Getting Inside Your Characters' Heads

This piece is written by Book Shed writer BillJustBill.

An important technique that I think generally is most helpful in understanding what you’re doing (and need to do in any particular fictional situation) is get very deeply into the head of your characters, particularly your main character. Some people can do this and some people can’t, but I certainly think it’s something that can be learned, because I’ve learned to do it, at least more or less and to some extent. And of course I’m still learning. The best example I have is my wife, who will look at a trendy cutting edge commercial on TV and say, “Now why in the world did they do that? It makes absolutely no sense.” Contrary to this, I always understand exactly why they did it that way and what their intent is. I don’t often say it this way because people tend to get insulted, but I think of this as the difference between amateurs and professionals. Amateurs can only be who they are, can only think the way they think. I don’t mean that in a demeaning way. The world needs amateurs. After all, they are the audience. (It also needs people who can’t write, for they grow up to become those very valuable people, the Clients.) Professionals, on the other hand, can be whoever they need to be at the moment, can get inside the head, so to speak, of anyone, sort of like actors in a way.

Say at a cocktail party you ask someone, “In what ways do you think you are similar to Hitler (or a serial killer, or Stalin or some other similar figure)?”

Everyone will throw their drink in your face. But if you ask me that question, I’ll begin gleefully explaining the six or seven characteristics I have in common with those crazies, and the narrowest of margins that separates me from a pathological madman. And I’ll be pleased that I’ve found a kindred spirit who understands that those notorious mass murderers are not really that much different than the rest of us.

So you can see how easy it is for me to understand the thought processes and attitudes of people who are only considering purchasing Hummers.

I think a more common problem is that writers have trouble keeping the “editor” separate from the “creative writer,” the two sides of the personality, or left-brain / right-brain or however you want to personify it.

This happens when you’re on chapter six and you can’t do anything with chapter seven until you’ve read everything revising as you go (being the editor) and then when you get up to the point where you need to start writing, because you’re in editor mode, all you feel is critical about what you’re inclined to write and so you feel stultified and stopped.

Then there’s the opposite: Ever notice how when you’ve really got it going you feel optimistic and buoyant? And you finish something and you really want to show it to someone because you think it’s so great?

I think after a long period of time, maybe two or three million words, the two sort of tend to meld together and you can be both at the same time. But before then, for a lot of people, I think it helps to understand that they are separate sides and to try to invoke each when you want to. There are various techniques for getting rid of the editor. They generally involve doing something totally routine so that the left side of the brain gives up and goes back into the cave. Examples are driving on the highway, standing in the shower. So the opposite, trying to get into editor mode, would be do a crossword puzzle for five minutes, or balance your checking account, things where you need to problem solve in the real world. Then (maybe) you can approach your fiction wondering whether things add up in that world.