Getting into Character

A performance of the play ‘Teechers’ in 2015

There is something quite exhilarating about slipping into the mind of someone who is completely different to you. You can become a villain, a hero, a teenager, a celebrity, an animal, an alien, anything you like! This is why I enjoy writing. This is why I enjoy acting. Both activities offer me the chance to step out of my own skin for a few hours and experience the world from somebody else’s eyes.

I have four main characters in my novel. Many people have asked whether the characters are based on me. The answer is a big fat NO. What fun would that be? The novel would then become ‘Lisa Wakely: The Shortest Biography Ever Written’ and believe me, it wouldn’t be a very gripping read! One of my characters may share certain traits, such as Lily Garcia. She’s extremely affectionate (just like me!) And then we have Harriet Price, who is extremely sensible (nothing like me!) It sometimes surprises people that I am able to write characters that say and do things that I wouldn’t. Once you become familiar with your characters, their humour, their behaviour and what makes them tick, you don’t need to think about their response. They’ll yell the answer in your head. Whether you choose to write down what they say is up to you. Probably not a good idea if they want to swear when you’re supposed to be writing a children’s novel!

I find that acting and writing have many similarities and both complement each other. Acting has taught me to fully throw myself into the character I am playing and that’s a lot easier to do when you’re on stage, in front of a live audience who can react to the role you are portraying. Throwing yourself into character in front of a PC screen isn’t the same. You lack the audience and their response/interaction. That comes later. When I began sending my writing to literary consultancies, they stressed that my characters were wooden and one-dimensional. They were missing emotion and personality. I realised that I should be putting as much effort into my story characters as I was the characters I played on stage. And that’s exactly what I did and what I do. I’d say it’s done the trick!

Of course this doesn’t work for all writers. Not everybody likes being on stage playing to an audience. However, a writer is still a performer. We write to entertain not only ourselves, but the reader. It’s the writer’s job to make our reader laugh, cry, feel emotion and by the end, we hope that they enjoy their journey so much they will be shouting for more!

And so once I have played my character, either on the stage or on my sofa at home, I step out of my characters shoes and jump back into my own cosy ones, where I belong.

“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.”

-Dr. Seuss.