Becoming Emotional Over Characters (Positive and Negative)

[Brayon]

I'm currently writing an Interlude chapter for my story Aeris - Guardian Force, in which I discuss what happens to the character Doctor Shane Thomas. I'm finding myself being impartial and being overly harsh writing about this character. I've mentioned a few times that the story of Aeris is based on my RPG days and our Tabletop sessions. The character Doctor Shane Thomas is a version of a doctor that helped us in these adventures. Kind, passionate, dedicated, and my character in the game did sleep with him. But it was all a lie. He played us, and dropped a ten-ton hammer on the group, and screwed us over. I took some elements of that for the story that I've been writing for GA. Now, while writing the Interlude, I'm trying to be dispassionate, but I am failing. Miserably. So, my question for my fellow Authors is this:

 

How do you separate your emotional self from the characters you write? What process do you do to not let personal bias bleed into the story?

Any advice would be helpful. Thanks.

Edited June 15, 2017 by BHopper2
That Typo Demon again.

[Puppilull]

I would say I do the opposite. I try to push my emotions as much as possible into the characters I write. How else would I get them to come to life? But then again, my writing is driven by the characters, so they need to be people. And people are full of emotions, good and bad. 

[MrM]

4 hours ago, Puppilull said:

I would say I do the opposite. I try to push my emotions as much as possible into the characters I write. How else would I get them to come to life? But then again, my writing is driven by the characters, so they need to be people. And people are full of emotions, good and bad. 

 

I agree with Puppilull in that part of becoming an author of fiction is to become your characters. You need to enter into their flesh and live their lives because you are their creator and their soul.

 

To make characters convincing you sometimes need to bleed for them. Sometimes when I write a particularly difficult piece I'll have to take a break for a day or so to regain my 'self' and come out of my character. So, you can't be dispassionate. You need to be dispassionate when writing an objective piece on fact based non-fiction. But with fiction you have to do the opposite and live, breathe, love, hate, and, again, bleed for the character.

 

Currently, I'm writing a very anguished episode in my Snowflake story and it's taking me longer because I have to take breaks so that I can keep myself from falling into Depression over it! It's easier to write the comedic and love parts because I love my boys so much and hate to see them in pain.

 

Now, to create a character that is a villain or someone that may be the opposite of who you are as a person you'll, perhaps, need to delve into your darker self and picture what you would be if you didn't choose to be good and kind. My Dark Side is very dark indeed and my introspection over the years has exposed the monster that I could have been if I 'let myself go'. I also can pull experiences from people who have hurt me over the years and who revealed to me, despite themselves, why they had chosen the Path of Pain. 

 

Enter into the skin of Dr. Shane and see why he has allowed himself be turned into a betrayer and manipulator. Such people often have suffered that very same evil and rather than fight it they decided to become that. If you can't beat em, join em, etc.

Edited June 16, 2017 by MrM

[Former Member]

5 hours ago, MrM said:

 

I agree with Puppilull in that part of becoming an author of fiction is to become your characters. You need to enter into their flesh and live their lives because you are their creator and their soul.

 

To make characters convincing you sometimes need to bleed for them. Sometimes when I write a particularly difficult piece I'll have to take a break for a day or so to regain my 'self' and come out of my character. So, you can't be dispassionate. You need to be dispassionate when writing an objective piece on fact based non-fiction. But with fiction you have to do the opposite and live, breathe, love, hate, and, again, bleed for the character.

 

Currently, I'm writing a very anguished episode in my Snowflake story and it's taking me longer because I have to take breaks so that I can keep myself from falling into Depression over it! It's easier to write the comedic and love parts because I love my boys so much and hate to see them in pain.

 

Now, to create a character that is a villain or someone that may be the opposite of who you are as a person you'll, perhaps, need to delve into your darker self and picture what you would be if you didn't choose to be good and kind. My Dark Side is very dark indeed and my introspection over the years has exposed the monster that I could have been if I 'let myself go'. I also can pull experiences from people who have hurt me over the years and who revealed to me, despite themselves, why they had chosen the Path of Pain. 

 

Enter into the skin of Dr. Shane and see why he has allowed himself be turned into a betrayer and manipulator. Such people often have suffered that very same evil and rather than fight it they decided to become that. If you can't beat em, join em, etc.

You hit the bulls-eye!  

[Dolores Esteban]

I need a connection with my characters, too, the good and the bad ones. I once wrote a villain. He was hard to write because I hated all he did. I finally decided to punish him in the end and until then just follow his ways. This helped a lot to free my writing. My villain actually surprised me with his level of intrigue. He got his punishment in the end, although he would have liked to get away. I actually pitied him.

[Brayon]

I appreciate what each of you has said, and I do agree with it. In order to make the characters live you do need an emotional connection.

 

However, what I was trying to ask is this. For this particular character, I the Author have baggage from when I was a Player in the RPG, and absolutely HATE this guy. Yeah, his betrayal was that bad, that even when my RPG group of players gets together and we talk about that game, its brings up heated discussions about the guy. I guess it may sound odd, that I got so immersed in my RPG character, that I have really strong feelings about the guy. It's funny really, how we can connect to Stories, Video Games, Immersive Storytelling RPGs, and the experiences we take away from them.

 

It's this baggage I got as a Player, that when writing the Narrative of our shared storytelling game, as the Author I'm having issues shedding these emotions in order to do justice to the Story being told to you. So, that's what I was asking mainly. If you had a Bias going into a story because you are drawing from experience, how do you separate it from the story overall?

