I always feel that we writers can be called Gods
of our writing universe. Have you ever thought that we writers get to play God
with our literary characters. We hold the strings of their destinies in our
hands.
We have the power to breathe life into characters and bring them to life
with the stroke of a pen, or, with the tap of a few keys. We are privy to all
their secrets. We also have the means of ridding them of their problems
quickly, or tormenting them for several
chapters or even killing them.
In our writing universe we can
do everything that we cannot do in the real world. Would we create problems in
someone’s life like we do with relish in our protagonist’s life? I don’t think
so. Do you think any of us can be accused of manipulating people in real life,
in the way we manipulate all our characters? God forbid. None of us have a
single mean bone in our bodies.
When we write, we become meanies.
We shove aside our guilt conscious, and trouble and torture our characters
mercilessly. The more we torture them, the higher the stakes rise. To make our
characters believable we add heavy doses of problems in their lives. We try to create
realistic worlds, create believable protagonists, add loathable antagonists,
generously add conflicts of all kinds, and finally resolve it to universal
appeal.
Deep down quite a few of our
characters reflect our secret desires and passions. Even the not so nice ones.
Can you believe it, I am actually jotting down ways I can make my protagonist
get into more trouble. I am ensuring that there is trouble brewing in every
chapter.
Are we writers closet
control freaks? Is that one of the main appeals of writing? To be in complete
control of every aspect of our character’s life? Or, do we love to create new worlds, new
situations and new people? What aspect of writing appeals to you all the most? Do
you like playing God with your characters? I would love to know.
My characters are proxies, bits or aspects of me given life the easier to examine their true natures so I don’t have any difficulty giving them problems to solve because that’s the whole point of the exercise. I’d have no issues setting down an exercise routine for myself so what’s the difference? The characters do to a certain extent ‘take on a life of their own’ in that they often grow in directions I might not have expected but that’s only a metaphorical way of me talking about learning new things about myself. I noticed this especially in my last novel which started out as an exploration of grief—or, more precisely, my seeming inability to grieve—but the what I ended up realising that that was only one of a number of things I struggled to do and so the character expanded as I wrote her. Yes, ‘her’. Not all my characters are male nor need to me; there is a feminine side to me that needs to be explored too.
ReplyDeleteThat doesn’t mean I’m not aware of the godlike role of the author. In fact in my novel Milligan and Murphy the two protagonists talk openly about the feeling that they’re being manipulated by an unknown… let’s just call him an interested party. I just loved the way Spike Milligan’s protagonist in Puckoon had one-to-ones with the author of the book he was a part of and that was definitely in my mind when I wrote my book not that this was the first time I’d included metafictive elements into my writing; I actually gave myself a cameo in Stranger than Fiction.
In real life I suppose I am a bit of a control freak. I appreciate order put it that way. My writing is less about imposing order though than it is about discovering another order, the natural order of things.
I've never looked at it that way. I let my characters go in the directions their stories take them. Even though I tweak things, I feel that I'm just trying to get at what the character and story are trying to say.
ReplyDeleteNever thought about it, but I guess we are playing God. And yes, I dump things on Byron there's no way I'd want to deal with in real life.
ReplyDeleteOne of my favorite quotes is this:
ReplyDelete“We can’t go back and revise our lives, but being allowed to go back and revise what we have written comes closest.” ~Katherine Paterson
That's how I feel about it, too! It's so wonderful to write whatever we want and then fix it and change things however we want.
Oh, I completely agree. We're character makers, story creators, world builders, and the like. We are Gods to our stories, no doubt about it.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your perspective, Rachna. We do all that. We create characters, we give them a hard time. We create tension, conflicts, and so much more. But, most importantly, we dig deep into the characters. We shed light on the inner folds of our human nature. We dare to pierce the parts where others are not willing to go because it is inconvenient and scary... your post is thought-provoking.
ReplyDeleteGreat thoughts Rachna!
ReplyDeleteTo a certain extent, it IS like "playing God"... but when we "torture" the characters, that is simply a reflection of real life. Every human being on this planet has to overcome obstacles/challenges/hardships... nobody is excluded.
Hi friends..most of you agree with me that we writers love to play God in our writing universe.
ReplyDeleteHmm.....its a wonderful feeling being in control of our characters' lives ;)
Have a great weekend and Happy Easter.
Gods? Yes, I've often thought of writers as Gods of their created universes. Difficult not to see them in that light, except perhaps those who say they let the characters develop and suggest the story line... not sure though, to what degree that is possible.
ReplyDeleteBut closet control freaks? No, I can't say I've ever thought of writers in that light. Interesting thought, though: maybe you are on to something!
A small universe created by the writer is no less:)
ReplyDeleteThat's an interesting perspective. Your posts always provide food for thought.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely. I create worlds--although characters do have a way of taking over--and get to write about things that I haven't done in real life.
ReplyDeleteI loved this. My characters don't always tell me all their secrets until it's too late. I love creating them and their world.
ReplyDeleteMmm... my characters wrest control from me once the story gets going, but I usually make things even tougher for them in revisions. :-)
ReplyDeleteLove discovering new worlds and characters while writing.
They say most novice writers fail to make their characters suffer enough. Putting our characters through hell is a learned art...not that easy to dream up and still be real.
ReplyDeleteReading your previous post. Happy Blogoversary!
What a thought! I have never been able to play God in my early attempts at fiction. Perhaps that's why I was never satisfied with my work. It was always less than what I intended it to be...the mortal me got in the way.
ReplyDeleteBut doesn't fiction imitate life? The degrees of suffering, difficulties, atrocities etc are not far from what occurs in real life. One just has to read about things in History. The news is full of horrendous things too.
Writers and readers...demand and supply chain! Smooth sailing is kind of boring in real life too, I suppose. A bit of conflict spices it up...a lot more satisfies, as you have said, certain desires, failures, vengefulness etc.
You have set me rethinking!
I believe we all like to play God of our stories. I do. I also learn to solve problems through the many misfortunes I put my characters through. Recently I have found out that much of what I write is a reflection of the chaos I sometimes deal with in real life. I mean, I have not met a secret society of assassins, but I do also experience fear, despair, anger, etc. Sometimes, giving and taking from my characters helps me to figure out ways to overcome my own very real challenges.
ReplyDeleteI care about my characters a lot. I really hate putting them in dangerous situations, but of course I know I can get them out of it. I'm glad it's just fiction, though. I'm not equipped to be god, lol!
ReplyDeleteI have a suspicion you might be right about authors being closet control freaks. The only problem is, my characters tend to take over anyway and it's almost impossible to control them!
ReplyDeleteIn our writing universe we can do everything that we cannot do in the real world.
ReplyDeleteYes, that's true. And for me the biggest driver is empathy. While I can't empathize with everyone in real life, I do feel in tune with each of my characters. I can truly say I feel the pain of my villain and my protagonist equally.