(no subject)

[cimorene]

i dislike the affectation that characters speak to writers.

now, i personally haven't experienced this, but among the hordes of people who say figuratively that their characters "insist" on doing such-and-so a thing that they hadn't planned, are a few kooks who, when pressed, insist that, yes, the characters really do TALK to them. "he knows what he wants, and i say, 'say "x," dammit!' and he just says 'nooooo.'"

this whole idea irritates the hell out of me. i can't figure out if they're really deluded enough to believe the characters are somehow real, or if they just absolutely REFUSE to utter the word "metaphor" for feel of stifling their creativity.

Comments

[carraway54.livejournal.com]

I do use the phrase "characters talking" metaphorically, but as ellenfremedon said, it's shorthand for a more complicated process. I write for the most part in a series of intuitive leaps, & I don't always know where a piece is going when I begin it. When I say a character insisted on such-and-such, it's a metaphor for the total process of intuiting some new emotional stance & then mentally testing its boundaries. Will this work? Is this plausible? Could I write this, or this, instead? Verbalizing something like that is difficult, & if the author doesn't feel as though she's in control of her own writing, yes, it does feel like the characters are writing through her.

Hm. It seems to relate to the degree to which an author writes intuitively or from a plan, & the degree to which she feels connected to & in control of her own work.