Today I wanted to do something a bit different. Every time I write, I come up with characters. I have learned that some of these characters are a part of me, but not all of them are. Some of them are so foreign and strange to me I wonder where they come from.
As I write this I think that maybe these characters come from my fears. Maybe they come from other people. I don’t know anyone like Dahlia, or like Stella, or like Moon. I think that maybe I am finding things around me and making them into these characters, so I can know them better. I am trying to work them out in real life so I make them on paper, I make them for you to read and learn with me.
I like thinking about small instances- scenes- where people are interacting in a moment rather than over a course of them. I feel like this is more intimate and that you learn more this way. There is more of an impact when you don’t know their whole story but you get a moment of them. That is how it happens in real life, so why not on paper? There is more of an intense liveliness, more of a zing, when you are this close to a character you don’t have the luxury of knowing.
This is how I feel about my own writing here, especially with short stories. I guess writing longer works is different. Since I have been querying my novel, I have taken the characters as bits of me. I know they will always live inside of me in a permanent way. That doesn’t mean I like them, or condone their actions, but I know that they are a part of me. This is different in that those characters are actually a part of me, instead of being part of life I am trying to discover.
It would be interesting to know how others feel about this though, so feel free to leave a comment letting me know how you feel about your writing!
-Jess Gatsby
Jess Gatsby 
September 12, 2016 at 11:03 pm
I often find that the small details (the way a person leans in or away, the way they place their hands when they are talking) are often missed in many characters; it leaves me, as a reader, with an incomplete image and they aren’t just descriptive elements (like not know their eye colour) but rather personality characteristics which make it harder to understand motives and beliefs of that character. I have found that if I write diary entries for one event (usually an event based around my plot) for each of the characters in the scene, no matter how briefly they are mentioned; I can build up better images of them and missing pieces of information tend to appear without even realising they were missing.
I love this post and look forward to reading more of your posts and writings.
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September 13, 2016 at 1:13 am
I completely agree! Honestly I think this maybe something I miss in some of my writing, especially in the shorter works on this blog. I will have to pay better attention.
Thank you for the input and the follow! Much appreciated!
-Jess Gatsby
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September 13, 2016 at 8:32 am
I followed because you have an amazing blog! Thanks for the follow back! I know I am struggling when considering my characters in flash fiction pieces for my blog, I tend to focus so much on making plot happen that I forget about them. Definitely highlighted an area of work for me! Thank you x
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