Favorite character?

[Pol McShane]

Question:
Is there a character you've created that you feel closest or most attached to?
I'll start by saying for me, oh yes.
Luthor.
This character is a boy born with hideous deformities to parents that are brother and sister, and his struggles to survive in a really messed up world.
I wrote the book 16 years ago with the intention of writing a "monster" story. Horrendous situations create a horrendous creature, blah, blah, blah.
The original tagline for the book was Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolfman . . That was then. Luthor, this is now.
But once I began actually writing Luthor's character, he took over the story and went in a completely different direction.
So in the end it was a story with horrendous situations that will also make you laugh and cry.
The final tagline for the novel ended up being: Within the eyes of darkness, there hides a child.
The character Luthor was so dear to me and my husband, that we named out frist golden retriever after him.
I published Luthor this year, and it was released 8 weeks ago. It's been such a cool experience to have so many people start feeling the same way about the character I love so: Luthor.

Okay, next . . .

[Violeta]

I don't know... I've got a couple I feel
closest to, I think... Or well, maybe three? xD
Can't decide, but yeah, I have them.

[VanessaNorth]

Oh god yes. The hero of the third book in my Usher's series, Cracked, is one of my favorite people I've written. He's a Xicano werewolf who grew up in LA in the 1960s/70s and has been shaped by loyalties to two cultures: wolf society and the neighborhood gangs that he ran with as a kid.

He's an unlikely romantic hero, but I loved writing him.

[AnnikaHTDC]

Aster is my favourite character in my novel. He's odd and a bit obnoxious, but he has a peter pan-esque charm that shines through despite his flaws.

[Mr Flibble]

I can't decide - I love all my MCs, even when they're being dicks. That's why I write about them.

Van Gast and Josie have, hands down, been the most fun to write though.

[NeuroFizz]

Close emotionally? No. I made them up--they are not real people. Intimately know them within their world? Of course. Have great fun writing them and watching them develop as the story evolved? Absolutely. Have any kind of sadness when the story was completed and it was time to move on to the next story and a new character? Nope. Any emotional issues when killing off characters? No. I made them up--they are not real people. So I guess my favorite character is the one I'm currently writing.

[leahzero]

Originally Posted by NeuroFizz

I made them up--they are not real people.

I find that kind of sad. Different strokes for different folks, but my characters take on a life of their own. I don't feel so much their creator anymore as their custodian. And that gives them a sense of being real people in some hidden dimension, alternate universe, or parallel reality somewhere out there.

I'm absolutely emotionally involved with them, forever. Kinda like a parent/child thing. They start off yours, then they become their own people, but they'll always be yours in some way.

[WillSauger]

Originally Posted by NeuroFizz

Close emotionally? No. I made them up--they are not real people.

*stalls, grinds to a halt*
"Sorry for the delay ladies and gentleman, the Will express has broken down by some unforeseen events"

I really can't believe what I'm hearing. I know we make them up, but we do raise them.

We watch them prosper and grow. And and of course, they are a part of us (no matter how much you might no accept it).


To the thread... My character Blackshaw. He's just a man who has always been told to do something, so he did it. Somehow it led him to rule over the known world and suffer heavily for everything.

[NeuroFizz]

Originally Posted by WillSauger

*stalls, grinds to a halt*
"Sorry for the delay ladies and gentleman, the Will express has broken down by some unforeseen events"

I really can't believe what I'm hearing. I know we make them up, but we do raise them.

We watch them prosper and grow. And and of course, they are a part of us (no matter how much you might no accept it).


To the thread... My character Blackshaw. He's just a man who has always been told to do something, so he did it. Somehow it led him to rule over the known world and suffer heavily for everything.

So, then, give the rest of my quote... " Intimately know them within their world? Of course. Have great fun writing them and watching them develop as the story evolved? Absolutely."

Are they part of me? Intellectually, yes. Emotionally, no. If the story calls for them to be killed, I do it with no hesitation. I don't mourn for them either if they die or when the story ends and it's time to move on to the next story. Excellent characterization doesn't depend on considering the characters real people, it is a talent in making them come alive in the stories. But they don't have a life outside of those stories (at least to me). If others want to pretend they are real, that's fine. I know of one writer who was so paralyzed because a story ended, and she couldn't deal with ending her involvement with that character, that she couldn't write anything else. Sorry, but that is carrying this character-love thing a little too far.

And if you think this view detracts from my characterization skills, my work is available for you to judge.

