Theme for March: Introduction
Tell us your writer’s story.
A/N (Message to New Friends!) :: Hey guys, I'm not trying to break one of the "Honor Code" rules here, but I thought I'd just introduce myself since the other 'Scribble Ninjas' all know each other!
My name's Melody :D ... And, I'm friends with Sandy through quite interesting circumstances, but friends nonetheless. Hope we can all get to know each other through these weekly updates!
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Like any kid, I always loved watching cartoons. Everything about them was just so mesmerizing: characters, settings, plots, situations... I just wanted so much to be a part of those worlds, and in writing, I found a way to do that.
I started off writing a lot of fanfiction (much like a certain other "Scribble Ninja" we all know): Pokemon, Card Captors, Inuyasha... And yes, I oftentimes inserted my own Mary Sue (and yes, that Mary Sue also somehow always seemed to find a way to sweep the male protagonist off his feet, stealing him away from his canonical romance with the female protagonist). This actually went on for years and years - much longer than I would have wanted, probably. I wrote stories for friends too (because after reading about how MY Mary Sue was just SO successful with the boys, friends wanted me to create their own pimpette), so when I wasn't writing about me, I was writing about them, and it became this whole vicious cycle of fanfic after fanfic.
Eventually, I realized that that wasn't what I wanted. Nothing was ever really mine in those fanfics. Even those Mary Sue characters - they were simply extensions of someone else's work, written around the boundaries someone else has created. I wanted something that was mine.
... Continued.
So, I created Tomo. My very first truly "original" character.
Unfortunately, my feeble attempts at originality in the 7th grade were still pretty unstable, as I slowly realized that Tomo quite startlingly resembled a certain video game character I was obsessed with at the time (Laharl, Disgaea: Hour of Darkness); still, instead of completely scrapping Tomo, I decided to simply think of Laharl as a launching pad for creativity - and so I did.
Tomo became a recurring protagonist in every story from then on; throughout 7th and 8th grade, we had a lot of narrative assignments, and I used them to my advantage, allowing myself to build his personality, and in doing so letting me take a deeper look into his history - into why his personality is the way it is (though I guess that was the whole point of those narrative assignments anyway). Actually, I ended up writing a 76-page 'novel' of his 'original' story in the 8th grade, for an assignment that's only specification was a page minimum of 10. To be honest, my teacher didn't really say anything about it (she didn't even leave any comments), but I was satisfied with myself, because the day I finished that 76-page 'novel' was the day I knew that I had given life to someone who was, essentially (in my mind), mine. I knew his ins-and-outs, I knew his background, his history, his family, his likes, his dislikes, his relationships, his personality, etc. I'd successfully created an original character.
Unfortunately, I wasn't satisfied with the situation I'd built around him for that particular 76-page-'novel.' It was scrapped, and I became obsessed with trying to find something suitable for him, something that could really express the kind of person he is, and how important he was to me. My perspective changed. Sure, he was mine, but he was himself too, wasn't he? He was more him, than he was me, if that makes sense. I needed to find his story, not mine.
So, I wrote.
And I realized that when I write, I write for the character. Everything revolves around the character.
For me, he/she is the most important thing. I've recently noticed that I read for the same reasons. I read for character. Not for symbolism, or romance, or action, or description - I read for the characters, their personality, their complexity. And I write for the same reasons. For me, nothing is more important. That's why, regardless of how many drafts I've done for Tomo's story, I'm still not satisfied because I just don't think the situations do him enough justice. They don't show his colors the way they should be shown. Because in the end, it's his story. I can't make things happen, and have him thrown in and react. He won't show his colors the way I want them to be shown. Things are, simply, happening around him, and he'll show himself the way he's going to, not the way I'm going to.
... Fanfictions and Mary Sues are the same way... Aren't they?
Sure, you can write an accurate fanfiction keeping all characters intact... But can you really keep things the same if you throw in a Mary Sue? Then, everything revolves around that Mary Sue, and everything needs to change for that Mary Sue, simply because she's someone that, probably, shouldn't be there. The characters are forced to react to something (or in this case, someone) that the writer has inserted, and they will only react in the way the writer tells them to. But who says that's actually the way they would react, anyway...?
When I was younger, I wrote in a way that, today, I would think to be unacceptable.
So, here I am. Just trying to find the perfect way to tell someone else's story through that someone else's eyes. Because again, its his eyes doing the seeing, not mine.
5 comments:
The way you talk about this Tomo kid reminds of the troubles you're having with another certain someone >:
Although I disagree with this part;
"The characters are forced to react to something (or in this case, someone) that the writer has inserted, and they will only react in the way the writer tells them to."
I do think sometimes writers will make characters do something out of character for plot advancement to the extent it seems "forced."
"But who says that's actually the way they would react, anyway...?"
But if a writer knows their character well enough (ideally, hypothetically) it shouldn't be forced. If you know your character, then you should know how they'd act or react. Or, if you truly get lost in a story, the character will simply act without the writer even realizing it.
And there's nothing wrong with forcing them to react, even if it comes out unnaturally. A writer has to know how the character WOULDN'T react so they know how the character WOULD. (Quite like how you scrapped all those pages!)
Also...DARN. We were SO looking forward to punishing you. Why do you ruin our dreams so? ;__;...
Ohh. 76-page novel as an eighth grader? That's impressive :o
Hi Melody! I'm Cindy, Sandy's personal punching bag :<
Hi Melody! It's nice to meet you :D
And I know EXACTLY what you mean. I don't know if it's normal or not, but I actually have imaginary friends in my mind that I talk to whenever I'm bored. I know it sounds really weird, but it's not like they're weird little monsters like Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends, they're actual people. The only problem is however is that our conversations are always one-sided because I don't know how to give them a personality without making them not just an extension of my own personality, you know what I mean? In fact, most of the stories and writing that I do is just simply a transcript of my conversations with them (like the writer's story for example, I would just imagine myself talking to my imaginary friend about my childhood and just write down what I would naturally say to them)... lol, I sound so psychotic... XD
And about Tomo, I know your goal is to make a story for him that is as real as possible, but don't limit your imagination to his reality. Just as Tomo is a part of you, you are an even bigger part to Tomo because it will ultimately be your world that he will live in, so make sure he has a nice place to live :]
Objection! Tomo should be subjugated to the isolated islands of Antarctica!
NOWAI.
He don't like the cold, yo.
THAT'S WHY HE RESIDES IN HELL.
True fax.
... Though probably not particularly for that reason. 8D
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