Plagiarism Week Day Four: Creating Authentic Characters
Added 2024-12-20 11:02:03 +0000 UTCQueequeg was the only reason I read Moby Dick. Did I care about the whales? Nope. Did I care who Ishmael was? Nope again. I cared about reading as much Queequeg dialogue as humanly possible.
Queequeg: Ishmael, what is soul?
Ishmael: Soul? Well, that's a difficult question. Do you believe in God? Like a big chief over all men?
Queequeg: Like Ojo?
Ishmael: Well, I reckon so, but bigger than that, like a captain of the sun.
Melville pumped a lot of life into Queequeg. He was the brightest and most exciting voice in the entire book, and when he wasn’t speaking himself, he was inspiring the best in the other characters. It’s not easy to create a full-bodied and authentic character for fiction. You are only as competent as your observations, so fiction writers must always be watching the quirks and accents around them. What makes people unique? How does that play out in the way they speak? How do they sit? How do they move? Which habits are the most affecting and arresting?
Herman Melville is celebrated for the authenticity and humanity of his characters. He built worlds and lives according to fictionalised versions of his own experiences. He never described the world he saw. He allowed his characters to observe the world instead, so it was imperative that they be credible. It’s not easy to pour life into your text, but it’s a lot easier to achieve if you pour life into your characters.
There’s only one way to achieve that: By paying attention.
Your life is your only route to authenticity. Watch for those quirks. Pay attention to how people change and why. Give your characters time to marinate in your brain. You don’t need to tell your readers everything there is to know about your character, but you do have to know everything there is to know about them yourself. Your own knowledge will transmute itself into your writing one way or another. The subconscious is a powerful tool.
In short, you must be an expert on human nature.
Exercise
Write a short story of 500 to 1,000 words that incorporates a heavily developed character. This one is particularly important for @Woody715 @TheBadger9460 @gureag and @KaarNN
