Character Inspirations
Character focus is one of literary fiction's defining features
I write literary fiction. Kind of. My stories concentrate on character and the human condition which is only one of the defining foci of this type of writing. Elevated prose and theme are usually cited as the other two, and I’m pretty good at theme, even if it’s not terribly complicated.
I have a hard time saying I write literary fiction, because my prose is not lofty or memorable. Oh, there are sentences here and there, but mostly my style is spare. Simple but not simplistic. It gets the point across.
I’ve always been fascinated by people so it’s obvious I would write about interesting (hopefully) and vibrant characters.
But who has inspired me? Do I write based on actual individuals, or more of an amalgam of those I know, or do I completely make them up?
A little of all three of those things.
I had a choir director in high school who was larger than life and I use his presence and the fear/intimidation I felt when I’m writing a character who intimidates.
My father was an eccentric, brilliant man and lots of my off-the-wall dialogue comes from his free association of topics that eventually came back to the point.
I’m so, so, so tired of evil, shitty characters. I don’t care about them so I rarely finish the book if they can’t make me care about them. Snark is sometimes witty, but it’s often just mean. I aspire to smart and witty dialogue and I eavesdrop not to hear your business, but to listen to your cadence, observations, and asides. People are so amazing.
I do often completely make characters up and they come to me almost fully formed, as if they are real. I like this about my process. I don’t often perseverate about their motivations or underlying psych makeup. One of my step-mothers was mean as a snake, and one was bi-polar, so I’m familiar with normal human interactions and those that are altered. Lucky me. Seriously.
The highest compliment for me is that readers find my characters interesting / memorable / or that they cared what happened to them.
My next novel is about real people, and I came to know them through their letters, but then I had to imagine how they moved and interacted through the rest of their lives. I hope they like how I’ve portrayed them and I have to say I’ve fallen in love with them.
I actually have more characters than I have stories for. If anyone needs a character, hit me up and I’ll give you the basics. I think authors should share character ideas because every writer will put their own spin on them.
Some writers have more story ideas than they know what to do with. I kind of run dry on the story/situation beginnings. I also get stumped for essay topics for Substack and I love when someone asks me questions. I can answer questions all day. Help! I’m talking and I can’t shut up! Pretty much me.
Next week’s post will be about Auras. You know, the glow around people, animals, every living thing. What? You don’t see them? Maybe what I share will help you see them. It’s just energy.
I love stories that are about character. Now I’ve decided that I should try to see if my characters have an aura. See you next week.
Peace,
Jo
i don’t trust the characters or the plots of stories. i just don’t trust stories at all. That doesn’t mean i can avoid struggling with them. And it doesn’t mean i believe that i or anyone else can avoid weaving or absorbing them.
Stories are a large component of what is creating us to be human, and a major portion of what we are driven create. They must always be “handled with care,” for we are never the stories we tell ourselves we are any more than we are the stories others tell about us — or that anyone tries to tell us that we are.
Of course, even the statement, “We are not the stories we tell ourselves we are” could be a story — or the germ of one. And the distrust of stories is not original to me anymore than it probably was to Plato who told wonderfully sneaky stories himself
I appreciate the intention to emphasize character over plot. Plots, by necessity, have some kind of arc. The multidimensional realities that exist outside of our stories, but which much weave through them, have too many arcs to have any one be meaningfully attributed to it all. Characters can be given a single “arc” but only in stories that might be bad, that might be good. I do not trust stories.
Persons have many arcs. I’d wager it’s impossible for any of us not to experience all kinds of ups and downs (ins and outs, expansions and contractions) in any particular moment whether that moment lasts less than a second, across decades, or for some luminaries, across centuries and millennia. We can only be cognizant of very few of these at a time. And we can hold onto and examine them almost exclusively with only language, imagery, and symbolic patterns based on subliminal notions of space and time. Yet, long before the quizzical revelations of quantum physics, persons have always had inklings of creative forces that exist outside of space and time. And of course we tell stories about them. I do not trust stories even though I admire some just as I admire certain crafted images and strands of music. Admiration is not trust. Admiration or fear is not faith.
In life, as in crafting (or experiencing) stories we can experience joy, vertigo, or calm transcendence if we find ourselves surfing from crest to crest — or even persevering through troughs that may accelerate, may provide friction, may seem to paralyze, and may suddenly open to new possibilities. Or we may experience despondency, futility, shame, or rage. Sometimes we can choose. (But that’s ANOTHER set of stories…)
This is very helpful information for someone like me that is new to writing. Currently my writing is more about people and trends in general, and not focusing on specific characters. But if I get inspired to write that type of writing, then this will be helpful. I can't believe you actually have a painting of your character. I would never be able to get the eyes correct. For the new novel, were you able to apply your mediumship to see what these people were really like? Inquiring minds want to know.