True to Character

I don’t just listen to them, I surrender my mind.

When asked the meaning of a story, or the point I was trying to make, I start to feel uncomfortable. Perhaps there was a message or emotional wellspring I drew from as the author initially, but once the characters are born into the work, I defer to them. They may mutilate my intentions and desires in their emergence, or across the pages that follow. I love them for this act of chaos.

So where do the voices come from? Countless strands of inspiration drift from myself and my loved ones, taking little elements of truth, I twist until it becomes unrecognizable. Some obsessions, ambitions, and urges are aligned with primary motives of those close to me, others are universal, and the odd few are entirely unique to the character. With a new, raw soul in my care, I long to know the journey of how they became what they are at the beginning of their story.

There was a time when I would intentionally set character traits in opposition with each other, generating diversity by force rather than allowing each entity to develop organically. I’ve been role-playing and storytelling for somewhere between twenty to thirty years now, psychology and philosophy have always been interesting to me, and I tend to spend more time on introspection than I really should. Armed with knowledge and intuition, my creativity is adept at conjuring entirely new and fictional entities. Some might be seen as thin or shallow, but only because I don’t put enough words down to give the audience time to empathize, or want them to. In truth, every character has a place in my heart and mind.

Despite all their differences, some truths run too deep to distort without considerable conscious effort. Anyone can learn from loss with the right mindset. Victory does not mean the absence of failure. Love is essential to my protagonists. Antagonists are better when their motivations are rational from their perspective. Every character is a complex person, and also the protagonist of their own story. Death is not the end of every journey.

I realize, some of my own issues do creep in regularly, and while I might flinch as part of my truth is revealed, I’ll be honest here. I write to escape my world, in which I have little control. Most of my characters are displayed as powerful, that unique influence manifests appropriate to their individuality. I try to find what I consider a happy ending to their stories, but my interpretation of joy is likely unconventional in this regard.

Be critical of the author if you wish, but I am always true to character.