What is a character? What is the setting?
Defining our terms is the first step into really anything because one, it gives us something to build off of and it makes sure everyone is starting off in the same place. So, in the discussion of the story two elements come up a lot.
Character and setting, I’ve talked about them a lot, but I never sought to really understand what they were, not in the context of how to write them in a story.
The best way to understand the concept of character and setting is to realize that they are just imitations.
Characters are imitations of people.
Setting is an imitation of places.
Having this as the foundation of your understanding opens up the doors of creating character and setting because it doesn’t pigeonhole you into making them just like people you know and just like places you’ve been. Because they will never be those things. Aim for them to move alongside the real thing not to become the real thing, give them autonomy.
Character
Characters are imitations of people. So, what are people? Having them just be imitation allows you to choose what aspect of people you want to explore. Human nature, concepts like morality and ethics, desire, love, etc., because we as people experience all of these and trying to show all of…