[Lhipenwhe]

Not sure about favorite characters; I tend to like them for different reasons, unless I'm writing a character to be an enormous asshole. I do have an archetype that I've included in most of my WIPs: A hot woman with a giant sword. She's powerful, calm under pressure, knows what she wants and pursues it with passion. And she uses a giant sword.

Come to think of it, I use the archetype, or a similar one, for more then one character...

[flapperphilosopher]

I really love all the main characters in my novels.... I just looove them! Even with their issues and stupid things they do. I feel really sad about the way their lives get shattered... even if I did it.

I do have one very favourite though. He first came into existence in something I wrote when I was all of 12... it was some piece of crap, but I really liked him and he interested me so I kept him around. For years and years I tried to find exactly his story but nothing took off, really-- I thought all right, just scenes to play out before bed, that's all right. I worked on other stuff but he was always somehow current, and as I got older and my interests got more literary and into deeper psychology and stuff, he deepened. I started to try more seriously to actually get the story together, and I was getting there... and then I thought, what if it's the 1920s? I don't know why that did it but it did. So my character (and his best friend/brother, who's always been around too) got his story.

A writer's love story.

[gothicangel]

I agree with Idiots and Neuro.

I love all my MC's. I do think that 'character love' is damaging. It's part of the reason why I edited the life out of my first book, and is now trunked because I killed it with love. I also think it's dangerous, as it encourages new writers not to do anything to 'harm' characters.

I've learnt the hard way to 'love' my MC's in the time that I have with them, writing the story. But I then let them go and move on.

[Raventongue]

Eek, folks- no need to diss! Unlike real people, loving a character doesn't prevent you from killing them, using them, changing them, and all the other things one does to make the book good. Nor would not loving them stay you from making them complex, likable, etc. It's solely a matter of preference.

That said, I think I fall on the "I must love all of them or I wouldn't write them" line. I wouldn't spend hours a day sequestered to write otherwise- it's not like I've nothing else to do.

[bearilou]

*sits on the bench with IRU, Fizz and GA*

They all said it better than I can.

[WillSauger]

Originally Posted by NeuroFizz

So, then, give the rest of my quote... " Intimately know them within their world? Of course. Have great fun writing them and watching them develop as the story evolved? Absolutely."

Are they part of me? Intellectually, yes. Emotionally, no. If the story calls for them to be killed, I do it with no hesitation. I don't mourn for them either if they die or when the story ends and it's time to move on to the next story. Excellent characterization doesn't depend on considering the characters real people, it is a talent in making them come alive in the stories. But they don't have a life outside of those stories (at least to me). If others want to pretend they are real, that's fine. I know of one writer who was so paralyzed because a story ended, and she couldn't deal with ending her involvement with that character, that she couldn't write anything else. Sorry, but that is carrying this character-love thing a little too far.

And if you think this view detracts from my characterization skills, my work is available for you to judge.

Well, coming from a psychological standpoint, what we write is who we are.

You won't write a book without believe in it. You won't spend 300+ hours on a book without truly gaining an attachment with something. And stemming that Characters are the number one aspect of a book, they have the greatest attachment to us as writers and they as readers.

The entire reason we write about people is because as humans, we are naturally attuned to people. What we call a "world" is only the characters who are within it. Everything is associated with characters then.

For someone to say they have no emotional attachment with their characters, that the writer will not be ambitious with the characters he/she is writing, then I'm not sure what to say.

We all have emotional connections to everything. If someone doesn't, what's who psychology defines as "Psychotic". But, stemming that you're here speaking with people with no obvious gain, you're not psychotic in nature. You're not even a sociopath. (Sorry if I'm pricking your brain a bit)

I could make this a therapy session, but I won't.


One of the most important reasons why we as reader, like a book is for the characters. We share a emotional attachment with them, thus, we wish for their well-being.
I find the best writers have a heavy emotional attachment to their characters and it shows upon the reader. If a writer isn't writing characters that they love, the characters will feel less real.

But that's my point here. I've loved all of my characters and they are all apart of me.

[NeuroFizz]

Nobody is dissing, Raven. People write in very different ways, and that includes the degree of emotional involvement a writer has for his/her characters. But to be sad, or to feel the need to stop the world because someone takes a different path here seems a bit strange to me. Being emotionally involved in one's characters outside of the bounds of a story is not a guarantee a writer will be good at characterization. Certainly it isn't a prerequisite for good characterization. But for some writers (maybe many), it is necessary for their own writing style and their own methods of character development. I can guarantee one thing--I put just as much care and attention into development of my characters as anyone else on this planet, and my lack of any need to give them emotional space outside of the bounds of the story doesn't detract from that care and attention.

