What do you mean by “respect my characters”?

Photo by NeONBRAND on Unsplash

A writer I once knew introduced me to a new way of looking at character.

She talked about the characters in a different way.

“She wouldn’t do that.”

Now, who she was and what that was she wouldn’t do, I don’t recall.

But she spoke about the characters as though they had an internal legitimacy.

And I think it’s a powerful lesson to writers: “This above all things — to thy characters be true.”

As a writer, you have a responsibility to be real with the characters.

Your job is not to force them to do one thing or another, but to describe it.

It’s part pottery, and it’s part sculpting.

It’s an exercise in shaping things as they play out in motion, and it’s an exercise in chipping away to relieve a form.

It’s not about plastering pieces together.

It’s about pursuing the natural.

It’s about respecting the character.

Something I learned early on — something that helped me immensely, actually — was to remember where characters come from.

I mean, you can’t connect with a character if you don’t know who they are or what their place is in this world.