Be the Character

Fiction: fantasies, sci-fi, historical dramatizations, novels. But what is fiction? To me, as long as a story is not narrating a documented event, anything and everything can fall under the category of “fiction.” While the typical format to a story contains a beginning, climax, and end, with creative stories, there is freedom to stretch these guidelines. This is why I enjoy writing fiction. Once a story begins to flow onto paper, there is no right or wrong way to progress a plot; I have creative license.

However, before I can reach the point of “creative licensing,” I must begin sculpting a piece of fiction. I have always fought writer’s block. I know what I want to have happen in each story, but I can never seem to reach the end. The middle becomes like wading through mud and traps me with a slow, dull plot line until I am stuck. The best piece of advice that allowed me to overcome my writer’s block was simply to let the character write the story. This came from Anne Lamott’s chapter on “Character” in her book Bird By Bird.

Previously, I had always made the mistake of trying to get my character to conform to my desired plot. This would make for very dry prose, full of specific descriptions. Just the other day, I attempted to write a short piece of fiction, but kept on stumbling over illustrating a scene to my reader. Lamott’s suggestion to dig deep while getting to know your main character was what saved my story from being boring and me from stress. While writing, I tried to put myself in my character’s shoes: thinking about the little things that are important to her, discovering the way she thinks, opening myself to her opinions. The moment I did that, the story flowed. I removed many of the dry descriptions and began to show the depth through my character’s reactions and feelings. Looking through her eyes allowed me to get a glimpse into another life and, hopefully, convey that to the reader.

While I have tried to write novels and short stories before, I found doing so problematic. It was not until this last short fiction attempt that things finally came together for me. From now on, I will definitely be taking Lamott’s advice and molding the plot to the character instead of the character to the plot.