After posting the newest tier of Broken Things , one of those kind enough to read the story AND post a comment asked me if the rant one of my characters is currently on mirrored my own perspective on the subject. A perfectly valid question, by the by.

I avoided answering the question because I want the focus to be on the tale & not the creator, but it got me to wondering if I was preaching a particular societal agenda through my characters. Was I just using them to make a point? Ultimately I decided I wasn't.

Are you using your characters to make a statement, or are they their own beings (at least as much as that is possible). Further, are you comfortable writing a character whose point of view you vehemently oppose?

How do you objectly write a character you think is misguided or just down right wrong, or perhaps evil? While I am a very opinioned person, I try to put myself in the heads of the character I am writing, & strive to at least understand the many facets of why they believe as they believe or do as they do, regardless of my approval or support of their perspective. Hopefully I do a fairly believable job.

What about you?

Later,
Chip

My characters are their own beings. Sometimes so frustratingly their own beings that they end up doing exactly what I DON'T want them to do. :/ Especially in my novels, where I have more leeway to expand on thoughts, motives and more episodes, the characters are governed by their own personalities: experiences, fears, wants, convictions, upbringing, social class, gender- all of these are contributing to a unique equation that is distinct.

One of my (favourite) and main characters in Art of Veiling, Aaron Daryan, is a stuck up, apparently self-absorbed social bigot who thinks everyone below his social rank is trash or not to be considered. At least that is what he starts as. However he has had a pretty tough life (imagine that, considering he is upper class) and his personality is very layered- and often what he does does not match what he says or what he accuses or what he professes.

Still he is horribly ennervating, at least in the beginning. Makes you want to beat him with a wet plank until he bleeds. XD

Also I have many more characters who do not share my views on several issues. There are others that have parallel convictions but not identical and still others who do share my views.

It takes many people to recreate a world realistically ;) heheheheh!

In Wolf I am not sure how much that shows. Each character does have certain attitudes (some of which are quite different to what I believe/think is proper/would choose to do) but just how easy are they to show except in very specific ways when they are constantly under life or death situations? It's not like they can plop down and talk about abortion while fighting off bullets :/

Nah. None of my characters spout my agenda. I disagree with each and every one of them on many points, and can agree with them on others. One is somewhat modeled after a friend of mine, with whom I have nearly nothing in common and whose views strongly oppose mine. But the character is well-written, imo, and likable. (Hell, my friend in likable too; otherwise, she wouldn't be my friend.) I have no problem writing for any of my characters. I think it's at least in part because I really do enjoy being around lots of different types of people, many/most of whom have views diametrically opposed to my own, and I've honestly never found it difficult to understand why they think/feel/believe what they do. Plus, I can understand the thinking of even people I don't enjoy being around.

I think my acting hobby helps out too. I've had to "become" many characters. I fall into the same mindset when planning scenes in stories or my comic.

Oh, and like Tantz, I find my characters end up doing things I didn't plan. o.O I've had to entirely rewrite scenes because suddenly a character was tagging along whom I didn't intend to write into the scene. It sounds weird, but I'm hoping people know where I'm coming from. In one instance, one of my characters would simply not allow another one to leave his sight. I tried to "force" it at first, but that was just unnatural and unbelievable, so I was stuck with him. (It made for a much more interesting story arc, so I won't complain.)

Oh, I know what you both mean. I love when my characters force me to rewrite. The unexpected to me means I'll likely surprise the reader as well.

Later,
Chip

I have a rant coming up in my comic that is based on a very frustrating trip to the supermarket that I once had. It's one of my favorite pieces of my own writing, probably because it hits so close to home for me. In fact, the character doing the ranting has in the past done this before ... ranted about things that really do reflect my own frustrations. But I don't want to give too much away, so I'll simply switch gears and say that in Chapter 2, page 2, the Hillary Duff stuff, defnitely reflective of me.

:)

No, they don't, although I don't really have much of an agenda to spout in the context of my comic, so it rarely becomes an issue.

Although in other stories I've written, I usually find myself having the most fun writing the characters who don't share my viewpoint. It's fun and challenging to think of things from "the other side" and present a convincing argument or character when it's something that you don't agree with at all.

Ummm... no.

Each of my characters is different in their own way and usually don't agree with me. For example, my character Andy thinks Bush is an awesome president, unlike me. The only character that shares every single belief that I do is the one in my avatar. He shares my name and everything because he is me, just drawn :).

