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I'm very frustrated at a trend I've been seeing in fandom lately: people talking about characters as though they have lives of their own. "Every author can understand that sometimes characters just won't do what you want them to do." "They won't let X character tell his story."
For a long time I saw these framings as harmless hyperbole. When we write characters, sometimes we subconsciously write things into them that we don't know about, so it feels like they come alive. It's all stuff we wrote, of course, but it *feels* unruly, because our brains are.
When you tell a story to an audience, they interpret it their own way, and they form their own idea of the characters. The characters "take on a life of their own" that way—but of course, it's really that the audience saw things in your narrative that you didn't.
So for a long time I just passed by these framings: they're shorthand, they're ways of describing what it *feels like* to write a character, or to read a character in a way that's very different than the author's intentions. But I'm beginning to think the framings are a problem.
Because a lot of people seem to think that there is some "true form" of a character. Like Plato's cave. That out there, somewhere, there is a real Dean Winchester (or a real Hannibal Lecter, or a real whoever) that the writers and fans are all just channelling.
That creates a powerful rhetorical tool—suddenly, bad creative decisions aren't just bad creative decisions that made many people sad or angry. They're hurting a real (fictional) human being! And writers aren't or shouldn't be in control—the character should just lead them!
But it's not true, and it ignores the reasons why creative choices happen—the struggles writers have to balance multiple audiences, sure, but also the creative spark in fans who willfully read narratives in the ways *they* want. And so much more.
It also does a disservice to anyone who's an aspiring writer out there, suggesting that the only way to make your characters feel real is to engage in some sort of mysticism, devaluing craft. IDK. I'm truly growing to hate this framing.
I should add—based on some of the responses I've gotten I think I need to clarify—I didn't actually write this thread because I was annoyed at *authors* doing this, tho I don't love that either (but hey, describe your subjective experience of writing the way you want, I guess)
The thing that's getting up my nose at the moment is *fans* using this framing to argue against things they don't like happening on their favorite TV show. "The Powers That Be are silencing the characters!" "We need to let the characters tell their own story!"
I think that for whatever reason, a lot of people don't want to articulate their true position, which is "Creators ought to be beholden to their audiences, who really co-create the story with them." That's a legitimate position to hold!
But instead of just saying that's what they think, people externalize their feelings: "It's not that *I* want such-and-such to happen. The *characters* clearly want it." No. Bad! Take responsibility for your own opinions!
