True to Character
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True to Character
What would my character do?
I want to share this quote I saw the other day.
“A lot of times as a writer you plan things out in advance. You know exactly where you want the story to go, and it’s perfect. And then your characters betray you. Like belligerent toddlers, they race off in the opposite direction from where you wanted them to go, and the most annoying part is that it’s usually better.”
It’s true. I can map out my entire story, but my characters don’t always cooperate. For example, in Guardian of Latovia, my outline for a specific section was simple. Character A was supposed to do this ONE thing that would lead to EVERYTHING else in the story. But when I got there, I realized there was No Way Character A would do that ONE thing!
My characters become real to me when I’m writing. They each have a clear voice, they are the way they are for a reason, and they grow and evolve. Each has a back story even if the reader never hears it. Even evil characters weren’t born evil. Something happened to make them that way.
In one of my books, I had to create depth to a villain. Guys, it messed with my head, because I realized most villains don’t see themselves as villains at all. And the ones who do can usually justify their villain status. Of course, there will always be the few to break this rule, but I think most villains see through jaded, selfish eyes and are just very good at twisting the truth to rationalize the awful things they do.
“A villain is just a victim whose story hasn’t been told.”
My point is, most of the time, I don’t think people mean to be villains, so how do they get there? Creating these backstories gave me a new perspective and also some new nightmares, but it’s all worth it to make the characters real.
So back to Guardian of Latovia and that One thing my character wouldn’t do. I agonized, trying to re-write the scene in my head over and over, and when I couldn’t figure it out, I just started writing what the character WOULD DO. What it led to was better than the original storyline. It’s incredible when the story surprises me! If I didn’t see it coming, hopefully, the reader won’t either.