[WillSauger]

Originally Posted by NeuroFizz

Being emotionally involved in one's characters outside of the bounds of a story is not a guarantee a writer will be good at characterization. Certainly it isn't a prerequisite for good characterization. But for some writers (maybe many), it is necessary for their own writing style and their own methods of character development. I can guarantee one thing--I put just as much care and attention into development of my characters as anyone else on this planet, and my lack of any need to give them emotional space outside of the bounds of the story doesn't detract from that care and attention.

Maybe that's where we disconnect, between story and real life.

Damn, this dwells deeper than anything. Ah...

I can understand the need to compartmentalize the writer and the life, and maybe that's where we differ.

I focus primarily on being a writer, as everything else comes second. Partly because of my current needs and wants.

I could see other people as writers, caring for their characters within the story, but stepping back to what they take as real life and cuts the circuit between. Partly because writing is taken more as a hobby, than a way of life for many. It would seem that you're more focused with your life, than the story and wouldn't let them "bleed" into each other.

I see it now.

And no one will say you don't give the best attention to your characters and that won't make you a bad writer. (The reader is lost 50% of the time, so even if I do my best, they still won't understand the character perfectly). But I just don't understand how someone cannot, if not the smallest--teeniest--part have a connection to one of their characters.

Anyways, we're just choosing favorites here. It's no big deal.

[angeliz2k]

Hm, it's a little weird to say I feel close to some of my characters, because many of them were real historical people.

But I identify a lot with the female MC's of both my completed WIP's. In many ways, they were very different, but both were caught up in circumstances they didn't create themselves but that they had to somehow survive. It's actually the same with my current female MC. I identify with their struggles to bring their worlds back to a place of peace and safety.

I also identify and sympathize with my character Nicole's unflinching desire to beat others at their own game. She didn't ask to be part of the plot, but she quite happily out-conned the con. Or rather, she wasn't happy about it, but she didn't feel badly about it, either. This kind of opportunism is right up my alley.

[bearilou]

Originally Posted by WillSauger

Well, coming from a psychological standpoint, what we write is who we are.

You won't write a book without believe in it. You won't spend 300+ hours on a book without truly gaining an attachment with something. And stemming that Characters are the number one aspect of a book, they have the greatest attachment to us as writers and they as readers.

The entire reason we write about people is because as humans, we are naturally attuned to people. What we call a "world" is only the characters who are within it. Everything is associated with characters then.

For someone to say they have no emotional attachment with their characters, that the writer will not be ambitious with the characters he/she is writing, then I'm not sure what to say.

We all have emotional connections to everything. If someone doesn't, what's who psychology defines as "Psychotic". But, stemming that you're here speaking with people with no obvious gain, you're not psychotic in nature. You're not even a sociopath. (Sorry if I'm pricking your brain a bit)

I could make this a therapy session, but I won't.


One of the most important reasons why we as reader, like a book is for the characters. We share a emotional attachment with them, thus, we wish for their well-being.
I find the best writers have a heavy emotional attachment to their characters and it shows upon the reader. If a writer isn't writing characters that they love, the characters will feel less real.

But that's my point here. I've loved all of my characters and they are all apart of me.

You have no idea who NeuroFizz is, how he writes, how deeply he connects or doesn't connect when he's in the process of writing. Even, apparently, when he's already gone on record and touched on it.

Instead, you are going to offer your psychological evaluation of him and his writing ability, his writing process, his psychological process, his emotional connection with his work, his family, with life...

God damn...this is astounding the number of assumptions you're making about someone who simply said, 'my characters are inventions of my imagination'. Not to mention terribly arrogant.

Wow.

Originally Posted by NeuroFizz

I put just as much care and attention into development of my characters as anyone else on this planet, and my lack of any need to give them emotional space outside of the bounds of the story doesn't detract from that care and attention.

Indeed.

[WillSauger]

Originally Posted by bearilou

You have no idea who NeuroFizz is, how he writes, how deeply he connects or doesn't connect when he's in the process of writing. Even, apparently, when he's already gone on record and touched on it.

Instead, you are going to offer your psychological evaluation of him and his writing ability, his writing process, his psychological process, his emotional connection with his work, his family, with life...

