Monday & Tuesday
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?
I haven't actually written original fiction in a really long time, when I wrote that, I would just write horror/supernatural themes and I basically would just make it up as I went. It was only later, when I re-read my 'story' that I realized the importance of actual research, continuity... I was only 13 when I started writing it, and it wasn't awful, it just wasn't polished.
When I write fanfiction, I tend to write characters that I feel I have a good grasp of. I don't like to write characters who I don't understand, or I don't feel I can do them justice. That is precisely the reason why Margaret Houlihan will not make many appearances in my story. She is just such a layered character, and I know if i write her, she will be static, and I don't want to insult other
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 usually write characters whose experiences are drastically different than mine, but their emotions and reactions are not that different from what I believe mine would be, if that makes sense. I tend to invent cities/towns, even in Canada/USA just so that I can take any liberties I want to.
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?
Bernie writes letters, that's about all!
Tuesdays question:
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?
Bernie: I don't know why I'd be over here doing what I'm doing if I wasn't a patriot. Sorry, that's a bit of a touchy subject as of late but its not your fault so I shouldn't be taking it out on you.