Characters
Oct. 1st, 2020 01:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
plonqI got a comment recently on a story that I posted late last year. I was genuinely pleased and surprised to get a comment on the story - especially a positive one - given that it deals with dark themes like homophobia and workplace violence. Also, posting a furry story on AO3 is like posting into a void - it has a very minor presence there. Finally, the story drifts between drama and comedy, so I imagine it would be a tough read if one favoured one over the other.
One of the things that this person mentioned was that they felt like the characters in the story felt very real (I mean, within the realm of them being anthropomorphic animals).
I admitted to them that part of the reason for that is because most of the characters in the story are based on real people. I have found that the easiest way to bring a person to life in a story is to base them on a real, living person. I change the names and situations, but the voice and personalities are plagiarized from real, living beings.
I remember hearing a radio interview with an author many years ago who, when she was praised for the same thing (having believable characters), admitted to the same thing. She said that the characters in her stories - good and bad - were based on real people. She warned, "meeting me in person is tacit permission to appear as a character in one of my stories. The more of an impression you leave on me, the more likely you are to show up."
(For the record, it's this story. It's probably the most ambitious piece I've written to date, so I've always considered it more of a passion project than a story that's likely to garner broad appeal.)
One of the things that this person mentioned was that they felt like the characters in the story felt very real (I mean, within the realm of them being anthropomorphic animals).
I admitted to them that part of the reason for that is because most of the characters in the story are based on real people. I have found that the easiest way to bring a person to life in a story is to base them on a real, living person. I change the names and situations, but the voice and personalities are plagiarized from real, living beings.
I remember hearing a radio interview with an author many years ago who, when she was praised for the same thing (having believable characters), admitted to the same thing. She said that the characters in her stories - good and bad - were based on real people. She warned, "meeting me in person is tacit permission to appear as a character in one of my stories. The more of an impression you leave on me, the more likely you are to show up."
(For the record, it's this story. It's probably the most ambitious piece I've written to date, so I've always considered it more of a passion project than a story that's likely to garner broad appeal.)
no subject
Date: 2020-10-01 08:21 pm (UTC)You treat it as an exploration into a topic and the personalities of the characters, so it doesn't come across as forced or like it's supposed to be one exact thing. It's a natural, fluid story! And any story is always experienced by someone, so the light-hearted stuff feels quite a bit like it's just how the main character sees things. It ends up working pretty well. (In fact, that kind of thing is why I prefer books to movies. For movies, I'm sitting there the entire time judging the actors' abilities to show the correct emotions at the right times. With books, I feel like I'm getting a glimpse into a character's thoughts, feeling the world how they do. It's way more informative.)