In Today’s Journal
* Quotes of the Day
* Waxin’ All Philosophical and Stuff
* Of Interest
* The Numbers
Quotes of the Day
“Understanding a person does not mean condoning; it only means that one does not accuse him as if one were God or a judge placed above him.” Erich Fromm (as reported in Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: Rich and Poor)
“The difference between assumption and knowledge is the difference between lightning and lightening.” Harvey Stanbrough
Waxin’ All Philosophical and Stuff
In today’s Of Interest, the title of Dr. Mardy’s post is “Rich and Poor.” But the actual topic is the ability to empathize. It served as the catalyst for this spur-of-the-moment post.
We writers should care about our characters.
I don’t mean we should mold them to do and say what suits our critical mind or what we “think” they should do or say. We have no more right to levy our personal “I” on our characters than we have to levy it on other humans. Live and let live, that.
I mean we should allow our characters their own actions and opinions and then care about them anyway. (Whether we should do the same with other humans is for you to decide personally.)
Why? Because owing to the fact that the characters’ existence on the page is a result of them having actually passed through us, they are the only beings with whom we can truly empathize. Like our children, they are “of” us. Unlike our children, they don’t mind being of us.
That they are of us is true regardless of your personal beliefs about their source. It is true if you believe they reside in our creative subconscious, and it is true if you believe (as I do) that they probably reside elsewhere and only pass through our creative subconscious on their way to the page.
In the end, what we believe about their source doesn’t matter. That they exist is reason enough to care for them.
Our characters are wonderful in every way, which is to say the good are extremely good and the bad are extremely bad.
On the next layer down, characters have their own opinions of (and intentions toward) the other characters and the world around them, and those opinions and intentions, good or bad, are always pure. Yes, even when they contain and conceal hidden agendas.
Characters have no actual physicality, at least in our world, so when they are stabbed or shot or otherwise injured on the page, the page does not turn red with blood.
Likewise, unbound by a physical existence, they enjoy unlimited perspectives. They can see (hear, smell, taste, and experience, physically and emotionally) whatever’s there, with or without bias.
Besides, when characters act or voice an opinion, whether in a spirit of benevolence or malice, the reader can look away or close the book.
We humans, on the other hand, are lmited. Severely.
Owing to our own physicality, each of us is necessarily the center of his or her own universe.
In other words, we are only human, and in every case we are limited by our physicality and by the narrow perspective it affords us.
We, all of us, view the world and universe around us from a skewed vantage point: We can only observe and perceive from our own center out.
Therefore, any attempt at empathy can only be a (maybe) kindly perspective. And in every case, empathy is a failed result of the imagination.
The greater question is not whether one can imagine another’s experience—i.e., walk a mile in the shoes—but whether the attempt to do so is legitimate or is only a selfish attempt to make the would-be empath feel better about him or herself.
Collectively we writers also find it far easier to follow directions than to go our own way and risk responsibility.
After all, if we follow directions—especially explicit directions, like being careful to sketch our characters and build their fictive world and outline and write word by careful word and revise and seek critical input and then rewrite X number of times—we can lay the blame for any failure at the feet of those who advised us.
That’s also why it’s so difficult for would-be fiction writers to sit down and Just Write.
When you do that, the necessity of accepting personal responsibility for yourself and your characters’ story is a constant companion. That’s a large (if seldom considered) part of what’s so frightening and exhilarating about writing into the dark.
Likewise as humans, collectively we find it easier to tear down than to build up. Tearing down seems always our go-to reaction.
Witness those who will quickly smile and whip out “Hey, your way is the right way for you” and then dogpile on you, collectively, if your way is not what they teach in their nonfiction books on writing. (BTW, I’ve just added “whip out” to the valid list of forms of utterance. [grin])
Characters can even feel empathy. Real empathy. And as writers we can empathize with them, but not really with anyone else.
Among humans, empathy itself is a fiction. We find it far easier to fling stones at those we do not wish to understand (and with whom we haven’t even the faintest desire to empathize) than to actually carry the burdens of those for whom we imagine ourselves champions.
So much for walking in the others’ shoes.
Aren’t our characters fortunate they don’t have those limitations? And aren’t we fortunate they’ve befriended us and trust us to tell the stories that they, not we, are living?
I think so.
Talk with you again soon.
Of Interest
Dr. Mardy’s Quotes of the Week: Rich and Poor
Questions on Fall Indie Writing Festival
The Numbers
The Journal…………………………… 940
Writing of “How’s That? Come Again?”
Day 1…… 2408 words. To date…… 2408
Day 2…… 1273 words. To date…… 3681
Writing of Blackwell Ops 48: Razor Sharpe
Day 1…… 2213 words. To date…… 2213
Day 2…… 1210 words. To date…… 3423
Day 3…… 1318 words. To date…… 4741
Day 4…… 2481 words. To date…… 7222
Day 5…… 1588 words. To date…… 8810
Fiction for September……………… 38051
Fiction for 2025…………………….. 572200
Nonfiction for September.………… 22280
Nonfiction for 2025………………… 208530
2025 consumable words………….. 773116
2025 Novels to Date…………………….. 14
2025 Novellas to Date…………………… 0
2025 Short Stories to Date……………… 32
Novels (since Oct 19, 2014)…………….. 118
Novellas (since Nov 1, 2015)…………… 10
Short stories (since Apr 15, 2014)……… 302
Short story collections……………………. 29