Friday, April 26, 2013

Character Question: What is Love?

Yeah, I know that's a weird title. Allow me to explain.

Last night, I was watching Lark Rise to Candleford (a really great period drama TV show that any Austen/Gaskell fans should check out) and the conflict for one of the characters was the question above. What is love? She was kinda freaking out about it. Anyway, when she asked that question the first time, one of my characters answered her in my head. "Love is giving your life for someone else's." Now, this doesn't fit the Lark Rise episode in any way, shape, or form, but I was intrigued. Viola, my character, answered what love is to her. So, I decided to see what some of my other characters had to say.

Marius: Love is accepting/loving someone despite their past.
Bev: Love is being accepted for who you are.
Joy: .... Is this a trick question?
Silla: Love is being accepted, even when you're not what was wanted.
Gwen: Love is working hard for the good of others.
Chad: See Shakespeare's sonnet 116. I painted it on the side of the abandoned crematorium.
Farold: Love is protecting your loved ones from the past.
Henley Sayer: Love is avenging your family.
Lizzie: Ooh, I should ask my characters that.... 

I'm not sure some of these even make sense, but I thought it was interesting to see how differently the characters reacted. And thank heaven they reacted differently, or I would have some serious character development to do for everybody.

As you may or may not be able to see, some of these characters have insecurities that affect their view of this subject (Marius, Bev, Silla...).  Hopefully, that makes them more like chocolate lava cakes and less like cardboard.

If you're a writer (and I assume most of my few readers are), how did your characters react to this question? And I'd love to hear input from all the non-writers too.

A good evening/morning/day/whatever to you.

10 comments:

  1. I love this post! Very interesting way of looking at your characters - and a fundamental way to look at how they view relationships in general. That Viola sure has issues....

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  2. Gracias!

    Yeah, Viola. So many issues. I love the Pinterest board I have for her, but I can't read it for too long 'cause it's kinda depressing...

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  3. Well this post opens up a whole new Word Document for me! It's really cool how your characters all show their own views and beliefs while saying only one sentence. :)

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    1. I'm glad you found it helpful!! It is really fascinating, all the different one-sentence answers :)

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  4. Ooh, must try this with a few of my characters. *runs off*

    *returns with assorted characters in tow*

    Melody: Love is remembering your mother even when she's sleeping under the tree on the hill, knowing she won't wake up again.

    Winston: Love is giving all you've got to save someone.

    Ezekiel: I don't give a barnacle.

    Old Mr. Lu: Someone giving you money is nice. Someone giving you LOTS of money is love.

    Cordelia: Love is protecting your family at all costs even when they fight against you and think that your intentions are evil.

    Terence: Aye, love's when a seahorse comes back to you even when you forget to get 'em some fresh seaweed to eat, mate.

    That was actually really fun. I now have something to occupy myself with for a few hours. Mwa ha ha.

    You received my email, I hope?

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    1. Haha, I'm still laughing over Old Mr. Lu. And I love Cordelia, Melody (sniffsniff), and Winston. Apparently I'm into characters dealing with internal drama at the moment. Are they all from the same story?

      And no, dag nab it, I still haven't gotten an email. I checked Junk and Trash and did a search and I got nothing. I did, however, find your email address (somehow my email program pulled it from your blog comments), so I sent a message to you. Maybe it'll work in reverse.

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    2. Aw, thank you. My characters give their thanks, all except for Ezekiel who thinks he's far too mighty to speak with peasants *rolls eyes*.

      Did you get your part finished? I'm hoping that you received my email that included all of the parts that come before it?

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    3. And yes, they all come from the same story. (:

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  5. Ok, i know it's been forever since this was posted, but i really wanted to comment. So I did it with some of my characters, and this happened….

    Kaleth: Love is protecting someone.

    Marie: I'm not exactly sure, because I'm still figuring love out, but I think it means that you don't want someone to get hurt and will do anything to stop it from happening.

    Katria: Love makes you form attachments that get you killed.

    Egin: Love means wanting the best for someone, even when what they want is the opposite of what you want.

    Barrow: We don't talk about this.

    I have NO IDEA why Barrow said that. I'm so lost. He's keeping secrets from me and I don't like it….i really don't know. sigh.

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    1. I don't care if this was posted forever ago, I still love comments. :)

      Nice answers! Sounds like you've got some really interesting characters.

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