I don't really like the thought of making my characters just like me and to agree with me. It just kinda makes the world revolve around the artist.

cs3ink
How do you objectly write a character you think is misguided or just down right wrong, or perhaps evil? While I am a very opinioned person, I try to put myself in the heads of the character I am writing, & strive to at least understand the many facets of why they believe as they believe or do as they do, regardless of my approval or support of their perspective. Hopefully I do a fairly believable job.

I don't think you can write objectively.

None of my characters rant or say things that I believe in though. None of them will ever be evil either, even the adversarial characters. They just say things that are contrary to what I think is good sense sometimes... Most of the time the characters speech focuses on the situation at hand. The only time they've ever talked about "bigger things" outside of themselves was to advocate conflict and war as a good solution to things and even an end in itself.

I don't hold those views, and that's as close as my comic gets to this so far: characters sort of running "not quite" along the same lines as the main character expressing views that I don't particularly share. The closest the main character gets saying something vaguely along my lines is in a four words.

Cc says: "The war will end one way or another"
Pinky (main character) says: "I agree. The sooner the better."

-Yup: the sooner the better. But that's not even exactly what I think, still, I agree with that more than all the other warmongers in the comic.

nice topic, Chip! ;)

on the subject I don't think my characters spout any agenda or philosphy which are my own but little details like a tv show they watch or being a smart ass...that's me all the way!

Not really.

Shades does have an underlying theme (well, several, to be honest!) but, since it has (or will soon have) an ensemble cast, I have the luxury of being able to include characters who have very different points of view.

I try to avoid that. It sounds to me like another form of Mary Sue-ism, which is almost always a bad thing. The underlying theme of Bulletproof (superheroes controlled by a corporation) is certainly political, and it touches on issues I have very strong opinions about, but I'm more interested in the moral ambiguities the scenario causes. There's a big argument about it in the first half of my current issue, and a lot of what Davey says in particular certainly comes more out of the political mindset that I have in real life, but honestly, I think all three of the characters are "right", and that was really the point of that dialogue sequence to me.

So, um, in conclusion, I'm a self-indulgent douchebag who publicly overanalyzes his own writing.

Sometimes.

What I do though... is I fragment pieces of the puzzle into different characters. Sometimes, I make characters spout things that I'm against.

Or maybe... during an 'argument' scene, one of them has the real views I have while the other doesnt.

I know that its the reader's instinct to direct their attention to the main character. Whatever he/she says is most likely assumed to be the exact same mindset of the author. As if the main character is the mere "mouthpiece".

It's a valid and interesting question/thought. I would have to say that none of my characters spout any agenda per se, but one of the characters (Carolyn) shares my belief system/faith. However, one of the important things about the character is that she doesn't ram that belief system down people's throats...so I'm not sure how you'd categorize that, because I'm like that in real life, too.

I agree with others that it is interesting to write characters who definitely don't think or believe the way you do. Crystal is absolutely anti-religion/anti-faith but we have the same commitment to writing her sincerely as we do the Christian character. And there are plenty of characters who we're not exactly sure what they believe! :)

dueeast
I agree with others that it is interesting to write characters who definitely don't think or believe the way you do. Crystal is absolutely anti-religion/anti-faith but we have the same commitment to writing her sincerely as we do the Christian character. And there are plenty of characters who we're not exactly sure what they believe! :)

Yeah my main chara is devoutly Christian but I'm agnostic at best. In fact I put no credence whatsoever to the 3 monotheisms after taking (different) anthropology courses (by different professors).

However, I never put her belief system in a negative light, nor does she ever push her beliefs on anyone. Her firm beliefs are what will carry her through the dark times.

Even though she's a fan character, her religion is not something the source work addressed. It's something I added after research of the source behind the source.

Not at all! My characters are all on the fringes of the craziest parts of society, so they're going to say anything. Some are downright mean and evil and its terrible when people think my characters are spouting my agenda.

I don't have an agenda. I want people to laugh. Thats it.

Isn't it your agenda to make ppl understand that 13 Monkeys is a good movie?

mlai
Isn't it your agenda to make ppl understand that 13 Monkeys is a good movie?

My agenda is to do a professional comic, make people laugh, and thats it.



Also: It was a brilliant movie. Very similar to penis at times.

Preaching to the converted, marine. 'Twas a great movie.

Later,
Chip

.....
>_>
<_<

...of course not....

I can use parts of my agenda to help shape a character. Though I usually twist or increase many traits of myself and others to find character quirks.

