Fiction should be fictional

We did 19th century French Realism this week on my course. I didn't like it. At all. I could go into a long rant about the reasons why and explain myself, and it would take probably six huge paragraphs and a lot of your time. And frankly, that would be just as dull as reading French Realism. So instead I'll summarise:

I prefer stories to be fictional, stretching my imagination. Not reflective of the dull society of the time. I kept waiting for a dragon to appear and eat all the boring characters for breakfast.

No dragons.

Poetry of the soul

The best poetry I ever wrote was when I was in love. Which is in itself a romantic idea, but also true. I worked harder on the poems than I ever had and was able to articulate my feelings accurately. Most of my other poetry is stupid and angsty, as I was young and emotional when I wrote it. I didn't know what poetry was back then. I thought it was all about rhyme.

I still prefer poems with rhymes now, but I know that isn't all that matters when it comes to poetry. There's metre, imagery, language... Things I'm not as practised in. The room for improvement is probably the size of a palace and I hope to at least make this a large mansion by the end of the year. That's right. My New Year's resolution isn't to be kinder, or healthier, or give less attitude. Those are things I want to do anyway. My New Year's resolution is to write more poetry.

My poetry is typically personal, way more personal than my stories. I've written poems for people that I wouldn't dare show them. For some of them it's because it will hurt their egos, but for others it's because I reveal too much of myself in them. I expose myself in my poems.

Okay, I just realised how wrong that sounds, but trust me on this. If you want to learn my soul, read my poems. (But seriously, don't.) I'm going to work on my poetry, and make it a lot more public-friendly. I've wanted to get into spoken word poetry for some time now, so maybe this year could be the year I finally do it. Onwards and upwards.

~*~

Now, this isn't part of my blog post, but it's something that has to be done. I just want to write a ma-HOO-sive thank you to all my friends who were there for me in 2012 when things got rough especially my closest friend Ema. I haven't always been the friend that I should have been and I'm working on it. I've been taking you for granted and I'm sorry. You're the person I can always depend on and you just being there and being you means a lot to me.

Moral support

It is often shown in books that the main character is able to walk bravely into a scary situation and tackle it with minimal fuss (or, walk nervously into a scary situation and tackle it with both hands flailing and their eyes closed). This is fine, it's what people like to read about: a character who overcomes challenges. Simple, basic, fictional.

I say fictional because I'm sure it's not only me who needs someone with them when dealing with an overwhelming scenario. This includes asking for directions, introducing yourself to new people and telling someone they're hot. It could be my inner shyness coming out, but I feel assured by having a companion by my side.

It's not that I couldn't do these things without them. I could. I just get a shot of confidence by having someone with me, even if I am doing all the talking. That's just one of the ways fiction differs from reality: it's not usually shown in books that shy characters have this dependence on their friends.

Maybe I'll try to change that. After all, what is fiction but an amplification of real life?

Haven't I met you before?

When it comes to creating a character, I normally don't have much trouble. They're all different, with individual preferences, personalities and appearances. It's fun to create a new character. It's interesting.

Something else that I find interesting is basing characters off people I know in real life. I've done it a few times in the past, usually twisting distinctive characteristics so they become more defining - sometimes to the point of parodying these people. It's all in good fun though and I don't mean any offence by it. Personally, I found it flattering when a friend of mine admitted he had created a character based on me.

However all of this is intentional, and that's the point I want to focus on here. Or rather, the opposite point I want to focus on. This week I came to realise a realistic, well-rounded secondary character I believed I had thought up all by myself is actually strikingly similar to one of my close friends.

This isn't a bad thing. In fact, the character and her real life counter part both reflect good qualities of each other, (although they are not without their flaws). For all their similarities, the fictional and physical females are also significantly different which is probably why I didn't see the link sooner.

What I want to know is this: why did I choose this person's character as a point of reference when creating my own, however subconsciously? Is it just because it was right for the storyline, or am I just lazy?