The concept of free will in creative fiction is an intriguing one. Obviously, a character cannot be free in the true, real-world sense. A character is at the mercy of its author's omnipotence. Taking into account the entire body of work, predestination is a very clear force acting on each character. But there are certainly ways of approximating some type of simulated quality of free will. A goal of mine is to somehow free the character as he exists within the world I've created. I do this with originality. I don't use that term to self-congratulate, I mean originality as an artistic device.
Good writing does not employ roman à clef. This describes characters and events in the fiction that are literally one-to-one translations of characters and events in the real world. It is similar to allegory, but more personal to the author. At first, I made exceptions for satire. But even in that case, good satire both comments on and transcends its source material. Now, I am naturally inspired by the people I know & meet, through both their good and bad qualities, and those qualities will surely find their way into my writing. However, my characters deserve more than to be simple composites.
For me, good dynamic characters are persons. I take the inspirations I feel and the composites they derive and throw them into a character, but I feel it is necessary to go beyond that. I want to get to a sense of completion, and I need originality to do it. Each character needs its own genetic makeup.
Through styles, mannerisms, quirks, and temperaments, I can begin to establish identities that separate the characters from any real-world translations. Hopefully, they will reach some sort of individual definition. The characters can never make free choices, but they can be created from a place of freshness. I believe it's a success when they can be defined as well-developed, unique persons. Like us!
1 comment:
Sometimes a character springs up on the page, but I don't have a story for her (or him). I just have a bunch of traits and no context. So the idea that a character's free will is at the mercy of the author is pretty helpful!
A writing teacher told my class that the most important thing to establish in any story is what the main character wants--and the story is how he or she works to attain (or fail to attain it). I thought that was interesting because it sounds so simple--yet it isn't really, is it!
I was reading your dossiers for the Preschool Parable today--and I wanted to meet each character just based on the brief sketches you gave. Making such original characters keeps the writing fresh not only for the reader but also for the writer, yes? Characters like those must be fun to write about!
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