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| This group sponsors a great writer's conference every October. Check it out. |
I have a question for all of you readers out there. (I guess the same question could apply to movie watchers too.) What is it that you like most about a literary work -- the characters or the plot? I think characters are most memorable to me. My favorite films and books have memorable characters. Frodo in Lord of the Rings. I actually prefer Samwise in the movie. Harry, Hermione, and Ron. Forrest Gump. Can there really be a meaningful story without a memorable character? I don't think so. I tend to gravitate toward ensemble type films and books probably because I like the idea of a large group of friends hanging out together. When I was younger, I was a part of some groups, but I am not really that way anymore. I miss it.
I sometimes feel isolated, and I believe I know at least one reason why. I teach, and I truly do like my students and I like seeing them grow and develop, but they are nerve wracking at times. In the evenings after a full day with students, I often don't want to be around big groups. I just want to engage in my solitary adventures. I am also somewhat handcuffed by the fact that I have so much work to do after school sometimes. I have to grade papers and if I am going to write, this is the time I must do it. Then, I usually have other obligations too.
As my friends and I aged, we, of course, went off on our own pursuits and grew apart. It's hard for high school students to realize that the friends they have in high school will not likely be their friends their entire lives. I've always been somewhat of a loner anyway, not that I don't like people, but that I like privacy.
There have been times when I have really connected with people. I meet people at writers' conferences at times. I used to go to the Ozark Writer's Conference in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. At dinner one night I met this group of people that I started talking to, and there was an instant connection. It was like I had made a lifelong friend, one who knew everything about me, in just ten minutes. Stupid me did not get names and numbers down. I would like to go to that conference again, and may, in fact do so, this coming October. It's hard to be a writer even with the Internet and the connections you make through Facebook and blogging. It is a lonely pursuit at times.
I think I have had the same problem here as I sometimes get in my writing. I have wondered off topic.
So, what do you think? What makes a movie or book memorable for you?
While I'm at it, let me put in a plug for the Ozark Writers Conference. It is a great conference. One of the most spectacular aspects of it is that if you sign up for it -- and the registration fee is very inexpensive -- you can enter any of their 15 or 16 contest, all of which offer cash prizes. I have won enough in contests at their conferences that I have actually made back my registration fee.
It is a good time. Usually the first weekend in October. They have not planned out their 2012 conference yet, but you can go to their home page and get more information on what they have done and who they are.
http://www.ozarkcreativewriters.org/
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I definitely think characters make or break anything you watch or read. My favorite books: Harry Potter, The Giver, Flowers For Algernon. My favorite movies: The Return of the King, The Dark Knight, Fight Club, The Social Network. My favorite TV shows: Battlestar Galactica, Lost, Arrested Development. Out of all of those, the one with the least memorable characters (in my opinion) is The Giver. But even in that book, I remember caring deeply about what happened to the main character and what decisions he made.
ReplyDeleteIn the end, a plot is just what happens to your characters. If your characters aren't unique and memorable, no one will care what happens to them.
I have to agree with you, Mark. I would have to think hard to come up with all of the plot elements of the Harry Potter series, but when I think of certain characters, I get an immediate reaction.
ReplyDeleteI like privacy too...
ReplyDeleteI like characters, but I like more how they react to situations. I like confidence and intelligence that helps a character adjust to a situation, but I also like the opposite, when a character is really in it deep and doesn't have much of a chance. Sometimes animals and environment act like characters. Which is why books and movies like Jurassic Park are so much fun. It shrinks the people in the book down to the size of ants, and that's fun too!
I think, like you, that the way characters react in certain situations is the most interesting part of their personality -- it shapes their personality too when they act and react. We are met with a certain situation and will react according to our character, but then, the results might affect our character so that we will react differently the next time. Hence, the elusive character arc.
ReplyDelete