Taking novel characters off the page, and into real life

Oct 22 2008

There is a lot of pleasure in reading a good novel. For me, one of those pleasures is immersing myself in the into the world of the character/s. A well-written character can start to appear like a real person, and I often find myself feeling their pain when something goes wrong, or celebrating their joy at even the smallest of victories.

But what happens when you finish reading the novel? I often find myself thinking about the future of the character, or how they would react to hypothetical situations that my imagination plunges them into. One book that stands out in my mind is Forty Signs of Rain (aff link) by Kim Stanley Robinson. The book is the first in a trilogy and introduces us to a character named Frank. Frank is an awkward loner type who eventually makes his home in a tree house he built in one of the Washington D.C. parks. He’s one of those characters I obsess about long after finishing the book (or in this case, the series of books).

Creating a virtual world for characters

I was highly intrigued when I came across this article from The Guardian website. It talks about a character named Steffi McBride, who is the lead in a novel called The Overnight Fame of Steffi McBride by Andrew Crofts. And what makes her so interesting is not so much the novel (although that plays a large part) but Steffi’s "life" outside the novel:

But what, arguably, makes Steffi more interesting than your average airhead celeb is that she’s the figment of an author’s imagination and these tantalising – or annoying – insights into her star-studded existence come courtesy of her updates on Twitter the social media "microblogging" site, and her Facebook page.

Yes, Steffi has a Twitter account and a page on Facebook. On the one hand, it’s not that surprising. A popular character can probably do pretty well on such social networking sites, and it can only boast the novel’s popularity among fans. On the other hand, however, I’m inclined to think many people will see this as over-the-top. Part of the magic of certain characters is their lives within the framework of the novel. If they set a metaphorical foot outside of that, things can start to appear wishy-washy.

Linda Jones, who wrote the article on The Guardian website, seems to agree with my latter analysis:

I’m not convinced readers are bound to fall for it, or even have a passing interest. It’s baffling to contemplate why we would sign up for updates from someone who isn’t real anyway, and whose book we may not even have heard of.

Her last point is also a good one: Many people might have not even heard of the book. Would Steffi’s presence on social networking sites boast book sales? I’m not so sure. Fans of Steffi will probably bask in the updates and continuation of the novel, a novel they have already read. But if someone came across Steffi’s profile on Facebook who hasn’t read the book, would probably just be confused.

Crofts disagrees with that assessment:

"Hopefully people will be curious and eager to find out more. Who is this girl? If she is so famous how come I’ve never heard of her? It wouldn’t be long before they realised she was a fictitious character and by then I hope they would be sufficiently interested in her to want to find out more by reading her story."

I honestly think I’d just feel cheated and be turned off to the character and the novel. But that’s just me. I’m sure there might be a few out there who’d see it much differently.

Leave characters in books, and in our imaginations

Maybe I’m an old school purist (elitist?) that believes the only world a character belongs in is the novel (or even short story). Anything more than that can just seem gimmicky – a strategy set by marketing types who want to squeeze every last cent out of a character’s popularity.

This type of criticism is nothing new. People often moan and groan when a great book is turned into a not-so-great movie. The plot was messed up. The characters changed too much from the novel. The movie cut out important scenes. These are common complaints I hear, which is why I’m inclined not to see a movie adaptation of a book.

What do you think? Would you want to see your favorite character from a novel suddenly appear on social networking sites? Why or why not? Don’t be shy and leave us a comment below. I promise we don’t bite!

One Response

Bloggers’ reaction to piece on fictional characters’ social networking

SINCE writing a piece about fictional characters making their presence felt on Facebook and Twitter, it has been interesting to see how it has been picked up by other bloggers. Andrew Crofts himself pitches in on both his own blog

Freelancewritingtips.com 10/27/2008 4:43 pm