On Characters and "Writing what you Know"

[jadedmetaphor]

If you've ever auditioned for a play, you may have found that you could read certain characters better than others; that some part of you related to the witch more than the spunky news reporter or vice-versa. You may have read scripts and thought *this* is the character for me or you may have got cast as someone you didn't choose and stumbled

Comments

I'm like that also. . .

[lizannewrites]

I had a mix of parts of me characters & trying to create the characters - sort of out of 'clay' but I found that when I was writing the MC and in her head because she was in mine -- that another character I hadn't planned on, popped in from somewhere and landed in the manuscript -- she was a character that really was from my real life.

Writing is amazing and magical at times isn't it? =)

[robinellen]

Yep. I've so been there (and still fight it, sad to say). I like quiet characters (to read about), but...um, I can't write them. When I do, they come out whiny or selfish. So I've had to accept that at this point in my career (such as it is), I'll have to write stronger, more confident, more verbal MCs.

[ravelda]

Very interesting. As you already know, I'm grappling with issues of voice and characterization right now. I'm not sure how different my narrator should be from me.