Snapedom

Original poster: bohemianspirit

I recently read an article about the British actor Sir Ian McKellen, and was struck by something he said:

"I think it's an actor's principal duty to stick up for the character. You don't have to like him, but you must understand and meet him from his own point of view." (emphasis mine)

McKellen was speaking as an actor portraying King Lear, but as a writer I was immediately struck by how appropriate it is for novelists and other storytellers: We need to UNDERSTAND our characters, from the inside out, and empathize with them and with their points of view, even if, as ourselves, we don't like everything about them.

I wonder if this is what we're touching on in all of our WTF-ing about J. K. Rowling's interview comments about Severus Snape. "How can she not understand her own character?" comes the cry, time and again. And the answer may be: Because she's only viewing him from the outside, not from the inside. Severus through the eyes of a Gryffindor wannabe is not Severus as he sees himself, nor as he really is beneath the layers of carefully-constructed persona(e) and manifestations of wounds that never quite properly healed.

For those of us who write, Sir Ian's comment and JKR's WTFness can serve as an important lesson in fiction writing: connect with your characters, from the inside out.

Thoughts?