Or, the Joy of Things That Aren’t There - Have you ever may a list of things that aren't there? It's harder than it looks. I realized though, that's our job...
I don't even like to call my characters "characters," because to me they're just people. People I think about as often, if not more often, than I do the people in my real life. So yeah ... fiction rules.
Seems like this post is preaching to the choir! I had no idea that people took their char-- er, people so seriously!
But it makes sense. If you need to feel the scene in order for the readers to feel it, why wouldn't the same be true in terms of believing in your characters?
Before my novel came out I wailed to my BFF of 30 years, “I feel as if my closest real-life friend is moving away.”
An early influential novel for me was Time and Again, by Jack Finney. It’s sci fi time travel, and interesting for a lot of reasons, but his main point is that we exist in this time (2026) because of our minds. And of course multiverses posit that we live in this version of 2026 because of choices.
And also, as I have blathered about in real life to you, I know I’m bringing into being another world when I write, and in this new/same imaginary world, I want a few things to be different. So I’m figuring those out.
Maybe what we write has to feel real enough for that “willing suspension of disbelief.”
Feeling real enough certainly helps with the suspension of disbelief, I would think. The more vivid and life-like the world, the more we *want* to believe. Like Sharron mentioned -- people come to her books because they love the characters and setting.
Is it magic? Probably not -- not in the strictest sense. But it sure feels like it.
I have fallen in love with three different men in stories I have written. I dream about them. I remember things we have done together. They are real if I say they are real.
I wrote a period novel (1949) about a place in the California foothills that is not found on any map, but the town and characters are absolutely real to readers who have immersed themselves in "Bartle Clunes". They often tell me so. Just saying.
Exactly! We have the power to create what's real. At least, real enough for our imaginations. Is there any greater compliment than a reader wanting to go visit a fictional place you created and meet characters that live in your dreams?
Things that aren't there ... people who don't exist ... I confess that my characters often feel more real than some people I know, and I certainly want to spend more time with them than with a few boring acquaintances - although the time pressures of writing with regularity have made me drop a bunch of time wasters. If anything, fiction makes me more selective in life!
lol - it's nice when your characters become friends, isn't it?
Sometimes, when I'm reading through a near-complete novel, it feels like I'm taking a walk through it. A familar place to while away an afternoon... lol
I don't even like to call my characters "characters," because to me they're just people. People I think about as often, if not more often, than I do the people in my real life. So yeah ... fiction rules.
Seems like this post is preaching to the choir! I had no idea that people took their char-- er, people so seriously!
But it makes sense. If you need to feel the scene in order for the readers to feel it, why wouldn't the same be true in terms of believing in your characters?
Before my novel came out I wailed to my BFF of 30 years, “I feel as if my closest real-life friend is moving away.”
An early influential novel for me was Time and Again, by Jack Finney. It’s sci fi time travel, and interesting for a lot of reasons, but his main point is that we exist in this time (2026) because of our minds. And of course multiverses posit that we live in this version of 2026 because of choices.
And also, as I have blathered about in real life to you, I know I’m bringing into being another world when I write, and in this new/same imaginary world, I want a few things to be different. So I’m figuring those out.
Maybe what we write has to feel real enough for that “willing suspension of disbelief.”
Feeling real enough certainly helps with the suspension of disbelief, I would think. The more vivid and life-like the world, the more we *want* to believe. Like Sharron mentioned -- people come to her books because they love the characters and setting.
Is it magic? Probably not -- not in the strictest sense. But it sure feels like it.
I have fallen in love with three different men in stories I have written. I dream about them. I remember things we have done together. They are real if I say they are real.
I wrote a period novel (1949) about a place in the California foothills that is not found on any map, but the town and characters are absolutely real to readers who have immersed themselves in "Bartle Clunes". They often tell me so. Just saying.
Exactly! We have the power to create what's real. At least, real enough for our imaginations. Is there any greater compliment than a reader wanting to go visit a fictional place you created and meet characters that live in your dreams?
Things that aren't there ... people who don't exist ... I confess that my characters often feel more real than some people I know, and I certainly want to spend more time with them than with a few boring acquaintances - although the time pressures of writing with regularity have made me drop a bunch of time wasters. If anything, fiction makes me more selective in life!
lol - it's nice when your characters become friends, isn't it?
Sometimes, when I'm reading through a near-complete novel, it feels like I'm taking a walk through it. A familar place to while away an afternoon... lol