5 Comments

Your writing opens doorways in my mind I didn't know were there. x

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Thank you! I hope these are good doorways.x

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I’m very interested in what you say about characters, Ali. I occasionally come across writerly advice on how to build or construct characters in fiction, or how to give them psychological depth. That always seems to me to be a false and unhelpful place to start. I prefer to think of characters presenting themselves, with whatever fullness and depth they have to bring, and to feel that the writer is serving them rather than imposing on them.

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YES. It feels very false. I do a thing, and I have no idea if it's normal, but I ask questions of my characters, so I think what would they do in x situation or y, and then I almost watch. It just seems as if they present themselves like you say, and it's the writer's job to uncover the internal logic of the characters. Definitely the opposite of imposition, the more you disappear the better.

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Disappearing as "Billy Elliot" says when he dances! (Go to the outside and look on in). Lovely writing Ali.

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