We are awesome.

We are awesome. That is all.

You are what you like (25 January)

Rob said it in High Fidelity: it doesn’t matter what you are like, it matters what you like. It’s a big claim to make, but the truth is, people define relationships with others by what they love and what they hate. How many people secretly like cheesy power ballads from the 80s? And how many of your friends like your same TV shows, favourite films, and books? These things are important. People find ways to relate through preference, and your characters are no exception.

Writing your subject’s likes or dislikes is a chance to explore your character in a way that reveals facets of their personality without having to explain them with excruciating exposition. In Will Grayson, Will Grayson, Lowercase Will judges his friend Maura for her bad gothic poetry.  His scathing dismissal of her is ultimately why she betrays him. He doesn’t even have to say it to her face, only to the audience, but his constant irritation at their conflicting tastes causes great friction. In Dash & Lily’s Book of Dares, it isn’t Lily who chooses the red Moleskine, but her brother. He knows what kind of taste an interesting straight boy would have, even if Lily is clueless. Sure enough, Dash is intrigued, first by the notebook, then by its contents, and finally by Lily herself. It’s not what you are like, but what you like.

Popular culture aside, characters are often defined by their passions, hobbies, or habits. Twilight’s Bella is reviled for the fact she has no hobbies but her boyfriend. Think to all the greats: Hermione Granger is a book nerd who relies on her knowledge to save her friends’ lives; the aforementioned Rob from High Fidelity is obsessed with music and it creates a narrative for his relationships; and titular Anne of Green Gables is infamous for her misadventures!  Even Case from Neuromancer has an occupation; in fact, his mission to permanently recover the ability to jack in to cyberspace is the basis for the book. You can’t separate those people from what they love and do. It’s a good way to talk about a character without boring exposition. Two sentences about how your shy Eliza smiles when The Beatles comes on the radio can be much more effective than a whole paragraph explaining why she likes them. 

But it isn’t just about what is liked. It’s also about what a character dislikes. Put your protagonist in an uncomfortable situation. Stick your metal girl in a car full of Britney-loving cheerleaders. Put the uptight religious father in the same room as the college roommates watching  Monty Python. Put the grungy scullery maid alongside the fastidious housekeeper. See what your darlings do. These situations create natural movement in text, but they also serve to show what a character is like. So: what do your characters love, what do they dream about, and what do they do? More importantly, how does this help you tell their story?

First post

What a great title, right? How original. However, this is the first post! So perhaps though it is tritely named it is aptly named, and that counts for something.

Anyway: this is the blog to chronicle the activities of the various members of the Sydney-based writers' group affectionately known as Spiders' Group. We're not really spiders, but we are writers, and we get together fortnightly to write, talk about writing, be nerdy, and let ourselves be ourselves. It's pretty rad. These are our adventures. We are all really awesome and it's okay to be jealous of us!