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Do your characters know that they're not real real?



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Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:52 am
pudin.junidf says...



Well, I don't talk to my characters they talk to me, lol. THey know they are not real because I can control them, but sometimes they just come to my head and show some pictures and I have to start writing before the picture goes away. And what I basically do with them is try to place them in my everyday life and in that way I know their tates, their likes and dislikes, etc, etc.
So that's how they now they're not real I have to lacethem in an everyday life because if I don't they can't live.
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Tue Aug 25, 2009 2:54 am
.:Elf:. says...



So I'm not the only nut out there.
Yes, they do talk to me, interrupt me when ever I do anything, and annoy the heck out of me.
Helps with writing though, when I'm stuck it's a great motivation.
As to whether they know they are real or not, I'm not sure. I like to refer to the world they're in as real, just because it helps with writing, so I might have confused them a bit.
  





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Tue Aug 25, 2009 3:08 am
bludragon525 says...



Well, mine talk to me, but I don't control them or anything. It's just like another person inside of my brain, and they have a mind of their own.

Do they know their real? I guess, in way, they do. They just don't want to admit that.
Help! I can't remember if I'm the evil twin or the good one!
  





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Tue Aug 25, 2009 3:19 am
Elinor says...



No, they don't. I don't talk to them or do any of that stuff, but I like to imagine them as real people with lives and emotions. I would never think of them as tools. I still know they're fiction, but to me, they're real.

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Tue Aug 25, 2009 5:18 am
Insomnia says...



This is kind of a hard question to answer, but I'll give it my best shot.

I don't talk to my characters directly. I can't, because we're not from the same place. I've always maintained that the world my stories takes place in is just a few degrees separated from our own. Basically, my characters aren't aware that they're not real because they are real. I don't really see them or have covnersations with them, but I do believe that stories are, for the most part, just writing out the inevitable, unless it's a completely plot-driven story. So, for the purpose of the story, they are real.

I suppose if I really did talk to them, it'd be harder for them to not be aware of everything, but it's more or less a self-contained world, where all the characters from all my stories wander. Consequently, any number of bizarre combinations of characters could meet in completely different places to their original story.

I don't know. In my mind, it just seems to undermine the plausibility of everything I write if the character's know they're fictional. Sure, they're self aware, or at least the intelligent ones are, but for all intents and purposes, they are real within that story and world.

I hope that's helped some.

(Also, hey, I managed to come across as a completely different kind of crazy. xD)
  





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Sat Aug 29, 2009 6:04 pm
Pretty Crazy says...



I sometimes have conversations with my character on paper. Well more like an interview. I ask a question and try to figure out what my character would do. It's pretty fun. Don't laugh if you haven't tried it!
Sometimes when I'm stuck, I ask my character: "what would you like to happen?" It works. Because if you have an adventurous character than he/she will probably suggest something to happen. Or maybe he/she will ask for some rest.
Sometimes it takes writing it on paper to get it right. :)

It is not a matter of controlling your characters; it is a matter of becoming them.
(Well, not literally, but you get the point! :P )
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Look to Jesus.:)
  





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Sun Aug 30, 2009 10:19 pm
Maddyc says...



My characters and story seem quite seperate from me, so no I don't talk to them. I hear them talking to each other a lot, sometimes when I'm not even meaning to listen to them!

One time I was really trying to get inside the mind of a characters and I was daydreaming (for fun) that Leonardo Dicaprio was playing him in the film of my book. I imagined that he was being interviewed after the release of the film and the interviewer was asking him questions about the character. Leo, bless him, said something about the character that I'd never seen before, something along the lines of 'I think John has never fully come to terms with the death of his son because he never allowed himself to grieve. He hides the fact that he is overwhelmed by guilt because he encouraged him to go to war by telling himself that he died for 'nobel reasons'. He's an interesting character to play' I felt like saying 'thank you Leo' but then remembered that it had actually come from my brain, not his. God I must sound loopy...
  








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