Defining Characters

Fanfiction has many merits, and a few... challenges as a writer.

One of these is that when writing your own original fiction, as opposed to fan fiction, you create your own characters. It's like playing Sims (coming from a person who will spend 2 days setting up my characters and house and then get bored a week later and start all over again)- you pick their appearance, traits, everything. And because you've created them, you can create their thought process too and it's so easy to say "well, this is what Person X would think and react to this situation."

Whereas in fan fiction, because the audience knows the characters as well as the writer, there can be disputes of "I don't think Person X would do that, because of reasons Y and Z."

In something like Wicked, where we only have a limited space to get to know the characters, even though we have other sources we can draw information and inspiration from (in this case, the Wicked novels and The Wizard of Oz), the challenge is that there is still so much we don't know.

The musical doesn't give us the time or the means to delve deeply into the character's deepest thoughts and personality; so often what comes up is that writer's take the brief glance we get and dig their own course beneath the surface.

Now, I find this a great thing. I love reading people's different interpretations of Elphaba and Fiyero, etc. Sometimes it can lead to great discussions, and you can think of things you never thought of/noticed before.

I've never really had any trouble empathising with people, so it's a skill that works for me as a writer because I can easily think "This is how Elphaba would think/react if this happened."

But this is just my interpretation. And honestly, I would love to be able to sit down with a bunch of Wicked actors and just talk about the characters and their motiviations/thoughts, etc. Because to be able to play the characters convincingly on stage, they have to think about all this stuff. Being able to sit around and talk with people who had played these characters I'm writing about would be a dream come true. I could easily spend hours having these conversations.

My point is, that I'm always looking for ways to explain the characters. And because of this, a part of me still regrets never doing psychology at uni (I wanted to, but then I found out there was maths involved, so... yeah, that wasn't going to happen).

Today I came across this blog, where an author takes apart and analyses the first chapter of successful books. This post was on the Hunger Games. But it was this phrase for me, which really reminded me of Elphaba:

"Katniss is a tough cookie, but only because she has no other choice. She has accepted her burden, but it has left her a cold person with defences fully raised."

To me, this fits for Elphaba. In Act 1, she is the way she is because of her childhood. She has to be strong, independant and self-reliant because it's her job to raise Nessa and Oz knows she can't rely on her father to be there for her.
Because of her skin, she's used to being alone so she keeps her defences up. In Act 2, she has to because she's the Wicked Witch of the West.

Quite often, I hear the same comment on people's Wicked fanfics- they have trouble with Elphaba being vulnerable and emotional (unless that emotion is anger). But there's been some instances I've seen where as soon as Elphaba sheds a tear, she's deemed as OOC (Out Of Character).

Which I don't think is neccessarily true. I don't think Elphaba is emotional as say, me, who cries at the drop of a hat, but she's not devoid of emotion. She keeps her feelings hidden to protect herself, but she still feels.

(Another pet peeve is when people portray Fiyero as dumb. He's not stupid (well, not really stupid ;) Sorry I had to do that!), he just doesn't put the effort in. Is he as smart as Elphaba? No, but he's not an idiot either. He just acts like an idiot. Yes, sometimes I have Fiyero say dumb things. But we all say dumb things at times and that doesn't make us dumb. It just means we need to think before we speak).

So... my point... actually, I just wanted to share that Hunger Games quote and then rambled on about characters for a while. So I guess I don't have one.

But honestly, the chance to sit around with Idina Menzel, Kristin Chenoweth, Jemma Rix, David Harris, [insert really long list of every actor I like who's been in Wicked here] and talk just about Elphaba, Fiyero and Glinda... would be the most amazing day of my life.