Who’s Really in Control?
When it comes to the question of characters and authors who’s really in control? Some people would argue that the author is always in control while others (like myself) are of the mind that the characters often have a mind of their own.
The Author:
One could argue that as real as characters feel they are ultimately a part of the authors imagination and therefore the author is always in control, whether this control is conscious or subconscious is irrelevant. Until you live a Stranger than Fiction moment and your character literally knocks on your door, it’s all you.
The Character:
While it’s true that the characters are a product of the authors imagination, the fact that these characters can transfer across time and space into the minds of readers everywhere makes them very real. Maybe they won’t knock on your door (hopefully I should say) but if you the author doesn’t believe their real why should anyone else?
Before writing this I would have argued fairly strenuously that the characters were always in control, and then I discussed the matter with fellow author, blogger, and friend Jordanna East who had this to say of her own experience during the writing of her novella Blood in the Past.
With Blood in the Past & Blood in the Paint, I did loose outlines, but I often found that, as I was writing, things changed. Characters killed people I didn’t know they would kill or lied when they should have told the truth, etc. Once I even found out that one character was related to another! I definitely didn’t see that coming. One went ahead and got pregnant… I have, like, 12% control.
Chief among the reasons I have always believed that characters very much take on a life of their own is because of things like this. Authors very often come up with a plan of what characters are meant to do, and then they go off and do something completely different (and in the case of one scene in Edge of Darkness something completely horrific) and we the author never saw it coming.
PS: This is totally off topic, but Stranger than Fiction is really a terribly underrated movie. Maybe it’s because I’m a sucker for films about writers (*cough* Infamous *cough*) but I really enjoyed it.
PPS: If you don’t know what the film Infamous it’s basically a better version of Capote. They came out the same year, but for whatever reason the latter did a lot better though I found it to be rather dry.
