Do your characters seem real to you?

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Steve Freeman
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Do your characters seem real to you?

Post by Steve Freeman »

Charles Dickens wrote on more than one occasion that the characters in his books seemed almost real to him (especially in David Copperfield, which has a strong, semi-autobiographical justification).

Do you find the same to be true of your characters? If you write about the same characters spanning multiple stories/novels, do you find this sense of reality to increase over time?

As you may have guessed, I feel that way about a cast of characters who span several novels I've written, and I suspect other authors feel the same way.

Happy writing!
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ecpkrys27
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Post by ecpkrys27 »

I have written some short stories, a lot of flash fictions and I'm starting my own novel. Before writing my stories, I listen to music, watch movies, look at nature (especially the trees, the clouds and the sky) or daydream. These things makes me inspired. Whenever my family travel to distant places where there are rivers, woods or forests and mountain tops makes me emerge into a new place and I begin to create a new world inside my head. Riding on the plane, a ship or using land transportation makes me see the world in a beautiful way.

Creating a new world inside my head will fade away if that world won't be created. Writing the world I formed inside my head makes me see the creation I did. This includes the characters I have created. I don't create characters that aren't real. I write not to impress but to express.

My mom often tells me not to be afraid or be scared whenever we watch horror movies. She said that I should always think that there are movie crews, directors, make- up artists, cameramen and producers around. She said that the actor isn't alone. Yes, the actor isn't alone BUT THE CHARACTER IS ALONE. I know that she is right but I believe that when a story is created, the characters are real inside the head of the writer and the director.

All my characters and even the characters of other writers are real to me. I believe that reading books or watching movies makes a person enter into someone's head and let them see the reality of the world he created inside his imaginative mind.
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[bennysmommy]
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Post by [bennysmommy] »

I have read a lot of books that I seemed to follow very easily but not a lot of them seem really real. There was one book that totally sucked me in a seemd so real to me that I've read it 3 times and i couldnt put it down. i love when authors can just reach out to you and make the character seem so real that you lose all since of time.
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TD Matzenik
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Post by TD Matzenik »

My short answer is that I would not bother writing about them if they did not seem real. But it is not that simple. My characters start out rather blurred until some aspect of the plot brings out some fundamental element in them. This is where rewriting comes in. With each draft the image of the character begins to solidify. I love extra drafts for this reason. It is also true separately of both plot and dialogue. An examination of the technique of oil-painters and their layering shows a similar approach.
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Derek Moore
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Post by Derek Moore »

I find it interesting that you brought up the example of Dicken's David Copperfield, one of Dicken's as you said semi-autobiographical characters, in your question. I've discovered that often the characters that are the most real to me are those that take on an aspect of myself. That being said, a well crafted character must be more than just real to the author who created them. They must be seen as real to the reader. I guess that is why it is so important to think of your audience when your writing.
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Zain
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Post by Zain »

To me, characters are like personas you can slip into. They themselves are not real to me, it's the idea behind them that lives and dies, that suffers and fights, that laughs and cries.
Real people - and here no offense, I count myself as well - are boring. The majority chooses to be normal, they do not want to be singled out or be the only one. Attracting attention is fine, but the three minutes of fame are sufficient. The rest of one's life is usually spent by keeping in line, or at least near the line. People care too much about consequences to stand up (still talking about the majority). They strive to be boring. Main characters mustn't be boring; they stand up, they go the roads less traveled, they reach out to their fellow beings where nobody dares to. They decide not to be boring. Real people rarely choose that option when facing major consequences.
In a way, my view contradicts with Derek's and yet fully agrees. A nice paradox. I believe that characters (if not representing stereotypes) are never like real people, but they show the audience a part of themselves. Everyday everybody can choose not to be boring. And because we do have that choice, we can see part of ourselves in them, the aspect Derek mentioned.
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Age777
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Post by Age777 »

My characters are completely real to me. If they weren't I wouldn't care enough to write their story. I also wouldn't care enough to help them out of the crazy situations they can find themselves in.
When you're wrong, your really wrong. When you're right, you're a pain in my a$$.
- by Me said originally to my hubby
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KMartin
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Post by KMartin »

I have read several books that get me feeling like the characters are real. I tend to get a little emotional when a main character dies. I know it sounds a little crazy, but it makes me feel like someone I know has just died.
Thegusyoung
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Post by Thegusyoung »

At this time, I'm about halfway through a book that is basically autobiographical. The main character is strongly based on myself, and the minor characters are all based off real people in my life. The characters seem very real to me, because they are. Last week I hit a point in the story where the main character was highly depressed after a long series of events. I put my headphones in and went for a walk, listening to the slowest and most depressing music I could find, creating a false sense of sadness that seemed too real at the time. After about an hour of putting myself in the shoes of this character, I was able to sit down and write straight from the heart, responding as the character in the most real way possible.
Almost every story I have written draws from my life, because I find it impossible to just create a character in my head. So my characters are very real to me, in more ways than one.
emmadbaker1
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Post by emmadbaker1 »

My friend and I both write books and I have realized that when we discuss our characters with each other, it's like they're really alive. My characters are most definitely a part of my life. By becoming better acquainted with my characters as if they were human beings, I find that it is easier to write about them.
marissa_in
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Post by marissa_in »

Of course
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XxBelarusxX
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Post by XxBelarusxX »

Yes very much so that sometimes I forget they aren't really real :).
Smitha Nayak
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Post by Smitha Nayak »

For all people out there trying to be writers, the first thing you probably realize when you start trying to write fiction is that it can be really easy to be bad. Really easy, and that probably sounds incredibly obvious which it is, but the problem is that we don’t really know what it is we have to do to stop being bad, which is of course, what we want.

One of the most important aspects of a book yet one of the most difficult parts to conjure is creating characters that actually seem like they would exist in the real world, while at the same time putting them in situations interesting enough for readers to pay attention. The problem is that when you’re writing fantasy, it’s so easy to get lost in your world and shift the characters from the regular citizens they started as to cartoons filled with cliche after cliche.
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Richa8q
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Post by Richa8q »

In the book I have out now, I plotted the story before I wrote it. It's an interwoven story where you see what's happening in the present and, in more or less alternating chapters, you see a girl grow up. Although I don't say it, it's pretty obvious she's one of the characters in the present. She slowly loses her mind throughout the book. She's actually a very strong, intelligent person, but she's abducted by the state as a child, her memory's erased, and she's trained to be a seductress and assassin. I wrote it so she'd be killed in the end. The thing is, I liked her so much by the end that I couldn't kill her. So yeah, that particular character became real enough to me that I changed the ending.

Richard
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K-katastrophe3
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Post by K-katastrophe3 »

In every book, almost, that I have read the characters come to life for me. They can be very relatable and fun to get to know, especially if there is more than one book featuring them. Even in the stories I have written, they seem very real, so real in fact that at time I forget they are not.
“Life isn't finding shelter in the storm. It's about learning to dance in the rain.” -Acheron in Fantasy Lover by Sherrilyn Kenyon
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