- Joined
- Jul 24, 2007
- Messages
- 418
- Reaction score
- 51
- Location
- New Mexico
- Website
- www.brianjayjones.com
As non-fiction writers--especially as biographers or historians--we know in advance how a story will proceed. We know how our subject lived and died, and we have their letters and papers so we have their "voice." We know as writers we have to be true to their lives. We know as we write their stories that our subjects have to stay "in character," as it were.
However...
One of the unexpected pleasures I had while writing my biography of Washington Irving was that nearly every chapter contained an encounter with another famous or prominent person: Charles Dickens. Martin Van Buren. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Mary Shelley. Sir Walter Scott. Queen Victoria. The list goes on and on -- Irving was a veritable Forrest Gump when it game to meeting famous people. And as I approached certain chapters in the book, I often found myself growing excited that in the coming chapter, I was finally going to get my hands on a certain "character." I was going to get to write not only Irving, but Van Buren, or Scott, or Shelley or Daniel Webster or Poe.
That may sound odd, because none of those people are "characters" per se -- they're all real people, with behaviors we can't change -- and yet, I found myself thrilled that I was going to get to maneuver this particular character through my story. To me, it was almost like writing an iconic character, like Sherlock Holmes or Batman -- you get to play around in their universe, following a pre-defined set of rules and expectations, yet you do get to leave your own mark. I found it oddly thrilling.
So, here's my question to my fellow non-fictionalists: Do you sometimes get caught up in the lives of your non-fictional characters to the point where they almost seem like characters in a novel? Fiction writers often talk about a particular character in their book delightedly "getting away from them" and taking on a life of their own. We don't quite have that luxury -- we can't, for example, put George Washington in an rocket, no matter how interesting it might make his story -- but I'm interested in hearing what the rest of you may have experienced when telling someone else's story.
I'll step over here now, and anxiously see what you all have to say. Have fun out there!
However...
One of the unexpected pleasures I had while writing my biography of Washington Irving was that nearly every chapter contained an encounter with another famous or prominent person: Charles Dickens. Martin Van Buren. Nathaniel Hawthorne. Mary Shelley. Sir Walter Scott. Queen Victoria. The list goes on and on -- Irving was a veritable Forrest Gump when it game to meeting famous people. And as I approached certain chapters in the book, I often found myself growing excited that in the coming chapter, I was finally going to get my hands on a certain "character." I was going to get to write not only Irving, but Van Buren, or Scott, or Shelley or Daniel Webster or Poe.
That may sound odd, because none of those people are "characters" per se -- they're all real people, with behaviors we can't change -- and yet, I found myself thrilled that I was going to get to maneuver this particular character through my story. To me, it was almost like writing an iconic character, like Sherlock Holmes or Batman -- you get to play around in their universe, following a pre-defined set of rules and expectations, yet you do get to leave your own mark. I found it oddly thrilling.
So, here's my question to my fellow non-fictionalists: Do you sometimes get caught up in the lives of your non-fictional characters to the point where they almost seem like characters in a novel? Fiction writers often talk about a particular character in their book delightedly "getting away from them" and taking on a life of their own. We don't quite have that luxury -- we can't, for example, put George Washington in an rocket, no matter how interesting it might make his story -- but I'm interested in hearing what the rest of you may have experienced when telling someone else's story.
I'll step over here now, and anxiously see what you all have to say. Have fun out there!
