Okay writers, grab your favorite hot or cold beverage from the kitchen, take your seats in my parlour - watch out for the dog bones - ignore the dust bunnies and lets get to talking insecurity. Or security. Either way is fine with me.
Yes, it is another meeting of the IWSG - where writers of all stripes (and dots) gather to buoy each other up before heading back to the trenches, the utter chaotic warfare that writing is. Wait a minute! I do not think that. Nobody put a gun to my head or told me if I didn't enlist (at the age of seven) I would be an utter coward and disgrace to my country and people. Why do we want to make everything so dark and dramatic? Isn't real life enough like that? Okay...sorry. I know better than to start that conversation so early in the meeting.
Here is the March question - Whose perspective do you like to write from best, the hero (protagonist) or the villain (antagonist)? And why?
I will give you my honest answer. I am such a Pantser as opposed to a Plotter that I have no idea when I start out if the voice I'm channeling is the hero or the villain. I don't even know what the story is or if it needs heroes and villains. Couldn't it just be a story where time and circumstance are the villains and heroes are those who manage to trudge through yet another day without harming anyone? I can tell you that whoever is the main character thinks they are the hero regardless of facts. Don't we all? I can barely even remember my siblings growing up and we were very close in age. Are. We aren't dead yet. Though come to think of it there is one I haven't heard from in awhile.
The work in progress is a veritable festival of folks who think they are heroes when mainly they ain't. They aren't totally awful - though there are a few as it is a mystery - but even the main character is as flawed as you might find in any police force. Come to think of it I don't think I've made her nearly wicked enough. I should go back at it.
I remember when I was a young actor and a director/teacher told me that if I wanted to play comedy I had to play it straight and if I was after real drama I should play it for laughs. Think that might be true in this regard as well. Worth thinking about...
How about you? Do you struggle with heroes, anti-heroes, villains and, er, anti-villains?
6 comments:
Hi,
if I struggle with anything, it is putting my heroine emotional world on paper. However, I love the struggle because I am digging into myself and discovering me. That is the fun part, most of the time.
Wishing you all the best.
Shalom aleichem,
Pat G @ EverythingMustChange
We do all think we are the hero lol. I like your panster perspective and happy IWSG Day :)
That is very true! We all think we are the hero.
Isn't it true that the 'story' sometimes takes on a 'life' of its own and takes you in directions you had no intention of going? Sometimes the characters too. Also like your director/teacher's comment about comedy and drama...so true. Nothing funnier than someone who takes themselves too seriously in crazy situations.
Sorry to be late this party! For me, the perspective I take depends on which story (whose story?) I'm telling. I try to work out what's the best way to tell the story I need to tell, and go from there.
satta king
play bazaar Besides a regular site map, intelligent webmasters build a properly-formatted sitemap.xml page. This is a carefully-organized reference page that search engines use when indexing a website.
Post a Comment