Character Development... In Fiction Versus Real Life

[Bamax]

In fiction: Character goes through some severe dramatic test or tragedy. The experience sticks with them and changes them and their behavior ever after.

In real life: A person experiences a severe dramatic test or tragedy. It changes them temporarily, making them act out of character for two weeks straight. Then slowly but surely they revert to their old self.


By the way, the IRL experience was my own. I have seen that in fiction, characters most often become just what is needed to enable the plot, all their ups and down have brought them to the penultimate moment to prepare them to fit the role the author had in mind all along.

So often because of that character changes stick in fiction. IRL? Not necessarily, as character development IRL is slow and often difficult too.

My experience occurred after the death of a family member. For two weeks straight I acted so out of character, trying to send thank you cards and gifts to people that had helped me in the past that had nothing to do with the memorial service, and one that did.

It was so strange that I literally became upset when a person refused to give me an address of one person I did not know that I wanted to send a gift to. I knew at the time that I was slowly but surely reverting back to the old me, and the newfound magnaminous generousity would not last for long.... so I was trying to use it for good while I still had it.

Thr five stages of grief... really only four for me occurred in this order:

1. Denial. Did not last longer than secibds though.

2. Anger. Came again and again. I was sweeter toward those I felt warmth to, and those I disliked or that mistreated me in both the past and the present I tended to grow openly wrathful with... which is not my usual self.

3. Acceptance. Death is as easy to accept as it is that we cannot fly like Superman. It is a lack of power to prevent the inevitable that we are forced to accept.

4. Depression. This lasted the longest of them all... perhaps I was being generous in part to compensate for my own grief. It did make me feel good doing things for others.


So I guess my point is that IRL we make the plot more or less, so character development is far more fluid and changeable than fiction where characters are often static in nature and unchanging.

Real people either get better or worse.... staying the same only lasts for a while before circumstances enforce changes they should have already made.

For example a young man or woman may eat unhealthy in their twenties, but as they age their body will force them to make dietary changes or else


What times in your life developed you as a character? Did the development stick or was it temporary?

[Keklas Rekobah]

"Fiction is real life without the boring parts." -- Alfred Hitchcock

SF: A man's spacecraft undergoes an explosive disaster.  He is cast adrift, and in his final conscious moments, he curses his attackers.  Miraculously, he wakes up later surrounded by beautiful, blue-skinned alien women with elfin features...

RL: A man's spacecraft undergoes an explosive disaster.  He and his two crewmates struggle to bring the vessel back to Earth using their landing craft for thrust and life-support.  They return to Earth safely and are hailed as heroes...

[Arioch]

Well... humans expect fiction to conform to certain expectations; hopefully it's exciting or heartwarming or expands our horizons, but ultimately the whole point of storytelling is to speak truths about the human condition, and hopefully point the way to making sense out of this mess that we call "life."

Which means that for the most part, readers expect the protagonist to learn from his or her mistakes, and resolve the crisis in a way that lets him or her grow as a person; and if not, then we expect that if the protagonist fails, it is because of some failure of character (such as hubris). In real life, good people fail all the time through no fault of their own, and often an adventure or hardship has no lasting positive effect on a person's character... but if you write a story in which a good person dies at the end for no particular reason, many if not most readers will say, "What the fuck? Why would anyone even write such a thing, much less expect me to read it?"

Similarly, if the hero wins the battle through good effort of his own, but through some kind of deus ex machina or authorial trick, the audience feels let down. I remember watching Return of the King with my stepmother's 8-year-old nephew, and at the conclusion of the Battle of the Pellennor Fields in which Aragon's undead army streams through the armies of Mordor annihilating them all, he glanced at me and said, "aw, man... that was weak."

Now... I've said before that I don't care for fiction which has some kind of conscious moral agenda... and I hold to that... except in that all stories must have some kind of agenda regarding the human condition, even if it's minor or trivial, or (hopefully) unconscious. I think some of the stories with the strongest themes were written by authors who did not intend those themes.

Keklas' Hitchcock quote succinctly tells the first part. The second part is: life is not fair, but we expect fiction to be.

