Is the Character Me? Yes! And, no!

Jeff Cohen

A person who publishes a book willfully appears before the populace with his pants down.

--Edna St. Vincent Millay

It's always fun to get questions from readers. Really. When a reader asks an author a question, it shows an interest in the work that's gratifying. And to be honest, there are few things that are as fragile and hungry as an author's ego. So all in all, it's a win/win situation when a reader asks an author something about a book.

The most frequently asked question I hear is the one that's most difficult to answer. Readers who read any of my books, from the first Aaron Tucker novel to the latest Haunted Guesthouse mystery will ask, "Is the character you?" or "Did you really..." about any given incident or action in the book.

And when asked, I always answer that no, nothing in the book has ever really happened, and I make up every word that appears in every piece of fiction I have ever written. And that is entirely true. Is the character actually a version of me? 

Now, that question is trickier.

Let me begin by saying that, no, none of the characters I have ever written is me. Not entirely. I have never set out to write myself into any of the stories I've concocted. I don't consider myself either an especially heroic or villainous person, and wouldn't ever portray myself in fiction as unimportant nor mediocre (see comment above re: ego).

But to say that an author can ever create a character who is not part of his/her own mind is to misunderstand the process of creative writing. In order to make a character breathe on the page, no matter how successful one is to do so, a writer has to think for that character, to understand what the character's purpose in the scene might be, and what that character would think its purpose might be, and what wants and needs the character would bring to the moment.

In other words, if you can't get into the character's head, you can't possibly write the character convincingly.

Remember this: Every character an author writes--EVERY character--thinks the story is about THEM. Characters, after all, don't know they're in a book. They think they're living their lives and dealing with the situations thrown at them. Any time a character acts in a way that betrays it's at the author's convenience, that the plot is driving the character's actions (and not the other way around), the author doesn't know the character well enough and, frankly, isn't doing his/her job.

Every story you've ever written and every character is each of those stories is the product of an author's imagination. And if you think that's anything other than an act of amazing, idiotic bravery, you've never tried it.

Any person who has ever been silly enough to write down his/her imaginings and then dared to ask others to read it has taken a chance. We all fantasize; we all daydream. Everybody asks, "What if..." inside his/her mind at some point or another. It's those of us who feel the inexplicable urge to communicate those fancies to others who must be in some way demented. We are asking total strangers to understand those thoughts we have that we don't completely understand ourselves, and to love them.

So is that me on the page? Sure it is. Because there's no way I could have written those words if I hadn't thought of them first. It's not possible to create characters who have no relation to your own thinking. Do we act on all the thoughts we write down? I hope not--Hannibal Lecter is a fictional character, after all--but don't think for a moment that the characters we write are completely outside our own selves. 

Because they have to come from somewhere.

Comments

[Lynne Patrick]

Jeff, this is just about the best analysis I've ever read of character in fiction! Can I quote you next time I'm asked to run a creative writing workshop on the topic?

[Jeff Cohen]

I would be honored, Lynne.

[Jeff Salter]

Terrific article.

[Storyteller Mary]

You almost make me wish I were still teaching composition to my high school sophomores -- I definitely wish I'd had this elegant and thought-provoking analysis for them, and for the literature classes, too, come to think of it. I guess the next best thing will be to link on FB for my former students . . . Thanks!

[Jeff Cohen]

Thanks for the comment and the link!

[Cindy Sample]

Terrific post, Jeff, and so true. In my latest WIP, the victim refused to die, so I upgraded her to a suspect and let her run with the story. It was a bit chaotic but definitely ended up far better than I envisioned. Hopefully my editor agrees with me!