How to Write Killer Prose (14)

Being Villanelle

           

We often talk about 'identifying' with a character, but what does that really mean? Does it mean temporarily becoming that character? Living in their skin? Looking through their eyes? Is this what we really do when we attach to a fictional being? Is this what we ask and expect of our readers? As writers, we absolutely need to have this straight in our minds. We're story-tellers, obviously. But story-telling isn't the whole story. We can present imaginary characters and worlds, and if we do that well, people will enjoy it. They will suspend disbelief, and hopefully 'identify' in the way I've described above.

            If you can do this, brilliant. But it's possible to do more, to push your readers' identification to the next level, and to achieve that you have to become someone you might not quite recognise in the mirror. You have to split yourself into two different creative beings. One is passionate and instinct-driven, ready to take joyous imaginative leaps. The other is icy, forensic and manipulative. You have to become like a spy, or more accurately like an agent runner: empathetic on the surface, but always questioning, always probing. You have to raise your shadow side, because it is your reader's shadow side that you will be engaging with.