Amalgamation

Characters are interesting.  Or, at least, they should be.  As a writer, I've noticed that some of the people in my life of late have taken on the form of a caricature in my head.  They have morphed into play actors in the drama of my life.  When I play back a scene in my memory, it becomes much more grandiose and colorized than how it actually occurred.  When my focus was on photography, I found that I saw life in snapshots.  Now that I am focusing on writing, everything is a storyline and everyone is a character.

When I sit to write these stories and portray these characters, I worry that my family and friends may recognize themselves in what I write.  I am concerned that they may not like the reflection they see.  But, I also want to be true to the character that is forming in my head.  I believe that, in storytelling, often our characters are an amalgamation of the people that we know.  In truth, many story lines are a creative combining of bits and pieces from the stories we see around us.

So, how do you defend your characters, write what's in your heart, and still have friends?  How do you tell a story and create a villain who may resemble someone you know in some way and yet avoid ducking out of view when they enter the neighborhood coffee house?

I'm learning to get some distance from my characters.  In doing so, I am fictionalizing them.  While I want to take parts of my story and tell it, some of it should always remain mine - not for public consumption.  So, in creating a rival, perhaps I blend together two characters from my past and then place them in fictional situations.  Sounds great, right?  But, what happens when those two people recognize a fraction of themselves and don't like what they see?

I'm leaning more and more towards the idea of creating a secondary, psuedo-identity for myself.  I wonder if I would find the courage and the freedom to write the story I truly want to tell.  Would I be able to blend together things I know and form those I wish to bring into being?  That is the purpose of this blog.  I want to explore this idea of freedom through anonymity.  It's becoming more and more appealing.  It's allowing me to distance myself from the personal aspects of my characters and story lines by creating another viewpoint.

I can't wait to see where this road leads.