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  Why Do Non-Writers Think that An Author's Character Automatically Reflects The Author?

  Hi All,

  It amazes me how some readers believe that the beliefs of an author's character is the belief of the author!!!!! I hope most people have the sense to realize that novelists MAKE UP stories! That's why it's called fiction. I don't understand how some people automatically assume that they know an author through the characters. No way and no how. I dislike it when readers tear down an author because of a belief their character has such as a certain religious belief or anything else. I've seen readers get all huffy over a character's beliefs on political matters, gay rights, racism and religion. I guess some people are so shallow they believe that anything an author writes is what they believe. So when a character agrees or disagrees with something political, readers can assume the author believes it? If the character is racist, gay or bisexual, does that mean the author is? If the character is a murderer...you see how ridiculous it gets? That's why I can't believe some readers think this way.

  The character is supposed to have their own beliefs! Do they not get that this is...hello, fiction? Authors don't make up characters based on themselves, LOL! I think it's very unfair to get huffy with an author (over a character's beliefs) and assume things about the author. People do the same thing with directors or script writers. Do they understand that a character in a movie doesn't reflect the person who created them? Goodness.

  Funny but when I read I never equated what a character did or believed in to the author I was reading. It makes no sense. I guess some people think fiction is REAL? It really is creepy how some readers get so obsessed with a story that they start to think they can assume things about the author and their personal business.

  Nope, you can't unless you know the person.

  Have you guys noticed this?

  Best Wishes!

  http://www.stacy-deanne.net

  Stacy-Deanne started this discussion 3 weeks ago (edited). ( reply )

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  Naya Jayne 

  I think the reason is because they are not writers. As an author and an avid reader, I think some of this falls under taste and some under judgment. I've read some books that let me know if I ever met the author, we wouldn't be friends. But that is not because I think their characters are holographs of them. The best thing about fiction is there is something for everyone, no matter what your taste. It sounds like you've hit some criticism from your readers. There is no cure for this. Don't get me wrong here, you might create a character that believes in things you don't, but an author's work reflects the author and who they are, because it was their imagination that created it.

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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    Stacy-Deanne (edited)

    Hi Tenaya,

    I wasn't speaking personally. This subject came up in a discussion where another author was mentioning this. It got all of us to thinking and I found it would make a good thread, LOL.

    Before I became a writer, I never equated an author's characters with them. I always knew that an author is only writing a book. Nonfiction and memoir is different because a lot of times, those books are based on the author's view. But I can't see how a reader can take something like fiction which is fake (even if based on real-life experiences of others), and they feel they know an author. As an author, I wouldn't care what someone thought if they were so shallow to read something from my novels and think they have the right to judge me and know me. They should look at the many interviews I've done THEN they can feel they know a bit about me but they still don't know me until they meet me.

    I haven't encountered a reader like this about my own work yet but I did see the other author's point. She got a very nasty letter degrading her and calling her names simply because someone felt they had the right to "assume" they knew her through a character. That's completely unfair. It makes no sense because the point is, she's a writer. Since when does a writer's fictional character have to be anything related to them? If a reader unfairly tried to judge me based on any character I would kindly point out to them that, they are not in a position to do it and that my characters are not me.

    It all goes down to judging. The author in question was hot because of the letter she'd gotten from the reader calling her all types of names and tearing down her down due to something her character was like. I understand her getting hot. It's like when someone accuses a person of being a thief. If you are not one, you don't want to be called one and especially from someone who has never met you in real life. The Internet causes all of this too. People think just because they read someone's blog or bio a couple of times they know the person. They still don't.

    I know it comes with the territory because we can't make people take our work the way we'd like but still it isn't fair.

    Best Wishes!

    http://www.stacy-deanne.net

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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  steeleweed 

  I think readers with an axe to grind, find a way. One of my favorite writers was John Masters, who wrote a lot about the Briitish Raj in India. One of his novels was rejected by one publisher as too pro-Indian, by another publisher as anti-Indian. He depicted the racism implicit in British India because it was sometimes part of the story he was telling. Some ultra-Liberal Anglophoes considered him a 'imperialist lackey', but it was an Indian writer who remarked that while "Kipling understood India, Masters understood Indians."

