Character and Purpose

In my previous post on character, I talked about motivations of developing a good character and why that is important to story. In this post, I want to take that concept a little further.

The power of character in a story lies in our ability to relate to that character or the character's adventure or story. It is through our common experience with that character that the story itself resonates with us. The plot and setting create the milieu and circumstance for excitement. They also provide the element of fantasy common to all story, it is the place where our minds go when we read.

But the character itself is who we see, or who we see ourselves as being, or the person we don't want to be. That person exists through the process of story, but only as through the interaction with the reader.

I've heard Tracy Hickman say that story exists only when the reader reads it (he may have been quoting someone else, I can't recall, but he shared it so intimately that it was definitely part of his personal feelings of writing). That means that stories, whether they be in books, songs, or good, old fashioned tales told out loud, come to life when they are transmitted to another person.

That interaction is why I believe that characters have power to influence other people. It is why we have a responsibility when we write to ensure that our characters are not just believable, but that we are aware of what their existence will do to those who read. Everything we do, everything we write, everything we create, will have an impact on other people, whether we are aware of it or not. That is the way of things, the way the world works.

And so what we say, do, and write, can either be an influence for good or an influence for bad.

I don't mean that we have to be moralistic or preachy, or cynical or some other opposite. I mean that we need to be aware and purposeful.

That's why I don't believe that art for art's sake is sufficient of an excuse for creating story that may in some way lessons or weakens or in some way cheapens humanity. In fact, we have a responsibility to see that its impact is as good as it can be.

The challenge for writers is to build a better world but do it in a way that is subtle enough that readers still enjoy the journey. In fact, it may have to be so subtle that they aren't aware it is there. Again, I don't mean subliminal coercion. It is something deeper that lies at the heart of our work.

This is a concept I'm still developing. More next time.