I'm still working on this play, and while reading a book largely about John Hughes (I know, three straight posts about him), he said that he was approached numerous times about doing a sequel to The Breakfast Club, to which he said he could not because he cared to much about those characters. It got me thinking about my current project, and to be honest, all four of my principal characters could get run over by a bus or an Asian tour group on Segways, and I wouldn't give a crack. Meanwhile, this legendary writer cares for his characters as if they were his own children.
It made me think that I need to figure out just who my characters are, what they want, and I want to care about them like John cared about John Bender. Sure, Bender was a bully, an instigator, and a criminal, but also, despite being physically and emotionally abused by his cruel father, he was smarter than any of the kids in the honors classes (even though the hardest class he took was shop), and in just 7 hours time, he could woo the prom queen into a make out and an apparent girlfriend status. You see, I care about Bender, but I don't care for my guys just yet. Well, not all of them. I just did an exercise where I answered questions as if I were Jackson Bosley, the frustrated novelist in my story, and I think I'm beginning to like him. He's a self-absorbed prick, but he's just so darned witty and fun . . .
4 comments:
You could always try making sock puppets of your characters, getting a bottle of absinthe and dropping some shrooms. Might not be a bad way to bond with em.
Word verification: herse. I did walk by a herse for sale the other day. If I had the capital for it I would be spending today turning it in a ghostbuster mobile.
I have an weird relationship with any character in my writing. I usually start by thinking they're really great and I tell them I'm going to heart them 4ever. And then I get sort of lazy. Then I get bored. Then I just don't care whether or not they ever finish stopping the apocalypse by destroying a rooftop AC unit.
So, basically the same way all my relationships work.
I think you and your characters need to spend a Saturday afternoon in detention at your local high school. And it has been awhile but thanks for the tip on Tosh.0. I have been watching it for awhile now and love it. He makes me LOL.
Igloo: I support both the sock puppet idea and the herse one. Let's make both happen!
Casey: Interesting. So the characters needs to blow up the AC unit to save the world, and your girlfriends need to do the same to save the relationship? I like it. I don't see why you have any problems writing because this stuff is gold, my friend!!
Shife: Glad I turned you onto Tosh.O! It's still my only DVR'd thing on TV that isn't mixed martial arts.
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