God damn...this is astounding the number of assumptions you're making about someone who simply said, 'my characters are inventions of my imagination'.

Woah, woah. Settle down. I'm not doing anything of the sort.

And I'm not making any assumptions. I'm not evaluating anyone.

[lorna_w]

I'm often befuddled at threads like this. I must be odd, for I don't really have favorite lines, beloved characters, or so forth. I'm writing as a profession, as a job (a fun job, but a job with an customer whose desires matter to me). I enjoy language. I enjoy the flight of fancy in my head that I'm trying to get onto the page. I enjoy researching details for verisimilitude. I like feeling a sense of satisfaction that I found an apt line or invented a three-dimensional character whose voice I hear clearly, and I do laugh at some of my funny lines as they come to me, but I don't get...squishy about any of it. I "love" seeing the word count mount and feeling in the groove, but that's as close to love as I come as a writer, and it's not really love but joy in the moment and satisfaction and even relief that I'm not blocked at the moment.

As I get older, my attitude about real people has mellowed. I don't hate very many people and I don't really expect people to be perfectly wonderful, just complicated and 90% hidden, like icebergs. That has led me to create more balanced characters, I suspect, neither good nor bad guys. I have four POV characters in the WIP, all a bit disconnected from a fully engaged life in their own ways, but otherwise quite different from one another, and I find them all interesting. I feel like I get them, and I hope they are doing their jobs in the novel. They'll all come to crisis because of my plot; they'll change because of the challenges I've invented and because I control that they will change. I do this because I'm trying to satisfy a reader I've never met who wants drama, character growth, and immersion in a good yarn. If the characters aren't doing their jobs for that reader, I'll erase them out of existence and replace them with characters that do a better job. I have little problem "killing my darlings", as I don't have any.

[VanessaNorth]

let's not get too emotionally attached to the idea of being emotionally attached.

Different strokes for different folks and all that.

Writing romance means my MCs fall in love, face internal and external conflicts, resolve those conflicts and live happily ever after. That means I need to find something lovable in each of those MCs to make their romantic story arc believable and "true" to the character. And, in a romance, you can't kill your hero or your heroine, if you do, it's not a romance. (No, REALLY. It can be a love story, but if you kill the hero or heroine, it's not a romance.)

So, I'm not particularly interested in being "okay" with killing off my MCs. It doesn't happen in a romance. As far as secondaries? If it's useful to the story, yeah, off with their heads and what not.

[Archerbird]

Sorry, but I have to do this...

Originally Posted by WillSauger

We all have emotional connections to everything. If someone doesn't, what's who psychology defines as "a psychopat".

Fixed, because being psychotic is not the same as being "a psychopat" (and I'll stop there).

So sorry.


Carry on.

[NeuroFizz]

My emotional attachments are to the people in my life, particularly my children. And they keep me emotionally busy, satisfied, and challenged. Writing isn't a hobby, but it is (to me) an intellectual activity of fantastic creativity. It is not my life, but it is an important part of my life. And I connect with my characters as much as anyone else, but not in the same way as I connect with my children and with other real people who enrich and fill my life. The characters in my stories do not come anywhere close to those connections, and I have no need for them to do so. I think psychologists would have more fun with people who treat fictional characters as real people than they would with people who focus their emotional attachments and emotional energy on their children, family, and friends.

But again, this is a creative activity that is practiced as a solo endeavor by all kinds of people, so it shouldn't be surprising that people take different paths to the common goal. Nor should it be fodder for deep psychological issue wrangling.

[gothicangel]

Originally Posted by VanessaNorth

let's not get too emotionally attached to the idea of being emotionally attached.

Different strokes for different folks and all that.

Writing romance means my MCs fall in love, face internal and external conflicts, resolve those conflicts and live happily ever after. That means I need to find something lovable in each of those MCs to make their romantic story arc believable and "true" to the character. And, in a romance, you can't kill your hero or your heroine, if you do, it's not a romance. (No, REALLY. It can be a love story, but if you kill the hero or heroine, it's not a romance.)

So, I'm not particularly interested in being "okay" with killing off my MCs. It doesn't happen in a romance. As far as secondaries? If it's useful to the story, yeah, off with their heads and what not.

I think Vanessa touches on an important point here. In the WIP I am writing, my MC is just about to discover that he has lost his girl to his love rival, and about to reek violent revenge against the two of them. Just because I don't feel 'emotionally attached' to him, doesn't mean I dont feel his pain, his disappointment, his need for revenge.