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I'm having a spot of bother with OHOP - it's not that major really, but I think I'm more than a little bit in love with Stevie, and it's affecting how I treat her. I fear giving her too easy a ride, or making her too perfect.
Does this happen to everyone, or am I being singularly weird? :)
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Comments
Always
I always fall in to love with my main characters, and usually with most of the others. Even the villains I fall into strong like or sympathy for, unless I keep them as real distant shadows.
Similar
my characters take on a life of their own. To the point that roommates in the past have caught me having multiple-sided conversations between myself and characters from stories I write. To the point of arguments and intimate scenes. Yeah.
My characters write themselves, for me. The biggest example of this is Devin Scroggs. She was supposed to have a single panel, so to speak. She was supposed to be satisfied with being the bored teenage girl that answered the door to Jeff and Emily at Katarina's house in Family Tragedies and Secrets. But nooooooo. She became an established character and has now migrated over to Sk8r Grrls.
door stepping characters
a few are making their way into OHOP - Ashley the department store assistant has now made two appearances, has a third in the next but one part, and ends the series with her own little sub-plot (that could build into something bigger in 'OHOP2'), Phil the creep from the postroom has been ushered out of OHOP but could make a return in 'OHOP2' or in an independent story, and there's the cheery supermarket cashier who's just reappeared in part 18, tho we haven't really learned anything about her, oh and Edna Green, and Tall Paul... by the time get to the end of OHOP it's going to have a bigger cast than the Simpsons :)
Oh wow! that all sounds
Oh wow! that all sounds great, can't wait to read it!
Pleione
a brief teaser
the first line of the next part is 'Stop mucking about with my knickers'.
How strange.
My wife has just said exactly that to me not 2 minutes ago. Ceri must be psychic.
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Ok I admit it. I'm lying :)
Geoff
In My Stories
Each character has developed their own unique lives. That is why it's hard to post at times the story because of the ongoing conflict in the story. I know it'll be resolved, but at times the characters don't.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Repeating vs Non-repeating
I find it easier to be unkind to characters in one off stories, either in what happens to them and/or how unlikable is the character.
However, in the character's I have revisited, there are some trends where I ease their existence. Firstly, with neither Drake (magic) or Sascha (sci-fi), their change from male to female a driving force of the stories, instead of creating conflict, it causes confusion. Because of this, their conflicts do not come as either emotional or physical betrayals by family or friends, instead enemies are enemies. Finally they have both been imbued with significant amounts of resilience, in fact the first working title for my Merchant series was Adaptable.
Interestingly enough, there have been a few cases where people interpreted something happening to a character in a much more negative light than I saw it. Though that is likely a good thing, as it shows the reader is caught up in each step, while I am documenting the entire journey.
Identifing with the character
A point I've made before, when a writer is surprised at our (the readers) reaction to events; the author may know where a story is going but we don't. We have to take events as they unfold, we don't have the luxury of knowing how the story comes out.
As a writer, I do identify with some of my characters. I've come to the conclusion that is why I'm stalled on my K&K story, I can't bring myself to do to them what the story plot requires me to do.
Karen J.
"Being a girl is wonderful and to torture someone into that would be like the exact opposite of what it's like. I don’t know how anyone could act that way." College Girl - poetheather
“When a clown moves into a palace, he doesn’t become a king. The palace becomes a circus.” - Turkish Proverb
If you have many characters
keep a note of who they are, it's embarrassing if you have to read from the start to remember who such and such was. I write mine in a little note book. Bike has three pages of them.
Angharad
Angharad
I don't see a problem
with developing special feelings for a particular character; some of my stories have become shorter because of the way I feel about him or her and some have been longer. A good editor will often kill off sacred cows and let you know if things are getting out of hand.
SD, which is still far from complete, started life as a short voyage of discovery about 20 pages long; now it's up to 250 pages and there's no sign of completion. My muse, which controls most of what goes on around here, keeps finding obstacles to put in the lead characters' path, so they aren't having things all their own way by any means.
As for falling in love with a character, it's perhaps natural to make your heroes a bit more heroic and to make the villains eventually either get their come-uppance or see the light.
