23^rd July 2005

Your Characters Your Writing

This was a revelation to me when I discovered it. For ages I had written about people who shared lives, and inhabited situations just like mine, but for some reason I’d failed to see the direct link. Instead, I preferred to believe that these characters, their environment and the day-to-day that made their lives ‘as mine’, were purely the result of my creative imaginings – and that was all folks.

Then, one day, I consciously sat down to write a scene involving a character who’d had an experience just like mine, and my fictional writing appeared transformed. No longer was the writing about imagining every aspect of the character and then playing out their imagined behaviour across a myriad of situations – this came as a relief. Instead, it became about finding the best way to represent the thoughts, feelings and actions of a character that was more familiar to me. No longer did I have to describe everything as if describing it to myself. I could write confident in the knowledge that the actions I depicted provided an insight into the character - how we act is how we think and feel, is who we are.

My point is two fold really.

It isn’t always necessary to write about what you know but you can gain confidence in what you write by knowing yourself.

Writing about what you know doesn’t prevent you from writing science fiction, horror or non-contemporary tales. It’s usually the characters that tell the story, if you know your characters it’s likely that you’ll write more convincingly about them; even if your book happens to be set on another planet in the year 3005. And that, really is all folks (smile).

© editor@unheardwords.com, 2005 (all rights reserved)

Comment, Answers, Feedback WriteIn or email editor@unheardwords.com (editor@unheardwords.com)

  Back to Top,   Return Home,    Visit Feedback page...