Two Kinds of Novelists: Character Listeners and Character Impersonators

Character Listeners: Some novelists quoted in this blog—e.g., Toni Morrison, Stephen King, and William Faulkner—have said that listening to their characters tell their stories is a key aspect of their writing process. Morrison said that it is important to keep one’s characters under control so that they don’t run away with the story. King said that he listens to his characters, but then prunes what they have to say. Faulkner described a Rashomon situation in which various characters give their own versions of the story; what they say may evolve over time; or, at least, Faulkner’s understanding of what they tell him may evolve over time.

Character Impersonators: Other novelists—e.g., Philip Roth and Georges Simenon—have said that becoming or impersonating their characters is a key part of their writing process. Roth said that impersonating his characters was a pleasure and made the writing life worthwhile. Simenon said that it was so exhausting for him that he had to write relatively short novels, quickly.

These two approaches correspond to the two types of imaginary experiences in children, which I mentioned in a recent post: imaginary companions, in which the child converses with the fictional friend, and imaginary identities, in which the child impersonates the fictional identity.

I titled this post “two kinds of novelists,” but I really don’t know whether most novelists (or children) relate to their alternate personalities in only one of the two ways described above, exclusively; one way, predominantly; or both ways.