Is reality in characterisation the same as stereotype?

Fascinating discussion in a writing group.

We all know that characters in strong fiction need to be ‘real’ for the duration of the story, in the sense that they must be ‘believed’ by the reader. They have to hold the ability to take the reader by the hand for a few minutes, helping to create the ‘fictive dream’ necessary to a seriously good read.

The reader has to be willing to be led, as well. It’s a two-way thing.

But as always, the writer is creating the world of the story, weaving the spell of the voice, the characters… to allow the reader to suspend disbelief for the duration.

How does the writer create ‘real’ characters?

Life is full of ‘real’ people... do we simply draw a few more of them?

Is it OK to create stereotypes on the basis that life is full of stereotypes, and they are ‘real’, so there’s nothing wrong with that?

Do some strong stories not need flesh and blood, differentiated characters?

All things to think about over Easter.

But I’ll just copy over a few NO NO snippets from The Willesden Herald’s list of things not to do in literary fiction, to add to the pot.


• Undifferentiated characters. A name is not a character. Pinky said this, Perky said that, Blinky said something similar and Pisky said the same, as the old wartime song might have gone. Each character should be a complete person, with their own C.V. if you like, their own history, temperament, habits, weaknesses, plans, objectives etc, though these need not and should not be explicitly listed as such.


• Boring. “Middle of page 3 and I am totally bored.” “Well enough written but what is the point?” “I’m losing the will to live.” Again, I keep repeating, the reader does not have a gun to his or her head. We have lives of our own. We don’t need to substitute somebody else’s dreary domestic arrangements in our minds for our own. To us, yours are far less interesting – and ours were not that interesting to start with. Who cares if somebody listened to a news story on the radio, went shopping, bought a packet of corn flakes. Yawn, yawn, yawn.


• Banal. Commonplace, dull, the sort of thing you hear every day. This is really a continuation of “boring”. A lot of stories about elderly people living in squalor. A particularly English phenomenon. A lot of stories about dying relatives. Ok, but they better be good. It’s important to write about these things, but when you do you need to realise that there will be ten other people writing about the same thing, so you’d better make it very good.


Me again.

I think strong fiction HAS to have a 'point' or why bother? If the close reader comes to the end of the story and thinks 'So? Why have I spent time reading this? ' because it is a close representation of life and how it is anyway... it's failed.

I think strong fiction HAS to have differentiated characters. Not just within a single piece, but your coal miner MUST differ from the hundreds of others in the lines. YOUR bored mother MUST stand out from the squillions of bored mothers in squillions of boring lives. YOUR old lady at the bus stop MUST engage the reader, not let the reader's eye wander past because shes been met thousands of times before.

The best line in the whole Willesden list , for this reader, is this

"Life can be banal, but we turn to fiction to find ...transcendence."

To be taken out of ourselves for the duration. To be given a glimpse of something else. To be lifted up and out.

Sure, an ordinary person can do that for us. A 'real' person. But they need flesh on their bones, blood in their veins, a beating heart, and they need to touch us.

To do that, they have to make us stop and listen. They need to fascinate, on some level, intrigue. They have to make us want to know...

BOOK LAUNCH...THE SEQUEL

And now, the slide show (if I've mastered the technology!)




A selection of images taken by photographer Cora Malinak at the launch party for Words From A Glass Bubble, March 11th. Friends, family, place, people, books, pictures, and a lot of smiles.

Put your speakers on: the music is the Allegro from Handel's Cuckoo and Nightingale Organ Concerto

Handel makes an appearance in the slide show...in terracotta.
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CLICK HERE FOR CORA MALINAK PHOTOGRAPHY

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NIGHT TRAIN

Night Train is great magazine run by Rusty Barnes and his team. It was print, and has now migrated to the web...



I have a story in the latest issue,

LINK HERE

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Smokelong Quarterly and Innisfreee Poetry Journal

I love Smokelong Quarterly. Each time I teach a flash fiction workshop, I use examples from here to show what the form can be.

I had one of my very first publications in Smokelong back in 2004.

It's been a labour of love to get something accepted again, and finally! "Wei-Ch'i"...LINK HERE.

There seems to be a thread running through the whole issue, as the editor says. Loss and discovery merging into one. Wei=Ch'i certainly fits that.




And Innisfree Poetry Journal has just gone up together with a historic contribution... my very first published poem, To Not Be Water (with acknowledgements to Bev Jackson for both inspiration and encouragement!)

INNISFREE LINKED HERE Please read Eric Pankey's work... especially a poem entitled Walk With My Father.

Poetry is a slippery beast. Whenever I think I've 'got' something, can understand something, it slips away. My tutor David Grubb is very patient, thank heavens.

Molara Wood Blogs About The Glass Bubble Launch

Photo by Molara Wood

Molara Wood, the London-based Nigerian writer, has blogged about the launch party HERE

It was a great occasion for me for so many reasons, one of which was the opportunity it gave me to meet writers I had worked with on the web. Molara Wood is someone I had been greatly looking forward to meeting. A prizewinning writer herself, we had worked together in an international collaborative project, exploring 'Third World' issues through fiction.

(The first thing we all did was chuck out the term 'Third World' as divisive!)

I have borrowed the piccie above... there are some more of Molara's great photos of the launch on her blog.

Molara has just been declared the winner of the John La Rose Memorial Short Story Competition. She has a busy week last week, as her award ceremony took place a few days after we met... read all about it HERE.

LAUNCH OF WORDS FROM A GLASS BUBBLE

Last night, at London's Foundling Museum, Words From A Glass Bubble was launched.

It was the best possible event. I was surrounded by 130 friends - writers and non-writers. The champers flowed, the noise level was high, there were three readings and a constant opportunity to explore this wonderful place with the help of experienced guides.

I will post pictures when they come through... but HERE IS A LINK to Elizabeth Baines' blog, with her piccies, a lovely account of the party, and the book...

And Sarah Hilary, a super crime writer (and winner of one of the Fish prizes this year) has written it up on her blog HERE

Can't ask for nicer words from either of them. Thank you both. It was lovely of you to make the journey to London, one from Manchester, one from the Cotswolds.

KAFKA A FRAUD...OFFICIAL!

I am indebted to Normblog for this link:

THE NEW YORK TIMES reveals that Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis is not fiction after all! It is fact!

Irate publishers have tried emailing and telephoning Franz Kafka, but he appears to have gone to ground, and is not answering calls to explain this scandal.

And neither is his neighbour Gregor who suffers from a rare syndrome in which the sufferer grows a hard carapace and antennae...


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