I do so little preparation for my fiction that I’m never even sure of my characters’ ages when I start tapping out my stories. But then after a few hundred words, when I’ve started to develop their voice and characters, I get an inkling they’re probably much younger than I feel confident in writing authentically. They’re adult, but of an age I left behind many years ago. Because of this lack of confidence in writing younger characters I find myself re-writing my openings in an attempt to matureify my cast. Is this a thing for any other pantser writers?
I tend not think about the age of central characters, because they are mostly variations of myself. I'm able to be male or female and can have various personalities. If I need the characters to be young , I send them back in time, to my past . Walk on characters I use actual pople , or combinations of pople . I would find it imposable to write a story about present day teenagers . I don't own a mobile phone for a start .
My current is set in the mid 80s so I was perhaps calling on my own age at that time, but I still feel like I need to age them nearer to me now. I don’t really know what I’m trying to say now. It’s hard to concentrate when in a van with a work colleague who has verbal diarrhoea!
Interesting, my character can be at any age and I hear their voice at that age. Maybe I've never grown up? Maybe you should let it go and write to see where it takes you. Some young people are very old for their age and some old people are young for their age!
This is interesting. I think I usually write most characters around my age, but I hadn't really thought about it. I guess it seems easier because right now, right at this very moment, I know so perfectly my age. So, as an experiment I set out to write a short story with young adult characters, a younger cast than I had ever created. I thought it was going to work or that I was going to have more problems with it when I did. I actually think it's a good one so thank you for sparking that idea to challenge myself. Young people are very impulsive. They need instant answers and instant solutions. They are screaming, "I'm an adult," while looking like a child. They are failing. Things seem harder than they should be. The world is unkind in ways they never felt possible. They are lost. They are stupid. And they do make for great characters sometimes. I'm not talking about YA or genre fiction. I specially thinking in terms of literary short stories with this list. It's sort of the rundown I went through before and while writing my story. Maybe thinking about these things could help you get in the right mindset like it did for me. Again, thanks for bringing up this topic and starting this thread. It took me and my writing in a way I wasn't expecting.
Well I’m very glad it’s inspired you so positively. I think the reason my characters come out younger than intended is because writing, of course, comes from the head, and admittedly I’m not the most mature person, mentally speaking.
Idk.... I have 2 short stories from the pov of kids... One WIP from the pov of a kid..... 3 shorts from the pov of middle aged men and women (the guy was contemplating his life as a terrible husband and father, the one about the woman was slowly going crazy due to a still birth, and the other woman finds a feral kid and turns him human). In another WIP of mine, the MC is 20, and in another one, the MCs are between 25 and 35 (unspecific, but "mature"). I have one written from the POV of a very, very, VERY old man at the end of his life. So i jump around. I dont think too much about age, i just write and the characters come out. I think the most fulfilling to write are the ones from a kids POV, though. I was not the most emotional/affectionate kid (my mom often laments). My 3 stories from kid perspective have been my most emotional ones (2/3 have been published, the 3rd, im still actively writing). Ones that make me cry as im writing them or rereading them. Though none of them are true stories or even based on true events, the emotions are real. Of course, i do put emotion i to my adult characters, but writing from a kid POV opens up a whole bunch of vulnerabilities and insecurities.
