Elizabeth Kenny said "He who angers you, conquers you!" and that is how I write an angry character I conquer them. Just like me the writer, the character has choices in how they feel. The character can control their emotions or they can let their emotions rule them. Every choice I make as a writer concerning the personal growth of my character is a reflection of my own personal growth.
When I decide how I feel as the writer I allow my characters to decide how they feel. There are different levels of feeling. There is the level of truly feeling how I, as the writer, want to feel and then there is the level of feeling that gives my characters control over how I feel.
How I control my character’s feelings is a reflection of how I control my own feelings. I am what I write and many days what I write defines who I am. I can get up from a writing session and be as angry as the character that just beat a man to death for driving over his dog if I choose to let my writing define me.
In writing an angry character I decide to relinquish all my attention from other things that the character needs to do or get done in that moment or in that day. Anger consumes, it eats, it breathes, it lives in me as I bring it to life in my character. My passion increases as I create passion in my character. I think faster, I write faster, I breathe faster when I write feelings of anger.
As the writer it doesn't take me long to get lost in developing the anger in my character. While I am writing the object of my character's anger I am also writing the object of my anger. I am what I write because as a writer I determine my own display of emotion. I decide how I want to feel and I write myself into feeling just that way.
I am in partnership with the character I create. If I pull back from emotional contact then there is a different type of conflict created and there is no satisfactory resolution for this kind of conflict. I cannot write through a fence I have put around myself in order to prevent me from feeling; as a writer I need to feel.
Fences are a game that as a writer keep me sequester and I never really fathom how much I pay for building those fences around me so I don’t feel. The price I pay may be in not being able to write the angry character because I cannot express such uncontrollable passion. The price I pay could be shoving the eleventh unfinished manuscript in the drawer because I couldn’t feel the words I was writing. The price I pay can never fully be calculated since there is nothing created without the ability for me as the writer to feel.
As a writer I become partners with my characters. I communicate differently with them then with the people in my life because we develop our relationship with a different set of rules. As a writer I agree never to take advantage of my character and vice versa. We come to an understanding that it is safe to be with each other with all our defects and weaknesses.
The partnership I develop with my character is freeing; we don't imprison each other with barriers and fences. As the writer I develop the character’s feelings which create a stronger bond than either of us could have if we remained alone.
Writing may be something I physically do alone, but feeling my writing is something I do with my characters…….
When I decide how I feel as the writer I allow my characters to decide how they feel. There are different levels of feeling. There is the level of truly feeling how I, as the writer, want to feel and then there is the level of feeling that gives my characters control over how I feel.
How I control my character’s feelings is a reflection of how I control my own feelings. I am what I write and many days what I write defines who I am. I can get up from a writing session and be as angry as the character that just beat a man to death for driving over his dog if I choose to let my writing define me.
In writing an angry character I decide to relinquish all my attention from other things that the character needs to do or get done in that moment or in that day. Anger consumes, it eats, it breathes, it lives in me as I bring it to life in my character. My passion increases as I create passion in my character. I think faster, I write faster, I breathe faster when I write feelings of anger.
As the writer it doesn't take me long to get lost in developing the anger in my character. While I am writing the object of my character's anger I am also writing the object of my anger. I am what I write because as a writer I determine my own display of emotion. I decide how I want to feel and I write myself into feeling just that way.
I am in partnership with the character I create. If I pull back from emotional contact then there is a different type of conflict created and there is no satisfactory resolution for this kind of conflict. I cannot write through a fence I have put around myself in order to prevent me from feeling; as a writer I need to feel.
Fences are a game that as a writer keep me sequester and I never really fathom how much I pay for building those fences around me so I don’t feel. The price I pay may be in not being able to write the angry character because I cannot express such uncontrollable passion. The price I pay could be shoving the eleventh unfinished manuscript in the drawer because I couldn’t feel the words I was writing. The price I pay can never fully be calculated since there is nothing created without the ability for me as the writer to feel.
As a writer I become partners with my characters. I communicate differently with them then with the people in my life because we develop our relationship with a different set of rules. As a writer I agree never to take advantage of my character and vice versa. We come to an understanding that it is safe to be with each other with all our defects and weaknesses.
The partnership I develop with my character is freeing; we don't imprison each other with barriers and fences. As the writer I develop the character’s feelings which create a stronger bond than either of us could have if we remained alone.
Writing may be something I physically do alone, but feeling my writing is something I do with my characters…….
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