Sally Dean has my religious side but enhanced quite a bit. But I don't use any characters to actually spout my agenda. I'd say as my comic goes on I will have more characters that actually spout AGAINST things I believe.

cs3ink
After posting the newest tier of Broken Things , one of those kind enough to read the story AND post a comment asked me if the rant one of my characters is currently on mirrored my own perspective on the subject. A perfectly valid question, by the by.

I avoided answering the question because I want the focus to be on the tale & not the creator, but it got me to wondering if I was preaching a particular societal agenda through my characters. Was I just using them to make a point? Ultimately I decided I wasn't.

Are you using your characters to make a statement, or are they their own beings (at least as much as that is possible). Further, are you comfortable writing a character whose point of view you vehemently oppose?

How do you objectly write a character you think is misguided or just down right wrong, or perhaps evil? While I am a very opinioned person, I try to put myself in the heads of the character I am writing, & strive to at least understand the many facets of why they believe as they believe or do as they do, regardless of my approval or support of their perspective. Hopefully I do a fairly believable job.

What about you?

Later,
Chip

My characters are sometimes extensions of myself or mindset on certain topics, however I do tend to exaggerate them. For example, in my comic The Temple of a Thousand Tears , the swordsman is my inner anger and rage at the outside world. Seymour is the part of me that is philosophical and objective. Marielle is the reserved warrior, reserved only because society says that you can't lash out against those that wrong you. Shiri is my ignorance and innocence about the world. Julian is the wise old man in me, but who's sometimes blinded by his own ideals. And Malukai is the part of me that can't help but lash out and be cruel to other people, even if I don't mean to be - in fact, I may even justify it in my own head.

These characters are reflections of myself and my thoughts, however distorted or altered to fit the story that I'm telling. Obviously I'm not running around trying to kill people like Malukai, and I'm not preaching my thoughts and ideas and experiences like Julian or Seymour (well, maybe a little bit).

For my comedy series @$$hole! (coming soon to Drunk Duck, but current updating on Fridays at www.trevor.exilecomics.com , the main character looks very much like me and even sometimes acts like me, but many of his ideas are eccentric and over-the-top to help create that comedy flare. Sure, I may not like the price gouging that the oil industry has been able to do for the last I don't know how many years, and I'm no fan of most of the flicks that Hollywood's been producing lately - but I don't dislike them as much as that character does. Many readers have difficulty making that distinction, and it can alter their opinion of you as a person.

But think about it this way: if you have a villain who's a racist, because you have to write the racist comments and motivations of your antagonist, does that make you a racist? No. It means that you understand your character, what motivates him or her, and that you have to justify it to the reader so that they understand that character too.

I think you can completely separate yourself as a writer from the motivations, thoughts, and actions of your characters. They're fictional, after all.

It would be funny seeing a comic here that puts forward either:

1) the jihad
2) the beauty of communism (and related spinoffs... read more on "juche idea" and "songun politics")
3) the superiority of (insert race here) over other races
4) the greatness of george w.
5) the superiority of (insert music here) over other musics
6) what else... lol :)

My characters mostly have an agenda that's meant to satisfy their own ego. The rest of them simply want to survive which I wouldn't really call an agenda. I will admit that there are times when a character would say something that I would think or say, which is embarrassing for me to admit because mouthpiece characters bug me. I think if I put a character that was just a mouthpiece for my beliefs then my comic would be too preachy to be readable.

Well, like many people, I have *lots* of agendas. I would say the characters in my strip represent some of them.

The main characters in Rocketship A Go-Go generally represent the idea that people should be nice to each other, and approach their problems logically. They generally promote the idea that being smart is useful, and being merciful is good. They "spout" the agenda that courage, loyalty, friendship, curiosity and rationality are good approaches to the world.

After all, my comic has a slogan: "Together into the Unknown!"

I think people often downplay the extent to which the stories they tell represent the view of the world. My characters may disagree with me on lots of things - but the general tone of the comic and the overall narrative tells you something about the way I see the world. I can't see how one could avoid that!

StaceyMontgomery
I think people often downplay the extent to which the stories they tell represent the view of the world.

Ha! My comic shows that; a world where nations get their way through strength and war, and the people act as agents of war or victims, and even the agents are victims ultimately. But none of the people "spout" my agenda. :)

If I was that obvious in a comic like mine it'd be awful... I mean, it can work very nicely for some types of stories, but for something like a war story you have to be careful or else the whole thing gets annoyingly preachy and that kind of thing only preaches to the converted, which isn't much use. :(