the characters made me!

[contrariwise.livejournal.com]

So I was browsing at the library and picked up Janet Evanovich's^* How I Write. Right there, on page 14, an interesting passage jumped out at me:

Q: Some people say they start writing and the character tells them what's next. In other words, the characters take over for the author. Do your characters ever surprise you like that?

Janet: NO! What does surprise me is that people say this happens. This is fiction! Your character doesn't do anything you don't want him to!

You do have to be very careful never to force a character to do something simply because you think he needs to do it for the sake of the plot or because you think it's funny or because you think it's hot or it's cute or whatever. Characters have to do what they are supposed to do according to your creation of them and your plot line. The bottom line is: Writers control the story and the characters. And don't let anyone tell you different--particularly your main character.

For some reason, I thought immediately of a certain author...


^*She writes the Stephanie Plum series, featuring a spunky (but not very good at her job) bounty hunter, her wacky family, and her two on-again/off-again hot dudes. It's a fluff series, but it knows it. *g*

Comments

[dinsedaledarby.livejournal.com]

When I went to the Romantic Times Booklover's Convention last year(2006), a lot of the authors on the panels talked about the character's "talking" to them and telling them what to do. Some of them even said they had "arguements" with the characters about events in the book and the voices would tell them they wanted things to go a certain way other than what the author originally planned.
To me this sounds like a 15 year old pretending they hear voices in their head telling them to do evil things. It seems childish and melodramatic.
I am relieved to hear Janet Evanovich say she doesn't hear such voices. I read the Stephanie Plum series and it is very good and a lot of fun.

[ex-naomi-ja.livejournal.com]

It just smacks of Suffering Artiste to me - people taking themselves and their work way too seriously. LKH is Queen of the Suffering Artistes - nobody knows her pain, the hurt she experiences through her writing and her characters. Nobody else has ever suffered the way she has, godammit and why don't you like all the sex, you prude?

And so forth.