I don't have an issue with your writing, Ceri; I'm sure your editor(s) and, indeed, your readers would soon let you know if they spot you developing a liking for rose-tinted specs.
Regards,
Susie
Weird? You?
How could you possibly be weird? We're all perfectly normal, sane people here, aren't we?
As to falling in love with your characters, what's so strange about that? I mean, I'm in love with Stevie too or I wouldn't be interested (desperate, panting) in reading about her. I love some of my characters too, most of them in fact, and I hope there are a couple of readers out there who at least feel a sneaking affection for them. After all, it's much easier to recycle them than to create new ones for every story :-)
Joanne
I sympathize with Karen_J
I have seen much of her next several parts of the Kari saga and her intentions look great.
The problem is, the plot as I’ve been told, pretty much compels her to bash one or more of her beloved characters, and pretty hard too.
I have a similar problem. I have a habit of bringing in characters as foils to my heroine Joanie in Timeout but somehow at some critical juncture they have an epiphany and redeem themselves. Or I’ll try to bash the crapola out of my heroine Joanie but it doesn't work. I have killed her at least once, honest, and she keeps coming back!
The extreme shift in loyalties and friendship in Timeout – Pinky going from an enemy to one of her closest friends and confidant -- is justifiable I believe because she/they are mostly kids and they do have their emotions all over the place.
By contrast, in my one-off stories, or stories I’m not certain I’ll come back to, it is easier to keep the nasties nasty and even kill off characters.
Saw Disney’s Bambi at a drive-in theater a very tender age and I think it warped my brain to prefer happy endings.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
I hear that John...
And, I kinda prefer happy endings myself. I think that's why what ended up getting posted for "Comming Out" had a bit that was less unhappy. I think it's also that in most ways, I've lived a decent life. If/when things turn darker for me, my writing may well take a darker turn.
Annette
Identify - sometimes...
Happens most often when I use part of my own personal experience and/or philosophy, etc. to build the character. I intended to avoid this in Hidden gifts, but I succombed, and put part of myself in a character or two. (Some was not originally planned, but it worked out that way.) I think part of the reason is it's easier to write/describe reactions that are yours, sometimes.
Now, I wonder who'll (if anyone cares to even try) guess which parts of which characters are more closely from my background... (I may want to go back and try to take a look myself, come to think of it.)
So, to make a long answer, longer, I guess I have to say I do identify with some of my characters. I don't THINK I've made things easy for them though, and will endevor to treat them fairly. Hopefully my editors will reign me in if I do start to make one or more of my characters "superman/woman"... (Well, unless I start writing a superhero story about such a hero.)
Annette
You all are so damn intelligent and ..
thoughtful. It's intimidating.
But please remember when you write in acronyms that there is a tiny minority who probably does not know what OHOP means. So if you want to continue talking only to each other writing in acronyms is an excellent method.
marie c.
marie c.
Duh yup, dat's us-
Smart!
OHOP if I'm not mistaken is a pancake house. Or maybe a 2nd Dynasty Egyptian pharoah...
No, it's the name of Ceri's story. On Her Own Petard. Not some geeky acronym,
(most of them baffle me), nothing anyone would know who hadn't read it.
It's a great series!
~hugs, Laika
Well shit, I guess it really CAN happen here..,
.
someone's angling for a hug
finally got down to work on it today, and should have the next part ready to post tomorrow (it's quite short, but I need to iron out a plot thingy before going any further).
TTFN
OOOOOOOOhhhhhhh
Plot thingy. I luv it when you get all technical like that.. ;0
When ironing out a plot thingy ...
do it on an ironing board and not on your body.
A coworker used her steam iron to touch up a sleeve while wearing the blouse. She has a minor iron tip shaped burn on her arm from it. Naturally, as caring, loving coworkers we hardly ever bring it up in conversation, certainly not more than a few dozen times a day, right, Sandy?.
John in Wauwatosa
P.S. I pledge never to use acronyms again. TTFN ROFL FDIC AARP
John in Wauwatosa