Characters People Connect With

I read a news article today about a British school girl who wrote a letter asking for help.  Who did she send it to?

Captain Jack Sparrow.

The girl needed help to start a mutiny at school.  How cool is that?  I love that she went to a favorite fictional character.  And I have to say, even cooler that Captain Jack took time to go and see her!  Wow.

(Read the BBC article here or see what Yahoo! reported, including a 2 minute video of the appearance.)

When we write, isn't that what we'd all like to accomplish?  Helping our characters enter readers' minds in such a way that they feel a bond with them.  The characters need not only to feel real, but to be real to the readers.  As authors we have to give our readers enough to get them there, but not so much that it leaves no room for their minds to join in on the creative process.

When I read a book I gain a sense of who the characters are, how they look and act, and even what they may or may not do.  I become a character - usually the main character - for the time I'm sitting there with the book.  A shift in behavior, mannerisms, actions, or speech can be jarring if it seems out of place.  It can pull me out of my role in the book and make the character seem false.  I loose my connection.

Some characters may even seem too much like another character.  One underlying person who just slips on a new costume, but is just the same guy playing a different role.  When this happens the character looses a little bit of who they are - a little bit of their individuality. 

If you go to workshops on writing, people will advise you over and over to do various exercises to get to know your character before you try to put him or her on paper.  Conversations, questionnaires, diaries, or whatever method they are suggesting - don't discredit them.  It's amazing what you can find out about your character by just sitting down and having a quite chat together.

There's also a lot to be learned from watching great actors and the methods they use to become the character they are portraying.  I think about every time I go to a play or out to a movie.  Brandilyn Collins has even written a book on the subject:  Getting into Character.  I haven't read it all yet - in fact I'm only a few chapters in, but I've enjoyed what I've read so far.

When I saw the news item this morning I just wanted to share it.  And it was easy to connect with writing.  Captain Jack is a marvelous and unique character, as are all of his 'cousins' as I'll call them.  I've never felt like I was watching an actor when I've seen Captain Jack or his 'cousins'.  I've always seen a fresh and real (even though sometimes in the fantastic sense) person/character to enjoy spending some time with.