(no subject)
What areas of personal expertise do you incorporate into your chars? Or do you take the opposite point of view, and deliberately try to write about chars who are unlike you, and have radically different experiences from your own?
- For starters, I majored in psychology with the intent of going into medicine. However I also maintained a healthy interest/dabbled in history, politics, and languages. Of all of these, the "area of expertise" that I give to the majority of my characters is an understanding or at least some curiosity about politics and current events. I do this since I'm working on an arc of stories revolving around teens who get mixed up in the social dramas of their day. I also have characters who are geeks when it comes to history, biology, linguistics, education and psychology---but not all at once.
I've got plenty of characters who are *not* like me though: I've got a cohort of engineering students in my stories, and one of my main characters Emil is an Economics student who eventually goes into law school.
If you're writing chars who have personal experiences that are drastically different from your own, how do you get into their heads? Do you exhaustively research their backgrounds and professions, or write in a fantasy realm so you get to create the world from scratch?
-I've tried both approaches over the years, but lately I've been doing more time in my "real world" arc than in my fantasy arc. Yes, I do a bit of research for my characters, just to at least understand the parlance and jargon they would use around each other. However I try not to get technical: I don't write classroom scenes, thesis discussions or anything overly academic in my stories---unless the teacher is part of the plot. I tend to focus more on character interactions and how their "unofficial professions" (writers, artists, activists, etc) play out.
And finally, the core experience that we here all share is that we are in some form, writers. Are any of your chars writers, or does the thought of putting pen to paper bore them stiff? If your chars are writers, what do they write?
I have quite a lot of writers in my cast, but they are more into non-fiction and commentary. Some of them actually maintained a newsletter for several years as part of their social involvement/activism. I think I have only two or three creative writers in the group: one is an essayist, and the other is a dramatist. Two of my main characters Marce and Emil like to write letters to each other.
Are you a loyal, proud and patriotic citizen of your home country, who could never imagine being from anywhere else, or do you consider yourself to be more internationally minded; a citizen of the world?
Marce: The first is true for me. I can't imagine not being a Filipino. Inasmuch as I am fascinated with French, Spanish, and Chilean cultures (there is a serious Neruda hangover going on around here), I honestly believe that there is a reason that I was born a Filipino in this day and age. I love my country since it is quite a beautiful place. I love my people since despite all our flaws/occasionally damaged reputation, we can be the kindest and most sensible persons around.
Emil: I'm more of a citizen of the world, actually. I *love* being Filipino, but I know I would do just as well in any other culture, and I've always wanted to see the world. You might say that part of my work stems from a certain "commitment to humanity": to make life better all around and not just for one group only.