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Reflections of a working writer and reader

A writer is someone who spends years patiently trying to discover the second being inside him, and the world that makes him who he is. When I speak of writing, the image that comes first to my mind is not a novel, a poem, or a literary tradition; it is the person who shuts himself up in a room, sits down at a table, and, alone, turns inward. Amid his shadows, he builds a new world with words. This man-or this woman-may use a typewriter, or profit from the ease of a computer, or write with a pen on paper, as I do. As he writes, he may drink tea or coffee, or smoke cigarettes. From time to time, he may rise from his table to look out the window at the children playing in the street, or, if he is lucky, at trees and a view, or even at a black wall. He may write poems, or plays, or novels, as I do. But all these differences arise only after the crucial task is complete-after he has sat down at the table and patiently turned inward. To write is to transform that inward gaze into words, to study the worlds into which we pass when we retire into ourselves, and to do so with patience, obstinacy, and joy. Orhan Pamuk

Learning to Write XXII

There is still more to be said about character. There is always more to be said about it. In the last couple of posts we have looked briefly at some aspects of character and how these are brought about. We touched on caricature and on how some figures in a narrative are merely there to illustrate a trait or to forward the action.

These are decisions which any writer has to make at the outset of a piece of fiction. What is it you want to achieve: will your character be someone who can take the fiction forward, or do you wish to illuminate a soul?

But it is also important to understand that character does not stand alone. When we speak about character in day-to-day life we refer to it in relation to circumstances. And it is exactly the same in fiction. The particular set of circumstances and the character with whom we are dealing interact together, producing a range of possible outcomes.

This is one of the main ways that character helps introduce tension into a narrative. Any character in any circumstance may remain unaltered. That is one possibility. Another is that the character and the circumstance may affect each other but with the character ultimately in control. Or your character may look as though he or she has mastered the circumstances only to be overcome or destroyed by them in the end.

These last two are most often presented in a fictional narrative, but they are by no means the only possibilities. A character can also be forged from conditions of struggle, become what he is by battling against odds that he can never alter. And then there is the character who is resigned to fate. Someone who is pistol-whipped by life and circumstance and who makes no real effort against them, the often infuriating but nevertheless complex, passive character.

Although the individual is always the real centre of importance, it is his circumstances that matter or fail to matter as they unfold and affect his character or prove to us the impossibility of his being affected.

Next time we can look at these differing characters and the kinds of circumstances that may weave around them in greater detail. In the meantime it would perhaps be instructive to reflect on your current reading and try to discover which kind of characters and circumstances the writer has given you.

Table of contents for Learning To Write

  1. Learning to Write I
  2. Learning to Write II
  3. Learning to Write III
  4. Learning to Write IV
  5. Learning to Write V
  6. Learning to Write VI
  7. Learning to Write VII
  8. Learning to Write VIII
  9. Learning to Write IX
  10. Learning to Write X
  11. Learning to Write XI
  12. Learning to Write XII
  13. Learning to Write XIII
  14. Learning to Write XIV
  15. Learning to Write XV
  16. Learning to Write XVI
  17. Learning to Write XVII
  18. Learning to Write XVIII
  19. Learning to Write XIX
  20. Learning to Write XX
  21. Learning to Write XXI
  22. Learning to Write XXII
  23. Learning to Write XXIII
  24. Learning to Write XXIV
  25. Learning to Write XXV
  26. Learning to Write XXVI
  27. Learning to Write XXVII
  28. Learning to Write XXVIII
  29. Learning to Write XXIX
  30. Learning to Write XXX
  31. Learning to Write XXXI
  32. Fictional Character
  33. How Many Plots Are There?
  34. Making Metaphors
  35. Four Walls and One Passion
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This was posted on Wednesday, February 14th, 2007 at 8:38 am. You can follow any responses through the comments feed.

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