Character

mine arrive on their own ... often unasked ... they just are and they think and speak for themselves ...

Same here Fish, some of the characters are quite evil and unwholesome too at times!!

Same as Fish, they just appear on their own. As the story progresses they become more and more vivid. Almost like the story shapes them into their unique selves. Also as the story progresses: new characters come onto the scene as if from nowhere. Characters I never planned, but suddenly they appeared and became an important piece of the story. It is strange how it happens, can't explain it too well. I think my favourite character out of the stories I've read so far on abctales has to be one of yours Andrew. I think Francis is a brilliant character. Still curious as to what made him agro-phobic. An interesting character, whom you can't help but like, even if he is a bit disdainful at times. And October was a memorable one too. Magical and surreal, warm-hearted. A bit like a mixture between Mr. Ben and Dr. Who. Mr. Stitches is pretty frightening. A great villain. Reminded me a bit of The Corinthian out of 'The Sandman.' and also he reminded me a bit of Elijah Price out of the film 'Unbreakable.' Zak from Stormy's story ' Zak's last bottle ' stayed with me. Really felt for that character. And Zak's wife in that story. I really felt for them both. Was a moving story that was. The characters from ja-simpsons 'X- the big leap' Though I can't remember their names, were good. Particularly the TV guy at the end, he was excellent. There was an eccentric character called Pierre in Tom Saunder's story: 'Aunt Frank's Legacy.' Whom I thought was a real-life character. Until Tom e-mailed me telling me the story was completely made up. Patrick out of Andrea's story ' Patrick and the Pot.' And also the policeman in that story and Patrick's nosy neighbour. They were all good characters. And of course the characters in Eddie's piece, ' The tree where the doves go to die.' How can I forget them, a real shakespeare vibe that piece was. There's more, but the one's I've listed are probably the one's that have stayed with me the most. I think characters are important in a story, maybe something I need to work on a bit more.

One other character I forgot to mention, but was very memorable for me was: Antonio Salieris in 'Y: Antonio Salieris Final Masterpeice.' by donignacio. Antonio is a composer in a mental hospital who dreams of composing one great piece of musical work that he will be remembered by. Was a good character he was. I know there's loads more characters that will come back to me, but I better make that the last one. Or I'll end up writing an essay post.

Funky, have to second your views on Zacs last bottle. I have read loads of stories in my time and he was the only one that I can remember in startling detail. He was not just a character in a story, but a living being.

My characters are true or based on my experience. I couldn't create a brand new person, how could I? I mean, when a character is a vicious one, in order to make him/her real I have to write down what I experienced as viciousness; and this must have derived either from my darker side or the dark side of another human being. I believe in tragedy and katharsis, Purification. In order to write about a certain type of person I have to be mature enough to give every reader of my work a way out of my character's problems and dead-ends... otherwise I don't write at all about something I don't have a clear and solid opinion and thorough knowledge. Writing a story is more difficult than anyone could imagine. I liked your questions very much, made me think of some things... made me realize something very personal. ================== take care all skydolphin

Have to agree about Zac's Last Bottle. The character is so human, so weak. You hope against hope that he'll make it, but you can't shake off the feeling that he won't.

...and when he does not make it, you really grieve!!! Such a powerful story...Stormy must be proud of this one. It deserves to be published. If you have not read it, read it NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ermm, for once, you will be amazed, I feel quite abashed. Thank you all for such kind comments. I never realised it would have such an impact. Apparently, it is always best to draw on characters from life, or so published authors tell you. I suspect this is true. Even when you invent a character you have to have some one in mind as a basis. You can give them characteristic traits of others but you must have a visual in your mind when you write about them. It doesn't matter that each reader will see the 'visual' differently - how many film heroines/hero's look nothing like you thought they would? - but a character needs substance and you cannot give them that if you cannot see them yourself. Christ, I sound like a Grauniad arts columnist. Mississippi will be calling me a pretensious twat soon. anyway, ta chucks. Zak? completely made up of course.

I would say the two characters in Eddie's piece "the tree where doves go to die" and the narrator in Ivoryfishbone's "Meeting Mother" are the most striking characters on the site. Andrea I think always does characters well - particularly Mistletoe. Mine pop up and tell me what they're going to do and say (but never, ever what they bloody look like). I am going to have a crack at showing-not-telling with characters, as when you see this done it is always much smoother and neater.

'Meeting Mother' instantly sprung to mind, too (thanks for mention BTW Andrew and Funk). Showing, not telling, is the way to go, Andrew, according to Those In The know. My characters just seem to develop themselves, somehow, drawn from the absurdity of life and, on the rare occassions that I've tried to base them in 'reality', they've been a dismal failure. They're an amalgamation of the human condition (or so I'd like to believe, anyway!)

I've only learned about this show/tell malarky recently and I tried really hard to do just that in Queen' Gambit but am not sure how well it worked. Even now I worry about certain lines that seem to rely on 'tell' too much. yes, Andrea, but you are probably still drawing on ' human conditions' that you have met or lie within yourself. I did not mean earlier that a character I write in to a story is necessarily based on my next door neighbour, for example, but that the character develops from people you have known, even if it is subconciously. If it doesn't, and this is IMHO, the character has little substance and tends to be not very believable. I think it also depends on the type of story of course. Andrew writes what I would call 'off the wall' stories and the characters within each story therefore have be 'off the wall' too. If they had everyday characteristics drawn from our own experience they would not work. Take one of my favourite stories he has written 'Ambitious Mirrors'... the lead man does not have to 'ring a bell' because the story does not require it. Same in 'Feng Shui', we are led by the plot and the weird events... the characters dialogue is what is important, not their believability. The same could be said for many, many, other excellent stories on the site and time, space and the will to write on precludes mentioning them all here. There, I have now argued with myself and, being of limited writing experience, am probably talking bollocks as usual. Good luck with the joint ventures everyone. My writing output is so slow that you would die of boredom waiting for my reply if I joined in. Have fun!

For me Stormy, that was one of the reasons why Queen worked so well. If you had started by telling us about the lead character, it wouldn't have been as good as building up our own impression. Particularly since I was so wrong about her...

All of my chracters come from my migrant life. Migrant stories are about adversity and hope. Homeless life creates comedy, drama, action, mystery and a world of other emotions and themes. Adversity can be as physical as injury caused in a fight with the locals or as subtle as a mental whisper 'wogs go home.' Retold over and over again. Miscommunication is a classic Shakespearean theme. Rome and Juliet die due to miscommunication. King Lear disowns his daughter because of miscommunication. MacBeth believes he is invulnerable due to miscommunication. Wem the migrant waiters in Sydney my friends, myself, me and I found it could only fun to be misunderstood when you are well paid Manuel on the Falty Towers . Displacement is what migration is all about when your soul is uncomfortable even when life is going according to your dreams.. One and all migrants have unfulfilled wants and needs. Unfulfilled desire is as key to action to every exile story. I would be prepared to sell my soul to show all these in gusto.

I re-read Zak's last bottle today. It's a quite effective story, but sadly alcoholism very often has much worse results than this. In a way, Zak and his wife and children got off easy, compared to what happens in many alcoholism afflicted families. At least the wife and kids will remember the father with love. That is not a given in these situations. Anyway, it's still an effective piece.