Yeah, totally sobbing when the figment of my imagination stopped interacting with the other figment of my imagination. Is this for real? You all aren't just joking?
No. I'm not joking. I'm slightly offended that you think I (and others,) are. If they seem real to me then I know they will seem real to some readers which is what you want if you are investing your time in reading a book. Have you never read a book or watched a movie and felt anything for a character? Love, hate, annoyance, joy, sadness, contempt, glad for their achievement, happy they got their comeuppance? That's how I feel when I read so why should it be any different when I write?
Because you're the god of the story. You see all the machinations and technicalities behind the character. You're the magician behind the illusion. You crying is like a magician performing a trick, and then gasping in wonder at his own trick. It's weird. In my opinion. Sorry that you're offended though.
Even though I'm the God of my story, I don't always know how it's going to pan out. I don't know all the reasons why my characters are they way they are, I don't know all the plot twists until they start to happen. When I had to kill of a character, it was one of the hardest decisions I had to make but not killing that person off, would have ruined the story. When I started on book one, I didn't know I would be killing him off in book two so I had a n affection for him which hit me hard when he died. I know how my story starts, I know how it ends. How I get from the beginning to the end is a journey I try to let my characters lead, even if I reign them in from time to time and I'm not the only author who does it that way.
This bit above, I don't do, I don't see them. When I started writing book one, I changed the male MC's name. I don't know why I changed it, but the new name sounded so much more fitting. So I went with the change. Six months into writing, the character's mother came into the story, she was to one who told him (and me at the same time) why he was named what he was named.
At what point do you actually cry? When you first get the idea or when you're executing it and read the scene back? You imply the former. So it's like the very idea of a character dying can make you cry? A character, who doesn't really exist is going to die on page, to improve the story. Don't you think that's a time to be happy that what really matters, the story has just been improved? Characters' fundamental purpose, is to tell the best story possible.
This is something I've learnt through my coaching research, but essentially: Your brain cannot tell the difference between something that’s real and whether you are just imagining it. As an example: http://drdavidhamilton.com/visualisation-alters-the-brain-body/ So someone reading something, or writing it, are imagining it, and their brain cannot tell the difference between the imagining and the real thing happening. It makes complete sense to me that we would respond in the way we do. I think it's a good indicator of the ability to empathise. Personally, if I do not understand something someone is going through, I would not belittle them, or use sarcasm to put them down.
Bit of background - I write out of sequence so I already had the character's death written (as part of book two). In book one, the character does something very hateful (he causes the death of a family member) but he's under pressure to do it. The beginning bit of book 2 (which is what I was working on) is sort of like his redemption. He'd got the help he needed, he was back in with his extended family and was making something of his life. He's just embarked on a romantic partnership and is explaining to his new love (who knows the family well) why he did what he did and how he turned himself around. His future looks bright, he can see nothing but good times ahead and he's ready to fight for the good side now but ... having written his death which comes later in book two, a death where his final act of selflessness is to give his life to save another, absolutely wrecked me.
I had a connection like that with my characters in my mid-to-late teens and sometimes wish I could get it back. I struggled with writing a lot this past couple of years because I just couldn't find that same level of attachment to them. It originally had me thinking that maybe I'm just not as invested in my writing as I was back then. Then I realised that's a lie. I just have a healthier relationship with writing now... I think. It feels cleaner now anyway. I can think more objectively now.
I'm a bred-in-the-bone architect of outlining, but I do admire this quality of characters living an autonomous existence since it is likely informed by the unconscious, and devoid of perceptible intentions that the astute reader will see and, as a result, hazard predictability regardless of how well it is camouflaged or entangled. To achieve the same evocativeness requires a lot of experience.
But it can though. If it couldn't then there would be no line between reality and fiction. People would think what they read in books was real. You might say on some anatomical and physiological level it looks like if it were real, but we know it's fiction. The relationship between the brain and consciousness is not well understood by science so one cannot extrapolate one to the other and make such a bombastic and rash claim that the brain can't tell the difference between reality and imagined fiction. A claim that flies against observational reality. But it's hilarious. It's the exact same as those who get off on their own characters and think they're the sexiest thing since sex. And then there's people who know details about their characters to asinine levels. It's sad. I understand feeling emotion when writing it does help. But some people take it way too far. People cry when loved ones die. Crying because a character dies means you're in love with a figment of your imagination. When you're getting wrecked, or depressed because of a fiction you're writing, a definite line has been crossed.
