Revulsion Compulsion

All good writing (and most bad) is at least partially autobiographical in nature. Our own life experiences form the basis of our thoughts, dreams and imaginations. My fiction is no different. I plunder my history as much as any author does, giving characters parts of my own lifestyle and memories, giving them my own prejudices and desires, experiencing my own life wish-list through their actions. They say ‘Write what you know’. That’s what I do. That’s what all writers do if they want their work to appear believable.

But of course ‘Write what you know’ doesn’t mean that if I don’t know something right now, I can’t learn about it and then write knowledgeably. That’s the point of research. Read up on a subject; then I’ll know about it and will indeed be able to write what I know.

But research can only take a writer so far. For instance, I’ve written from a female point of view despite (last time I checked) being very male. After I’ve rewritten (and rewritten, and rewritten) and made that kind of story as good as I can, I then send it to several women friends to see if my female character sounds and acts in an authentic manner. I guess they’d have a better insight into her then I do. Similarly I recently wrote a story from the point of view of a young American boy growing up in the 1950s. That’s not something I personally experienced so I got an American friend to check it out. His cultural suggestions made a huge difference to the believability of that character.

Sometimes though I just have to rely on my imagination. I don’t personally know any really repugnant people. Even my ex-boss who I always claimed that I wouldn’t spit on if he were on fire had some good points. Like getting made redundant before I did; lots of people found that very entertaining.

I don’t know any mass murderers. I don’t know any far-right neo-nazis, or any far-left revolutionaries for that matter, although I do know several people who are ‘far out’ in many other ways (‘man’). I don’t know any mad scientists who spend as much time refining their plans for world domination as they do practicing their trademark evil cackle. ‘Mwah-ha-haaaaa’.

I’ve never really come into contact with anyone who I’ve found irredeemably loathsome so how can I write from the perspective of a completely despicable character? And I do want to. Actors say that the villains are the best part to play, that they relish the challenge of trying to convince an audience that they’ve become a character as far removed as possible from their own. What are writers if not just actors who use the written word instead of the spoken one?

Yet if I manage to create a believable character who disgusts the reader in some way, does it mean that part of me is morally repugnant too? Is it harmful to go digging, to bring these socially unacceptable sections of my psyche to the fore?

I guess there’s a bit of (insert your favourite villain here) in all of us.

© Shaun Finnie 2012