Get to Know Your Characters
23rd June 2016 | for Creatives | characters, writing, Celeste Ng |
"I get to know my characters like you'd get to know someone at a cocktail party. You sit down with them and listen."
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Get to Know Your Characters 2
"We get to know our characters the way we get to know the other people in our lives: by spending time with them, by seeing how they interact with others and how they function under pressure, by learning how they see themselves and how they want to be seen."
Know Your Own Characters
"Know your own characters as surely and completely as you know yourself. .... If you know him so well that he is entirely real to you, your work is done, for he will act out his own story to its inevitable conclusion and you will only have to set it down."
Get on the Page
"How could I outline the guy? I had no idea who he was. I had to get on the page and kind of feel around and talk to him and see what he could do." (on outlining vs. not and writing his main character)
The Rich Part of Your Writing
"When you're writing, you have to get really close to your subject and see the weird and unexpected 'colors' there. Even a character who's supposed to be incredibly sexy should have flaws. Even a tragic scene should have those weird moments of humor or joy. Those little details are the rich part of your writing, and the only thing language should be doing is translating what you 'see' as cleanly as possible to readers."
Listen to the Demands of the Story
"If elements of my own life sift themselves into the plot, it's because they feel organic to the story I am telling—a story that distinctly belongs to the characters and not to me. I try to listen to the demands of the story and stay true to them."