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Tip on building fictional characters

When authors talk about their characters, they often say that the characters cut themselves off from the author and take a life of their own. Some say that the characters become independent to such an extent that they begin to manipulate the plot as well. It sounds weird, and I guess it is.

To people, it may sound schizophrenic, but to writers it is a reality. To me, writing is like putting a brush in the hands of a child and watching what she does with it. The writer has to choose the brush, its texture, its thickness; but it is the child who will draw the form. In simpler words, it is the writer who plans the plot and the actions of the characters, but how and in what manner they play their part, is up to them. You have the script, they play it out. That is why there are bad movies based on good books.

If you take this thread further, writing is contradictions. It is predictable and full of surprises, it is planned and spontaneous, it can be manipulated and it cannot be.

I play my characters like this. I give a character a situation, say, she goes to bed and has a nightmare about her mother dying. Now, I let the character take over. It is her mother and she knows more about what she is going to dream. She dreams, but I tell her to dream.

In most cases, the dialogues are entirely the character’s. If you put your tongue in other people’s mouth, it is all going to sound very unauthentic. Yeah, I read the double meaning. Let it be.

The same holds true for action. I say, like God, let there be a fight (not light); and I let them jump on each other or kick each other or whatever they choose to do (which, to my astonishment, is always (always) in accordance with their personalities. Whew.).

Before you call me crazy and click away, I am going back to my book.