Imagining Ourselves Into Other People's Experiences

Quote of the day: "In fiction, we imagine ourselves into other people’s experiences."

That comes at very end of an interview of Sunil Yapa, author of "Your Heart Is a Muscle the Size of a Fist," a recent novel about the 1999 World Trade Organization protests and riots in Seattle. He was interviewed by Bethanne Patrick.

The quote is interesting and perceptive because it helps explain why people like or dislike certain novels. If one doesn't find a character with whom one wishes to identify for one reason or another, books are often not that interesting.

That can be true no matter how well characters are "developed."

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.