The Independent Lives of Fictional Characters

I think it is natural that when people read a book, they wonder to what extent writers have cast themselves, family members, friends or acquaintances as characters, perhaps with an agenda in mind.

Some friends who have read my novella, "Manhattan Morning", have expressed surprise to discover that neither I nor anyone else they know appears therein. The main characters -- Dan, Marcy, Gloria and Rev. Saddleford -- are inventions I set in motion and who then, to at least some degree, took on lives of their own during the writing process.



I bring that up because the arts section of the Jan. 16, 2016 New York Times has an article on writer Elizabeth Strout and her new novel "My Name is Lucy Barton." It is a book, the Times says, that, among other things, treats with "the unbearably painful relationships between mothers and daughters."

In "Manhattan Morning," readers will find a very different mother-daughter relationship and from that, important consequences flow.

But back to the main point: "In an interview last week," the Times says, "Ms Strout said she did not use her characters as pawns to make a greater point, nor as stand-ins for her own experiences, as readers often assume writers do. Instead they [the characters] come to life mysteriously, organically, in stray scenes or bits of dialog that present themselves and then, through some mysterious process that even she finds difficult to explain, eventually coalesce into a whole."

In my case, the process is not so mysterious. A character, such as Marcy's mother. Gloria, is endowed with a certain personality and certain traits. As a situation unfolds, one simply lets her proceed as such a person likely would and pretty soon things start getting interesting.

As one reader put it: "I liked very much your sketch of  Marcy's mother. Bette Davis would have won an Oscar for her performance as "Gloria"  (in compensation for not getting it for her role in 'All About Eve')." In my view, that is high praise, indeed.