this in this thread; I think it was somewhere else: I tend to inject emotion into my work (which is, as I said, a deliberate strategy to keep me focused) sort of in reverse. I write scenes that reflect and amplify whatever I'm feeling at the moment.

So if I'm frustrated and fed up at work, after work I may write a scene where Female Protagonist is frustrated and fed up with all the restrictions on her freedom. (Hmm. Next time, it could be interesting to use that emotion to write a scene where the person who is restricting her is frustrated and fed up about her lack of cooperation.)

This has the advantage, if it is an advantage, of the emotion being available for the drafting, and then naturally being gone later, so that I can be colder in editing.

 

I write for nothing but the emotion. If it gets any validation at all, it's fukkin cake and ice cream.

So, I already won. Yay me (!?)