I haven't experienced this. I do love my characters, but I also love it when they die. I'm more in love with the story itself, and how the characters interact with it. But it may be a genre thing. My characters are secondary to the story. They aren't the story itself, their lives are created to tell the story. So through their death, their difficult situations, their flaws -- the story is driven and I'm thrilled. So I guess by that logic, it'd be pretty hard to surprise myself when one of them died or experienced something traumatic. I don't understand the anomaly of a story being created without the author's intent. Then again, I brainstorm on a whiteboard, research, character map, then outline before writing my rough draft ... so I have everything pretty well planned out before I even start to put pen to paper, so to speak.
I never thought I would end up writing about an Atheist character either. the story starts out with her father leaving in book one and in book 2 he is suppose to magically reappear. This I did take heavily from my own father's neglect...I cried for months and when I drew a picture of the character remembering her mother telling her he was gone. I thought my insides were going to be ripped apart. I think drawing your characters makes it so much worse. It brings them to life like they are breathing right beside you. I dreamed ch 4 of my novel and the words flowed and then dripped and then poured out in a very inconsistent manor. stupid writer's block lol we all have to deal with it eventually.
You're right that a line has been crossed, but it's you. It's generally not a great way to start your time on a forum by being an asshole.
I think there might be a misinterpretation of "wrecked" here. Yeah, I've made myself cry writing occasionally (actually only once I remember but there are other emotional scenes) but I'm fine when I'm done. In some cases (including the one where I cried), I even artificially emotionally manipulated myself on purpose to get into the character's head at a very difficult time in her life (and by "artificial emotional manipulation" I mean looping Taylor Swift songs for several hours and trying to think how that would sound to a 38 year old alcoholic woman in the year 2034 who used to be an obsessive Taylor Swift fan - don't worry I only did that once, but the resulting scene was great.) Different writers have different levels of attachment, and they don't normally understand each other, but the key is respecting each other. I personally am horrified by the idea of certain writers having absolutely no emotion invested in their characters, because occasionally that leads toward sadism and sadism scares me. Personally - the idea that someone gets enjoyment from the idea of people suffering and dying is no less horrifying if you're getting that enjoyment by imagining the pain of someone who doesn't exist. Thinking about human pain and suffering, in any from, should mess with you - and if it doesn't I would tend to question one's moral compass. But then again, people like George R. R. Martin have that disconnect and are able to use it to weave brilliant commentaries on the inherent violence and sadism of human nature - which I could never write because I experience guilt if I over-abuse my characters (which is not to say I don't occasionally kill them, but I can only kill the ones who I created for the purpose of dying at convenient times. I can surprise myself with a lot of plot points, but death is not one of them.) As for "being in love with a figment of your imagination"....um...we're fiction writers. We're all doing this because (at some level) our imaginary friends won't leave us the hell alone. We're all a little crazy like that, otherwise we wouldn't be writing about imaginary worlds in our free time. The ability to relate to figments of one's imagination is an essential part of the craft - especially since the goal is to get your READER emotionally attached (even, and especially, if you plan on splattering that character's brains across the wall at some point). Are there people who take it a bit far...umm....yeah...but that doesn't mean that all emotional attachment to fictional characters is wrong. If it was, there wouldn't be a market for "chick flicks"...which if done properly are MEANT to make watchers cry.
So I'm asinine and sad. If it makes me write better characters and engages my readers to where I can take their emotions on a ride then so be it. I'd rather be asinine and sad and good at what I do. Incidentally, my male MC is left handed. He also has a mole under his right ear, the size of a poppy seed and his birthday is the 8th February. My female MC never wears socks. Ever. She was born on 27th July ... Sad - but integral to my story.
Erm. Seriously? Are you considering the source of the appraisal before accepting it? Or was this sarcasm?
cutecat22 i have reached a point where i do not cry as much over my characters anymore but they were born in how should i put this a dark time. WE ARE NOT ASININE OR SAD MY FRIEND WE ARE JUST EMOTIONAL WRITERS that is all. For instance i don't give a crap about what No name slob said and thank you ben414 for giving her a punch with words. i am a nice person and i will listen to what you have to say No Name even if you make typos who cares? Everyone is human silly.
Ben414 was responding to Phil Mitchell. In online interaction, when someone (@No-Name Slob) writes something and adds an emoticon like to a post, it typically indicates sarcasm, humour or light hearted attempt at cunning linguistics. In this case, I would hazard a guess, @No-Name Slob was using sarcasm, indicating you did not need to correct a spelling mistake in a separate post to communicate a valid point or be believable.
