Sunday, April 7, 2013

What Do You Not Think About?

When you tell a story, the message you are trying to get across definitely matters. That is the reason we tell stories. But sometimes, it is the things you don't mention that show the most.

What do you consider normal? What do you think about? What matters to you? The things you notice, the things you talk about, the things you judge others by, they are what speaks to your own mind.

Sometimes, though, what people may notice is the connections you don't make, or the strange occurrences you don't notice. For example, if you live in a crime-ridden area, the sound of a car alarm going off may not affect you. If you live on a fault line, you may not even notice minor earthquakes. Meanwhile, people from anywhere else would be blown away by you, not because you live where such things even happen, but that you don't even pay attention or care about when they do happen. Again, this is very telling.

Always remember that understanding yourself as a person is a key step as learning how to create and work with your characters. They may be fictional, but characters are still people, so this technique works just as well for understanding them.

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