  I would never mistake a character per se for the author, although some authors might put personal experinced in their books from time to time. That said, one can sometimes (depending on the writer) infer something of the author's outlook and values from the writing. Personally, I like authors who do that. Louis L'Amour wrote damn good stories - and seems very much the kind of guy I would like on my side in a bar fight.

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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  Nee 

  Usually, I get that about the one character that is somehow ineffectual or lame or just plain stupid. But I have a great come back for that.
  I say, "What...me? Oh heavens no…I modeled that character after you."

  But really, there are about 20 characters in the average story...so, are they all the author?
  
  Stephen King was accused of being a racist because one of his bad guys’s was a racist. Never-mind that the story was an anti-racist "why can’t we all just get along" story.
  *eye roll.

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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  Flamefire123 

  I think a lot of this also stems from the fact that many amature writers do base characters off themselves. I know when I was young, though I never really based a character off myself, I always included my favorite traits. (Like for the longest time despite loving medieval fantasy ALL my characters could read despite most of them growing up poor/in the wild) This makes it easy for readers who hear some writers do this to generalize.

  It is a little annoying, but people prefer to take things on base levels.

  I dunno, I hate writing myself. I never come out right. I always come off as pretty boring and I tend to gloss over some of my flaws and encourage others, but that makes sense, after all, its going to turn into a more idealized verson of me.

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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  Brighid M 

  I would say that most characters do have a small part of the author in them. But it's sort of stupid to think that just because a character rides dragons, is sexist or murdered their father, the person who made them up does or thinks that too!
  I suspect that non-writers think this because they read the book and get so hooked up in the story that they want it to be real, somewhere, which is what all good stories should do. The downside of it is that the obvious first place to look for the characters is within the author! Another explanation could be that they don't particularly like the characters, which does happen occasionally, and think that because the characters aren't particularly nice, the author probably isn't, either.
  Every story is an extension of the person who writes it, which could be why, deep down, we all hate to have our books or poems criticized. The simple truth is that people pick up on this. But a boring book doesn't make a boring person, any more than bad fashion sense makes a bad person. More often, that person just needs to keep working at it.
  Besides, what displeases one person will please another. I wouldn't worry about it, if I were you. Your story and its characters are never going to please everyone, no matter how hard you try. Just remember all the people who loved your books. There are probably ten for every one that didn't :)

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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    Stacy-Deanne (edited)

    Good points, Brighid, but once again I wasn't speaking about myself, LOL! I haven't had this to happen to me but started the thread because of the author I mentioned in an earlier post above.

    I guess, because I never pinned an author's characters on them, that I don't understand how others can. Even before I became a writer I never did. If a person is going to condemn the author, they should do it because they know how the author really is as a person, not for their characters' beliefs are actions.

    People tried to call Mark Twain racist because he wrote about runaway slaves and how folks treated them. People call some female authors feminists or man haters because of how their characters deplict men. But that doesn't mean that has any connection to the author except for that they created the character.

    If a reader thinks they know me from anything I've written, they are sadly mistaken, LOL! I am not an easy person to figure out at all and especially if someone doesn't know me. But I would definitely comment back to someone if they did try to trash me or put me down for what they "assumed" of me.

    Best Wishes!

    http://www.stacy-deanne.net

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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    Brighid M 

    I'm sorry if I offended you with that last post! I was more speaking in general terms to anyone who might be reading :D. I'd say that LMN has got it in one lol (see three posts down)
    B

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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    uplandpoet 

    actually, i do blame an author if i think they are making a case for something with their novel, if i dont approve of their message. like ayn rand, for one.

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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  Nee 

  I guess it's the same as when people think they know what an actor is like based on character they played in a movie.

