{"id":862,"date":"2017-06-07T08:09:59","date_gmt":"2017-06-07T12:09:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/?p=862"},"modified":"2017-06-07T08:09:59","modified_gmt":"2017-06-07T12:09:59","slug":"the-vastness-of-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/2017\/06\/07\/the-vastness-of-us\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vastness of Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

On February 7, 2017, Mikayla wrote, I tend to base my MC\u2019s off of myself, and I was wondering if you (or anyone else on here!) had suggestions for how to deal with this, such as precautions, tips, or ways to separate myself from my MC.<\/em><\/p>\n

The Florid Sword wrote back, I have lots of trouble with this. Usually what I do to make my MC different from myself is I take one aspect of myself, such as a hobby or a negative trait, and say, \u201cHow can I change this from being myself?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

So, for example, I like to draw. The book I\u2019m writing right now is based on my own experiences and the main character has to be kind of like me, to react in a similar way. However, I decided to take my hobby of drawing and make my character a cook.<\/em><\/p>\n

I also tend to get very annoyed by even the tiniest things, but to change that I made my character very longsuffering but also gave her a habit of exaggerating everything.<\/em><\/p>\n

Clever ideas, Florid Sword!<\/p>\n

In a way, all our characters come from aspects of ourselves, or we couldn\u2019t dream them up. Sure, some are based on people we know and characters we\u2019ve read, but inevitably, unavoidably, they\u2019re reinterpreted through our experiences and our innards. Most of you know how much I adore Pride and Prejudice<\/em>. I\u2019ve gone to Austen more than once for character inspiration, even for my MC. However, I doubt that the real Austen, while spinning in her grave, would recognize my creations as having any connection with\u00a0hers. We may not be aware of how we\u2019re spinning our characters, but we are.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re vast. We who write fantasy, and even we who don\u2019t, have entire universes whirling between our ears\u2013because even the world in a contemporary, realistic story differs from writer to writer. And the world we create in one story varies from the world in another. And we manage to people all those worlds! Though I may usually live by routine, I can, with effort, dredge up occasions when I acted spontaneously. Though I think I don\u2019t have a hair-trigger temper, I remember occasions when something has set me off like a match to kindling. Within me exist spontaneity and routine, calm and fury.<\/p>\n

Suppose we decide, to write an MC entirely based on ourselves, exactly like us, down to whether we sleep on our back or our side or eat our favorite foods first or leave the best for last, I doubt that others would agree with our representations. If we’re self-critical, we’re likely to paint a darker picture of ourselves than friends and family experience. And vice versa, if we fail to see our faults. Virtues and faults, however, are only part of it. We don\u2019t know how our faces look when we feel this or that. We rarely hear our own voices, and when we do, the occasion is special, not the ordinary. We may not be aware of how much we change in the company of this person or that, or we may think of ourselves as chameleons and exaggerate our reinventions.<\/p>\n

The Florid Sword mentions giving her MC a different hobby from her own, cooking rather than drawing, which I think is a fine idea. However, there is an underlying assumption that this MC, like Florid Sword, has<\/em> a hobby. Not everyone does. And, if Florid Sword knows nothing about cooking, she\u2019ll have to learn a little or research cooking, which she\u2019ll have to do in her own characteristic way. We can\u2019t escape ourselves!<\/p>\n

Coincidentally, in my historical novel Dave at Night<\/em>, I gave Dave a talent: drawing, because, before I started writing, I drew and painted as my hobby. I picked drawing\u00a0deliberately so that I could use\u00a0something I already knew. We don\u2019t always want to cut ourselves off from material that will make our task a smidgen easier.<\/p>\n

One more thing. Our readers who don\u2019t know us will read the character we believe to be exactly like us through the prisms of their own personalities. This is particularly true of our MCs, whom our readers will enter. Our identities will merge with theirs.<\/p>\n

I think I often do this here\u2013urge you not to worry. Above are all the reasons I think you needn\u2019t. Now for my method of building characters. I do it to a large degree unconsciously, but this is how I believe I do it.<\/p>\n

My stories arise out of ideas rather than characters. My new book, The Lost Kingdom of Bamarre<\/em>, begins Rapunzel-ish, with an abduction. (I\u2019m not giving away anything that you won\u2019t learn in the first few pages.) Lady Klausine takes my MC Perry to raise as a member of the Lakti nobility and to learn the ways of their Spartan, warrior culture. When I developed Lady Klausine I considered what Lakti mothering might be like and modeled her on what I came up with. Then I thought about how her very-tough-very-little-love method might form her daughter. Both characters grew to a large degree out of these ruminations\u2013which have nothing to do with my own past or my own personality.<\/p>\n

You can do the same. Think about your story. What\u2019s the world like? What challenges will your MC face, according to your plot as you\u2019ve imagined it so far? Who will the other major characters be? How will they affect her? In an MC, we\u2019re looking for traits that will allow her to survive but that will also force her to struggle and suffer. We can list possible traits and virtues and flaws, like greed, intelligence, friendliness, jealousy. How will this one or that one help or hinder her as the story moves along?<\/p>\n

We can see how this works in reverse and how our MCs can naturally be unlike us. Try this: cast yourself as the MC in a fairy tale or a book or movie you know really well. For example, how would you behave if you were Snow White and the evil queen\u2019s hunter left you alone in a forest? Further along, how would you co-exist with the dwarves? Would you stay with them?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s say the answer to the last question is, No way. Their cottage would make you claustrophobic. You might like them or hate them, but remaining there would drive you crazy. You like to take control of your fate. Sadly, you would make an impossible Snow White. So, if not you, what sort of character would be able to do what the story requires of her?<\/p>\n

Let\u2019s turn this into the first prompt. Write the scene in the forest with the hunter with you as Snow White. You may need to check out the original Grimm version for this. If you can\u2019t get with the program, figure out who would be able to. Put that new character in and revise the scene. In Grimm, Snow White is no more than a pawn, but make your MC more three-dimensional.<\/p>\n

Here are two more prompts:<\/p>\n

\u2219 Keep\u00a0yourself as Snow White. You can’t act as she would, so\u00a0change the story in sync\u00a0with your nature. Keep going. See what happens.<\/p>\n

\u2219 Use the characteristic that Florid Sword gave her MC. This Snow White exaggerates everything. Write a scene from her sojourn with the dwarves.<\/p>\n

Have fun, and save what you write!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On February 7, 2017, Mikayla wrote, I tend to base my MC\u2019s off of myself, and I was wondering if you (or anyone else on here!) had suggestions for how to deal with this, such as precautions, tips, or ways to separate myself from my MC. The Florid Sword wrote back, I have lots of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9,53],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=862"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":863,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/862\/revisions\/863"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=862"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=862"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gailcarsonlevine.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=862"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}