How to Live Vicariously Through Your Characters

Sounds healthy, right? Kind of like those moms who live vicariously through their children on shows like Toddlers & Tiaras. Living the dream.

 This kid's a riot.

In all seriousness, living vicariously through a character (or your daughter) is not good. Nor is living vicariously through Bella Swan because she is a shell of a character who is left hollow so that any girl with any appearance or personality can slip herself into her mopey shoes.

"Blogging Twilight" by Dan Bergstein. A must-read if you want to mock Twilight for what it truly is... and enjoy yourself along the way. Click here to read all 4 books, Dan style.

If you still want to live vicariously through a character, consider fanfiction. No shame in that --- I wrote it too, when I was a wee lass. However, I would prefer we didn't revisit that period... very embarrassing... Um... Hey look! A distraction!

There are several reasons why living vicariously through a character is a not-so-good idea. For one, it makes everything that happens to that character personal, which means that injuring, killing, or hurting that character might be uncomfortable... or you won't have the heart to write it at all. Furthermore, any criticism of that character becomes a criticism of you. Who wants their editor telling them that they don't like the character that's based on you? Uh, NO ONE. And you know what else could happen? People could realize the story is about you, and/or that you've included other people from your life in the story. Like in Read it and Weep!

However, having a stake in your character is normal, healthy even. Characters often reflect little pieces of ourselves, or a piece that we would like to adopt as our own. I think recognizing your personal relationship with your characters is important, so that you can make them as well-written as possible.

I bring this up because I had a fairly recent revelation regarding my main characters in my 100-4-100 novel. Enter Mary, my female main character/protagonist. Two questions into answering these 100 questions you should answer before writing your novel, I discovered that Mary had virtually no personality. I always envisioned her as being very quiet and a keeper of the peace, which totally goes against the grain in a market full of girls who spend their pages kicking the boys' butts. Yet before I knew it, she had gone from a pacifist to a weakling, big time. I hated her. I was more passionate about her life than she was! I had to quit typing for a bit and think.

Where did Mary's quiet side come from? Why was I so determined to make her that way? It hit me: I was writing Mary as my opposite! (To an extent.) I have always been that girl who talks way too loud for her own good, and "talking out of turn" always showed up on my report card. When I was younger, I actually wanted to be quiet and invisible. Yet I was incapable of keeping my mouth shut. For someone who is very introverted, I am fantastic at running my mouth. Wouldn't it be great if I could be quiet and unnoticeable like Mary? I found myself thinking.

Recognizing that desire had manifested itself in Mary, I made what sounds like a silly decision: I decided to put MORE of me into her. Alright, she's quiet. But she and I both love story-telling. She and I both sing. She and I both fear rejection. (Personal stuff, right?) Now I identify with her. We act and react differently, but she has a few of the good parts of me in her, and we get on much better. Moral of the story: Putting a piece of yourself into a character can actually help you relate to them.