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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  Brighid M 

  Lol sort of like that

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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  Fabio 

  I think that, stupid as it may seem, authors must be aware taht people do this. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is the basis for the country's biggest TV Company, Globo. They produce and play a lot of soap papers (I guess this is how those TV series are called in English) and many artists live nearby. It is not uncommon to see an artist who is playing a bad character be insulted and even injured in the streets. I think the situation for TV is even worse, because people tend to make a more direct association, besides the fact that the gossip magazines make people believe they are intimate to the artists.

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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  LMN 

  I think John Updike was once quoted as saying (and I'm paraphrasing) that the novel is the best forum for self-revelation he'd ever found. So while I agree that for people to read some godawful scene of incestuous rape followed by murder (I just watched Law & Order: SVU; can you tell?) and assume that the author was therefore involved in such a scene in real life is stupid, I also think that when you make up a character, you have to get your material from somewhere.

  Sure you can use people who aren't you, but isn't it easiest to identify with... yourself? You know yourself intimately, so why not bring a few facets out onto the page? Surely you share at least some admirable traits with your protagonists? Also, whatever you think about the way the world is, how it works and how it should be will all come through in your writing. Your idea of a happy ending (or even whether there should be one) will be... your idea.

  My two cents: you might make a lot up, but your personality will still be stamped all over your work.

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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    Naya Jayne 

    I think you're totally right.

    posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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  Nee 

  LMN wrote: “I also think that when you make up a character, you have to get your material from somewhere.”

  Yeah, from the people I have met in real life. Nearly all of my characters are composites or amalgamations of real people and characters from books and movies. How I chose to reveal them to the reader is me. I am more in the way the words line up, not so much in the characters themselves.

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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  Stacy-Deanne (edited)

  For me it's completely different. I don't base my characters on people I know. I write mystery and suspense (which might make the difference). I've always had a very vivid and strong imagination and that's where the bulk of my characters come from. I have based a character off a character from the movies or on television but not from someone I know. Maybe it's because I am not very close with people. (Stacy shrugging). I stay in my own world so what I get, I create.

  If we go on influences, my main influences is Alfred Hitchcock and Edgar Allan Poe. As for me in my characters, maybe there's a little of me in a few, but definitely not the majority. As for what they say and do, definitely not me, LOL! Unless I am psychotic. Maybe I am because I've always been attracted to the idea of mental illness, obsession and serial killers fascinate me. I've always been attracted to the "dark" and not the light. Anything evil interests me. It makes me want to know more. This is how most mystery and horror writers are and how we see things. That's why we write what we write and read what we read. To me, without a villian, books would be very boring, LOL. This is why I LOOOOVE mystery, suspense and thrillers. I also LOOOOOVE Alfred Hitchcock. He was the best suspense writer in the world!

  Of course, we all get our character ideas from somewhere. And I am sure some authors base characters on them, but not all do.

  My point is how readers can take something and assume it's how the author is. For example, I'm reading a mystery right now from a well-known author who has written the most racially-stereotypical characters I've read in a long time. It pissed me off but I am trying to go through the story since I am not involved in the core plot. But even though I got a little peeved at how he was painting women and folks of different nationalities, I honestly never said or thought, "He must be racist!" Now what I do wonder is if he knows any ethnic people in real life because how he's writing shows me he's only going on the negative stereotypes he's seen on television or somewhere. I am sure I haven't been the only one who found some of the characters offensively-written.

  But still, I don't jump to say he's a racist. I honestly believe he didn't know better. He should have researched or gotten out there to know people. You can't base characters off of stereotypes! The book was done over a decade ago, and I am sure he's been called on it. He might have changed since then. I hope so.

  Best Wishes!

  http://www.stacy-deanne.net

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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  Nee 

  Well, yes Stacy, the characters come out of the story but as for all the bits that "flesh out" the character I use my experience for that. Why should I let all those interesting traits go by the wayside? Maybe it's just all the psyche studies, but you can't have a story without people in um, so...

  posted 3 weeks ago. ( reply )

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