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And Then My Protagonist Told Me to Shut Up

by Douglas Perry, August 11, 2010 9:00 AM
Do you mind if I complain today?

I recently read — and loved — Brady Udall's The Lonely Polygamist, and so a friend told me that I had to read Udall's first novel, The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint. She said it was fantastic, unforgettable. And so I went in search of it — and came upon, right here on the Powell's site, the following quote from Mr. Udall about the process of writing the book:

For a while, I was happy to live under the illusion that I was indeed the god of my own little universe. Then, very early on in the course of writing the book, something funny happened: Edgar started to go his own way. He began to defy me.

Boy, I really hate this particular authorial flimflam. What Udall is describing is automatic writing, and it never, ever has resulted in a readable novel or poem or even shopping list. Udall, of course, doesn't for a minute believe what he's saying. Imagine Steven Spielberg offering up something similar:

For a while, I was happy to live under the illusion that I was indeed the god of my own little universe. Then, very early on in the course of making Saving Private Ryan, something funny happened: Tom Hanks started to defy me. He made up lines, started to do weird accents, wandered out of the frame.

It would make a great blooper reel if true, but the very idea of it is ridiculous. Someone has to be in charge of any creative undertaking if it has any chance of being fit for public consumption. For a movie, it's the director. For the novelist, it's... the novelist.

I don't mean to pick on Udall specifically. The guy's a terrific writer, and I am looking forward to reading The Miracle Life of Edgar Mint. But the "my characters take on lives of their own" trope is so common in author publicity interviews that it gets under my skin. And Udall seems to love this crutch more than most. He used it again when talking about the characters in The Lonely Polygamist:

It's like having children. You have these expectations and hopes for them. You're sure it's going to go a certain way, and, of course, it never does. It never goes the way you want or hope. That's what happens when characters become full and realized. At some point, they can't do the things that you want them to.

I just pictured Atticus Finch refusing all entreaties to take the Tom Robinson case. Then where would Harper Lee be?

I'm being unnecessarily grumpy, I know. Insisting your characters have minds of their own is just an overused way for a novelist to engage a potential reader, to get him to accept the characters as people who are every bit as real as the neighbors, coworkers, and family members he sees every day. The thing is, Brady Udall is so talented he doesn't have to worry about that.




Books mentioned in this post

Saving Private Ryan D-day 60TH Annive

Girls of Murder City Fame Lust & the Beautiful Killers Who Inspired Chicago

Douglas Perry

Lonely Polygamist

Brady Udall

Miracle Life of Edgar Mint

Brady Udall
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2 Responses to "And Then My Protagonist Told Me to Shut Up"

Eva T. August 12, 2010 at 07:34 AM
I'd like to attempt to explain this, if I could. I apologize in advance if it seems like I'm picking on anyone, but just as Mr. Perry seems to have a pet peeve against authors who say that their characters have taken over the story, I have a pet peeve against people who get annoyed by something that is, to me, a fact of life. Once upon a time, I took a writing course where the teacher insisted that the only way to write a good book was to follow her exacting formula. This formula included planning every single detail of the characters, from religion to birthdate to health issues to favorite foods and colors, etc, etc. The problem with this was, I can't write that way. I don't do outlines. I never know what's going to happen next until it's written. Sometimes, I have a vague idea or five, but the most I ever know is, here's point A, there's point B and somehow, the two have to connect. I'm not the only writer I know who writes this way. When I really get rolling in a story, the characters do seem to write themselves. Sometimes, they will do things that I didn't expect. I've had things go completely sideways on me more than once. I've had characters who were slated to die dodge the bullet and characters who should have lived sacrificing themselves. To me, this is part of the adventure of writing- seeing what the characters will do next. The point is, when many authors say that the characters had a mind of their own, it's not something they're saying to make a reader go, "Oh, now I want to read that!" As bewildering as it probably sounds to many of you out there, they actually mean it. (I feel the same way about people who use outlines to write. Completely perplexing.) The point is, no two writers employ the same technique. So what you think of as a writer's annoying way of driving readers to his novels, he may see as a reality in his writing life. Some people need a map to get where they're going, and some people like to find their own way. There's nothing wrong

Michael57 August 11, 2010 at 02:05 PM
You're in good company: Nabokov was similarly mystified by these kinds of claims. "My characters are galley slaves," he said.

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