Writing Lesson: Jimmy B. Understood My Problem
Rust…yep, most of it’s gone. Now, let’s see if I can remove all of it with this here entry du blog.
There’s no secret that James Baldwin is my favorite author. His ability to transform words and phrases into a lyrical but gritty portrait of a moment have an unmatched appeal to me. But there’s definitely more that draws me in when it comes to Baldwin. I truly relate to him.
Yeah, there’s the obvious stuff. The black thing. The gay thing. The writer thing. But then there’s the troubles, and for me, that’s seemingly more personal and innate than the other pieces that I use more often to define me.
My latest trouble-share with Mr. Baldwin is about incorporating those “defining characteristics” without it being contrived or working too hard to prove a point. In his essay, “Everybody’s Protest Novel”, Jimmy points out the dangers of the protest novel in which the characters were created to be representative of a group. When a character is representative of an entire group, they more often than not become a caricature.
Caricature’s have their place but not so much as the protagonist. I’d probably drive a nail through my skull before I tried to force myself to create such an abomination.
So, the challenge comes with making a character that has a specific characteristic but is not defined strictly by that trait. I already know the solution is to understand that people are not all of what they are because of one aspect of their lives. Sure, the trait helps to color in the lines, but it isn’t the full palette.
It would be so much simpler to just caricature it up and move along. But I couldn’t handle James Baldwin’s literary spirit disapproving of me like that. Now for all of my characters, I’m forcing them to justify why they are a certain race or sexuality or are interested in certain sports or music or have a type they’re attracted to.
Questions that I would be insulted or uneasy if they were posed to me, I am forcing my characters to stand squarely in front of me to answer. I’m learning a lot more about my characters from their responses and the way that they respond.
Hopefully, this will help me turn out stronger, more complete characters that are the way they are, not because I want them to be that way or because I have an agenda to push.
Hopefully, these characters are the way they are because of all of the the things they have and haven’t chosen to be.
Hopefully, this makes the worlds I create populated with real people and not just imitations of people.
Hopefully, this would make Jimmy proud.
