Into the Fire

Passionate thoughts about the world of writing and the Power of God

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Passionate: right or wrong. Writes love stories with a passion. Raw Romantic Redemptive

It can change things . . .

 

Personally knowing the author of the novel you're reading can change things. That is if you're not a close friend of theirs. You can't help but wonder just how much of them is in the characters with whom you're spending a lot of time. Is that how they think about that subject or is it really the character? Ooohh, that dialogue reminds me a lot of what I heard them say when we were talking . . .

I don't pretend to exclude myself from my characters. Just how much of me is in each one hopefully shall remain a mystery to all but my most intimate friends and relatives. Those composites of people that make up our lives through the ages mesh and mingle and form into "real" people on the pages of stories along with ourselves. We can't really hide. We're there in some capacity. How much is up to us.

How much of yourself do you allow people to see and experience in the words of your novels?

 

Father, you create the stories. We're often just along for the ride. In the Name of Jesus, Amen. 

 

Postscript: My computer is down. I'm borrowing my husband's laptop. It will be a strange long ten days or so.

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6 responses to “It can change things . . .”

  1. Jessica Thomas Avatar
    Jessica Thomas

    There’s a lot of me in my characters, but it’s amplified, toned down, turned upside down, mixed up, stirred. I don’t mind putting those pieces in, but I don’t want any of my work to be autobiographical. There will always be pieces of me in there, but it will never be safe to say, “This character is Jessica”, and if someone tries to pin me on a character, I’ll just chuckle.

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  2. BK Jackson Avatar
    BK Jackson

    I don’t see how our characters cannot be made up of who we are and our experiences. Regardless of whether the character lives in a time, place, or has an occupation different from me, if they come off the pages as real and 3D, then they are also confusing and sometimes don’t know their own mind (not the exclusive territory of women, no matter what men say. LOL!). Even the worst villain in our books is someone we ourselves draw from–because there’s not one of us who has never had an evil thought.
    And books would be pouring if we didn’t pour our ‘real’ into it.

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  3. BK Jackson Avatar
    BK Jackson

    uh…that’s books would be BORING…. 😎

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  4. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    Jess and Brenda, I agree: we’re there.
    I’ve read four novels in a series and am now reading the fifth. I met the author before reading this one, and I can see a lot of him in the main character – or what I perceive him to be. It’s interesting and it does change some things . . .

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  5. Brenda Anderson Avatar
    Brenda Anderson

    I remember when I handed my very first (& very rough) manuscript to my first readers. I was terrified that they’d see me in the characters–they’re not at all like me. At least that’s what I thought then, but when I reread that novel and when I look deep into my other novels, I see so much of myself. It’s rather frightening to acknowledge that. Writing does have a way of exposing our hearts.

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  6. Nicole Avatar
    Nicole

    True, Bren.
    It can be intimidating because in all truth the characters come from somewhere inside all of us. Yes, we observe and capture, see and borrow, and then we draw composites of others and ourselves. We cannot leave out ourselves or we would be presenting facsimiles which bear or bare a psuedo-reality – one we can only guess exists.

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