Characters Aren’t Action Figures
Posted by annastan on July 2nd, 2010. Filed under: WIP, Writing Rants.Yesterday, I was talking to a friend online about my WIP. Well, “talking” isn’t really the right word – “whining about” is more accurate. I was telling him how stuck and uninspired I’ve been feeling. After he asked me some questions about my story and my characters, I finally realized this: “Sometimes it feels like I’m forcing my characters to do things.” And there it was, my problem in a nutshell.
This explained why the romance element of the story has been so difficult to get right: I’ve been pretty much forcing my characters to develop feelings for one another instead of letting it happen naturally. It’s like I’d put them into an arranged marriage and just assumed they’d learn to like each other. No wonder I was feeling so stuck! I wasn’t letting my characters be their own people.
If my characters are really supposed to develop genuine feelings for each other, it has to be because they find comfort in each other or they discover something they have in common or they make some sort of connection. Ultimately it has to come from them, not from me; characters aren’t simply action figures that you can place wherever you want. If the motivations and feelings aren’t genuine, your characters won’t buy them and neither will your readers.
Of course having my characters develop genuine feelings for each other means more work for me, but anything is better than wanting to smack my head against the wall every time I sit down to work on my WIP. And at the end of the “writing therapy” session with my friend (I told him he should start charging a fee!) I definitely felt more hopeful.
So I guess the lesson here is, next time you’re feeling stuck, get a friend to play twenty questions with you about your WIP. You never know what you might discover!
In other news, check out my article for Vision Magazine on cutting characters (it’s based on one of my older blog posts). Have a great weekend!
July 2nd, 2010 at 9:01 am
Anna,
Speaking as someone who once played with action figures your post made me smile. As a boy, I always enjoyed making my action figures do what I wanted them to; although I’m not sure at that age how I would have handled the notion they might have thoughts of their own on the subject. But that sort of play is entirely unstructured with no goal or story to tell. I can only imagine how much more fun I might have had if the figures could actually have moved on their own. What sorts of things would they have said or done to surprise me or each other?
Nevertheless, one thing is certain; there’s nothing more boring than watching other people play with their own action figures. And so it goes for characters in storytelling too.
Great post!
July 2nd, 2010 at 9:10 am
Any aspect of writing is hard to make believable – and romance I think is def. hard to make so it’s not forced. I’m glad you got it worked out!
July 2nd, 2010 at 9:11 am
Firstly, MacGyver was my hero as a kid. Seriously. Every joke about our inferiority turned back to ‘If we were only MacGyver’. It helped that he’s a hockey player. Those are big in my family.
Already read your article on Visions. Wonderful. Nice job.
Enjoy your weekend.
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Congrats on the article! Regarding characters, we’re just bystanders, aren’t we? Bystanders who jot down what our characters show us. I have to sticky note this: it’s their story, not mine.
July 2nd, 2010 at 1:35 pm
What a great way of describing this! I frequently have action figures throughout my novels, too!
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:42 pm
John, I love this: “There’s nothing more boring than watching other people play with their own action figures.” That is SO true and the perfect metaphor reading about characters that don’t seem real.
Laura, since this is my first attempt at romance, I didn’t realize how easy it is for it to feel forced. Now I know!
Sheri, I was obsessed with MacGyver when I was young. I got way too excited when I saw this picture! Have a great weekend!
Andrea, I love your sticky note idea. In fact, I might have to put that motto above my desk!
Thanks, Anne! I’d never thought of it in those terms until now, but I’ll definitely keep it in mind from now on.
July 2nd, 2010 at 2:58 pm
This morning I finally reached the section in my YA WIP where the character meets her love interest for the first time. I ground to a halt and decided to take a break and visit blogs. I’m so glad I came here, now I’ll let them lead the way.
July 2nd, 2010 at 4:42 pm
This is so true, Anna, and a great perspective on things! Funny how action figures are most valuable when left in the box, but real characters have the biggest impact when they’re shared and every reader gets a piece of them.
July 2nd, 2010 at 10:18 pm
Oooo, love the idea of playing 20 questions with your WiP! I’ll definitely have to try that.
Thanks for the tip!
July 2nd, 2010 at 11:26 pm
I can relate. I was sort of forcing my plot along, too, and ground to a halt. When that happens, it’s time to let the characters breathe and tell you who they are and what they’d do.
July 3rd, 2010 at 9:08 am
Catherine, I’m so glad this was helpful. I have a whole new respect for writing romantic plotlines!
Sarah, that’s a great point. Action figures are meant to be manipulated by us, while characters must never be.
Laura M, my friend is an English teacher so he’s used to pushing people to really think about stories. I’ll definitely be using the 20 questions technique again!
Marcia, absolutely. The best thing to do is to stop pushing so hard and let things come about more organically.
July 3rd, 2010 at 11:32 am
Love the 20 questions idea! Nice post!
July 4th, 2010 at 10:56 am
Nice post, Anna, and I agree 1,000%. It IS more work – in order to let the characters develop genuine feelings for each other, the author has to develop the characters as fully as possible, and that’s hard. But it’s the price of doing business.
July 4th, 2010 at 11:58 am
But what if they don’t fall for one another?
July 6th, 2010 at 7:26 am
Thanks, Nora! It’s funny how helpful other people’s questions can be. Happy writing!
Ha, Mike it certainly is the price of doing business. Sometimes it feels like torture, but it’s all worth it, right?
Anne, that’s a scary question. What if, after all that work, they still don’t develop feelings for each other? Then maybe there’s another story there, not a romance. Or maybe the characters simply need to spend more time together so they can find things they like about each other. I’m hoping this isn’t something I have to deal with!
July 7th, 2010 at 10:13 am
Great thoughts, Anna, thanks for sharing. It’s kind of scary… the novel might end up going in a completely different direction than we imagined, but would probably be stronger for it. If our characters don’t cooperate, maybe it’s because we’re accessing our subconscious, tapping into deep meaning and archetypes, rather than our logical left brain that just wants to control the outcome.