Okay,
It's been suggested over on Robin Bayne's blog that authors posting blogs as their characters is like acting.
So then, we get into the realm of how good writers can act.
To my way of thinking (and it's skewed, trust me. ;) ), good writers should be writing well. Which then makes me wonder, if good writers should write well, and blogging as their characters is acting... where does the confusion end? Writing and acting are two very different animals, in my opinion. This goes back to what I was saying yesterday: it would be me ACTING like my character. My characters and I are not one in the same.
So, perhaps the best way to blog as your character is to be thoroughly immersed in said character, so that it's the CHARACTER that comes shining through rather than the author acting like the character. It would require, in my opinion, writing skill, more than acting skill, to pull this off successfully. After all, I don't want to blog as a character in such a way that it looks like it's an actor's interpretation of the character.
What do you all think?
6 comments:
Boy, can I identify with this. Some years back, I was writing almost 16 hours a day on a piece that really captured my imagination. The female character was a gentle type, very patient (not at all like me). After a time, I found myself answering my husband differently, in a more forbearing manner. I was thinking more like her, truly "getting into" her character.
Now, she's a nicer person than I am, so I hope some of it took root permanently. It's all about the imitation of Christ, in the end, isn't it?
This is pretty much more of the same (as yesterday). You would either have to become your character (is that like being possessed by a fictional being?) or pretend (act) to be your character. Neither is writing. The skills are different, unless you become your characters when you write them. Some writers do. It's like different styles of reading. Some readers become the characters, others see the action in their minds like watching a movie.
Yeah, as you can tell, I'm still trying to work this out in my head. Too many programs running at the same time... GGG. Trying to find different perspectives on it, and put it to rest once and for all.
I'm still coming back to the feeling that if the character draws me into his/her fictitious world through a first person 'encounter' with them, this will work for me when done well. But if they arrive in their 'author's' world in first person, I don't want to see them there. It's not where they belong.
Just to confuse myself more, I've remembered that the back blurb on my May release is written in first person. My thoughts on that are on my blog today. Blog tag, Laura!
Jennie
And, um, oops. It would help if I included the blog URL:
http://www.jennieadams.net/diary.htm
ZOOM!
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