 

 

P.S. I know how loony this makes me sound, more than my normal disabilities. LOL

[Dolores Esteban]

Okay, I have a clearer picture now. I once had a tough situation at my job and my negative emotions showed up in parts of a piece I was writing at that time. Those parts were not well received because readers couldn't relate to the harsh words, understandably. What you can do: a) give up on the piece entirely, b ) write the piece, put it aside for a considerable amount of time, then edit and tone down, c) change the name of the character and the setting in order to detach yourself while writing the piece, put it aside, then edit and rewrite. Never publish the story shortly after writing it.

Edited June 16, 2017 by Dolores Esteban

[Brayon]

6 hours ago, Dolores Esteban said:

Okay, I have a clearer picture now. I once had a tough situation at my job and my negative emotions showed up in parts of a piece I was writing at that time. Those parts were not well received because readers couldn't relate to the harsh words, understandably. What you can do: a) give up on the piece entirely, b ) write the piece, put it aside for a considerable amount of time, then edit and tone down, c) change the name of the character and the setting in order to detach yourself while writing the piece, put it aside, then edit and rewrite. Never publish the story shortly after writing it.

 

That's some very good advice. I believe I may end up skipping it and coming back to it later. Thank you.

[hoaluu]

Oh my... I have to admit I hate Thomas since he first appeared. I wish he just went somewhere and never be involved in the story. At one time I even thought of asking you: Is he Aeris's true love? He cheated on his husband and blamed Aeris for his (divorce)? That's not logical. I only relieved when Will appeared  He's totally opposite to Mr Cheating. 

 

But... you know... this is kind of like spoiler.......

[Brayon]

25 minutes ago, hoaluu said:

Oh my... I have to admit I hate Thomas since he first appeared. I wish he just went somewhere and never be involved in the story. At one time I even thought of asking you: Is he Aeris's true love? He cheated on his husband and blamed Aeris for his (divorce)? That's not logical. I only relieved when Will appeared  He's totally opposite to Mr Cheating. 

 

But... you know... this is kind of like spoiler.......

 

Just a wee bit of a spoiler... lol, but:

 

Spoiler

No, Shane was never intended to be Aeris' true love. Though, Aeris does let his guard down around him a lot. There's a reason behind that, and it's nothing to do with Aeris' personality either. If I do the Interlude on Shane, that will come out.

 

 

[mastershakeme]

On 6/15/2017 at 4:23 PM, Puppilull said:

I would say I do the opposite. I try to push my emotions as much as possible into the characters I write. How else would I get them to come to life? But then again, my writing is driven by the characters, so they need to be people. And people are full of emotions, good and bad. 

 

Yay!!!

 

You know what? I saw this post and got nervous for @BHopper2... I'm currently in the midst of writing... and there's a HELL of a lot of shit going on in my personal life... and to top it off? I don't know if I should really mention it, but I'm in a weird romantical relationship (solely on my half ) with a beta on another site... And yeah... It's bleeding into my writing. He likes me and respects me and but doesn't want to ruin our friendship!!! 

 

Omg, I fucking live and breathe drama. Shit! There's going to be a FIGHT in my next chapter!!!!

 

So, Idk, if my story is good, I guess it pays off to sometimes add some real life shit into your stories. It makes it real.... People eat that stuff up, or I do anyway. I'm obsessed with reality TV  I've grown a little bit (ROFL!) but I was into that Twilight bullshit as a teenager. I'm just gonna shut up. I'm fucking embarassing myself.

[Dodger]

I don't know how anyone can write about a character and explain his or her feelings/emotions, without first becoming that character, at least for a while. I have no trouble getting into a character, it's getting back out again that's normally the problem. It's all good fun though when it's only a hobby! I don't take myself too seriously.

[Brayon]

On 7/9/2017 at 6:57 PM, Dodger said:

I don't know how anyone can write about a character and explain his or her feelings/emotions, without first becoming that character, at least for a while. I have no trouble getting into a character, it's getting back out again that's normally the problem. It's all good fun though when it's only a hobby! I don't take myself too seriously.

I can agree with this.

 

As both a Writer and an avid Roleplayer, being able to connect with a character is key to making the story come alive. One of the longest running Pen-and-Paper Role-Playing Game I was a part of lasted over 7 years. (Before our Gamemaster passed away.) We played weekly, and sometimes 3 or 4 times a week. Just depended on people's schedules. It was a very intense, realistic, game for us. Even though, characters came and went, the same storyline persisted with many different arcs. I have a lot of fond memories from the game itself, and just the interaction with the other players. Yeah, we had rules, dice, a way to measure the success of actions taken, but the story came alive for us.

 

When I started this thread, it was mainly about excess emotional baggage surrounding characters, but I've learned a lot of insight from you other writers. Thank you all.

[William King]

There is lots of good advice here about dealing with writing a character from real life with whom you have strong emotional involvement. I can't add to it. The characters in my books develop with the story, as the book progresses, they get deeper, evolve, and change. I get very emotionally involved in my characters and what happens to them, but they have a life of their own. These characters may borrow bits of real life and real experiences, but they are never entirely, or even to any great degree, based on someone I have known. If that were the case it would be more biography than fiction. Having said that, I can well understand using the character in a story to explore and expunge real life experiences, taking them down different paths to other destinations. So if there is any advice in here, it would be to take a chunk of the real person and real experience to explore in the novel with the character, but not all. How much is for you to decide.

 

[metajinx]

I admit to having baggage with the character "Noom" from one of my stories, due to him also being an RPG character and the player treating me like crap. I somehow managed to leave that part out of my story by simply wanting to show readers what happened before all went down the crapper, to get them into the same headspace that I was in when we first played that story. You can't get people to hate someone if you don't pull them in and butter them up to like him first At least that's what I told myself. Real hate needs soil to grow in. If you make your Doctor too obviously evil, it won't hurt the readers if he dies, but it also won't move them as much. If you want the betrayal to rip them off their seats, show them how it really went down.