[Bamax]

Well... humans expect fiction to conform to certain expectations; hopefully it's exciting or heartwarming or expands our horizons, but ultimately the whole point of storytelling is to speak truths about the human condition, and hopefully point the way to making sense out of this mess that we call "life."

Which means that for the most part, readers expect the protagonist to learn from his or her mistakes, and resolve the crisis in a way that lets him or her grow as a person; and if not, then we expect that if the protagonist fails, it is because of some failure of character (such as hubris). In real life, good people fail all the time through no fault of their own, and often an adventure or hardship has no lasting positive effect on a person's character... but if you write a story in which a good person dies at the end for no particular reason, many if not most readers will say, "What the fuck? Why would anyone even write such a thing, much less expect me to read it?"

Similarly, if the hero wins the battle through good effort of his own, but through some kind of deus ex machina or authorial trick, the audience feels let down. I remember watching Return of the King with my stepmother's 8-year-old nephew, and at the conclusion of the Battle of the Pellennor Fields in which Aragon's undead army streams through the armies of Mordor annihilating them all, he glanced at me and said, "aw, man... that was weak."

Now... I've said before that I don't care for fiction which has some kind of conscious moral agenda... and I hold to that... except in that all stories must have some kind of agenda regarding the human condition, even if it's minor or trivial, or (hopefully) unconscious. I think some of the stories with the strongest themes were written by authors who did not intend those themes.

Keklas' Hitchcock quote succinctly tells the first part. The second part is: life is not fair, but we expect fiction to be.

I am not saying characters must be like IRL, since the most complex written character still pales in complexity to all but the most mentally impaired person to walk the face of the earth.


Fiction tells the story the way we which life was. Good wins. Evil loses. Guy gets the girl. Happy ever after.

Real life is never so clear cut, as new bad guys always appear after you wipe out the current ones. And THAT is why fiction is something we like. Since the good guys can just totally win and end conflicts once and for all.


That said, I still like touches of realism wherever possible. Where endings are a bit ambigious at times and actions have long standing consequences for both good and bad.

Some popular scifi TV series have excelled at this... Babylon 5 is the most notable for having consequences happen a lot.

They did not pull punches so much as just reverse them.... meaning otherwise main characters would have died or at least stayed dead.

There is a whole thread about what if Babylon 5 did not pull any punches with what characters had to face. The answer was interesting to say the least.


https://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/in ... er-deaths/


I think fiction can be great at showing something true while giving some positive messages too. Bab5 excelled at that too.

[bunnyboy]

Not sure if this count as drastic change in Real Life, but when I was kid, I had once whole week of nightmares. Then, in one dream when I was terrified and dead tired, I had lucid moment and thought that this is MINE dream, so I should rule there. That turned me at One Punch man (in my dreams) and since then, my nightmares fear more of me, than I them.

[Bamax]

Not sure if this count as drastic change in Real Life, but when I was kid, I had once whole week of nightmares. Then, in one dream when I was terrified and dead tired, I had lucid moment and thought that this is MINE dream, so I should rule there. That turned me at One Punch man (in my dreams) and since then, my nightmares fear more of me, than I them.

LOL.... you are not alone. Although my dream foes never feared me nonetheless.

My dream adventures:


I have dreamed of going to the old arcade rooms, but the dreams always lead to some action movie adventure... with me almost dying except for me having the power to end the dream right before that happens.

I have been shot at, nearly ran over, and choked. Out of them all only the choking bothered me, as I felt that. I have the power to stop dreams midway so bullets never ever hit me... I just end the dream and wake up.


For some reason I am always conscious and aware that I am in a dream... I know it is not real.


So generally speaking I have fun until things become too dangerous, or I am about to have fun and the dream stops without me wanting it to.


I never have had much in the way of superpowers in my dreams ever. Except as a young child I flew once... probably inspired from watching superman.


After that my only power was the abiity to stop dreams outright... besides being strong enough (never superhuman though) to usually defeat or at least go toe to toe with whatever monster or human enemy confronted me. With my bare hands.

That's how I survived the choking during a dream. A winged creature choked me but instead of shutting off the dream as per the usual I choked him back till it faded away and disappeared..