1. Julius says:

    First off, I loved this! So meta.

    Second off! This reminds me of a trope that’s well recieved in fanfiction circles– the “what if the characters and universe we play around in became aware of our existence and their own nature?” story. I’ve always loved those.

    I remember actually feeling really guilty for writing something into a character’s backstory a while back– his call to adventure was in his humiliation at being rejected by a girl…. and I just felt so bad because he was real to me and it felt so mean. But I knew what he was going to do, I guess. Even if he didn’t know, I knew what he was going to do with that pain, so it had to stay.

  2. Fred Warren says:

    Julius,

    I’m glad you enjoyed it, though you’re right, the basic idea has a pretty long set of whiskers. 🙂 I cribbed a little C.S. Lewis as well in the content of the conversation.

    We talk a lot here about how being created in God’s image is where our spark of creativity comes from, and how we participate in God’s creation, in a sense, as “sub-creators.” So, that led me to thinking about how the characters I create, if they truly had minds of their own, might ask the same sorts of questions about me that I ask about God when incomprehensible things happen.

    I was a little surprised myself to find the villain taking the author’s side. Living on “borrowed time,” I suppose he’s pondered this more than the other characters.

    Fred

  3. Galadriel says:

    I’m sure my characters are doing this too–and the fanfiction ones are going especially strong, since they’ve had lots of authors, official and otherwise. But yes, the whole “pantser” thing really struck home for me, because that’s how I am. And I just decided to change POV characters, and I’m not sure who’s dying when, of what…yes, it’s a mess up there right now. But yes, I’m ready to discuss.

  4. Fred, if it was up to me, I’d have you writing stories for every post.

    Hope the real life stuff is able to be dealt with satisfactorily.

  5. Fred Warren says:

    Fred, if it was up to me, I’d have you writing stories for every post.

    …and compiling them into anthologies and sending them to Splashdown. 🙂 Seriously, I’ve been wrestling with this issue a bit, trying to figure out what sort of material to contribute, since I seem to be all over the map, and not fully content with any particular format. Stories and metaphor come easiest to me, because that’s how I process life, looking for analogies and pictures and narratives that condense the complexity into a sort of shorthand I can wrap my mind around.

    Hope the real life stuff is able to be dealt with satisfactorily.

    Yes, the worst of the current crisis is behind us. It wasn’t anything terrible or life-threatening, just one of those instances where we thought we had the plot figured out, and then the Author dropped a little twist into the story which cascaded into several minor related crises. We’re just now beginning to understand the method in what seemed madness for awhile. Anybody who’s curious can find a synopsis on my blog: http://frederation.wordpress.com/2012/07/20/speed-bump/

    I don’t write autobiographically, but situations in my personal life tend to inspire a lot of what I write in a broad sense. The dialogue among my characters here, for example, paraphrases a running conversation I was having in my thoughts and prayers the past few weeks as I struggled to cope.

    Fred

    • Yes, I do read your blog. I think it’s a wonderful thing to process the stuff that happens to us by way of story, as you have done here so well. What an amazing peek into your head – and yet you have made it universally applicable, too. It’s a gift, to offer your own life and connect with your reader on that level.

      [Folks, this is some of what makes Fred an incredible writer! 🙂 ]

      I may not be the typical blog reader, but I really do prefer the story approach.

  6. Brother, I’m glad I didn’t read this provocative piece until today, because of this:

    Yes, the worst of the current crisis is behind us. It wasn’t anything terrible or life-threatening, just one of those instances where we thought we had the plot figured out, and then the Author dropped a little twist into the story which cascaded into several minor related crises.

    With the exception of the “worst of the current crisis is behind us” part, that’s just what happened to me yesterday. Like any whining Mary-Sue character I moaned and complained, as if I, not the Creator of the universe, should be the one to call all shots. Admittedly, this plot twist is decidedly un-exciting and stupidly expensive.

    Your whole little exploration here, especially Greskarg’s rightful pragmatism, reminds me of this little factual and then “speculative” text from the Apostle Paul, which I’ll paraphrase:

    Has the [author] no right over the [characters], to make out of the same [imagination] one vessel for honorable use and another for dishonorable use? What if [the author], desiring to show his wrath and to make known his power, has endured with much patience vessels of wrath prepared for destruction, in order to make known the riches of his glory for vessels of mercy, which he has prepared beforehand for glory […] ?

    Romans 9:21-24

What do you think?