Public Author, Do Not Kill: Thoughts on Character Writing in the Age of Social Sharing

Here’s the catch: when you read a story I’ve written, you’re not thinking about me—you’re thinking as me. I’ve wormed my way inside your head (hi!) and briefly taken over your mind. You’re forced to reckon with my full complexity—or, at least, whatever fraction of that complexity I’ve managed to get down on the page.

When the story is over—or if you put it down midway—you’re free to think whatever you want. You can think, Dumb, or Boring, or Great, or, She looks like a bitch in her author photo, or, What the fuck did I just read?

But I don’t need to be there to absorb your reaction. In fact, I shouldn’t be. My role in the process is over. The interpretation, the criticism, the analysis telling you that you’re right or that you’re wrong or that you’re an asshole—that’s someone else’s job. I can’t, and won’t, take part.

—Kristen Roupenian, writing on her viral story “Cat Person” and the fallout of thereof; minor formatting tweaks made for emphasis

I really like “death of the author*.” I’m a fan of the idea that you don’t need to know a single thing about the storyteller to understand and appreciate their work, and I’m intrigued by yet increasingly wary of conversations around media that focus on writer intention. This ranges from the scholarly “you must have historical context for any of this to make sense” to the… decidedly less scholarly “the author condones $unsavoryThing featured in the story.”

(*For clarification’s sake, I’m mostly using writerly-type terms like author/writer/reader here, but I think this is applicable to any media primarily created by one person—so not big-budget movies with a writing team, necessarily, but maybe an indie game.)

I’m also increasingly feeling like it’s impossible to kill the author. Lindsay Ellis’ video essay on the subject goes into this with far more depth than I ever could, and applicable to larger media at that, but I’m not even gonna try going there today.

Instead, I’ve been thinking about people who post about their OCs and those characters’ stories (or lack of thereof) online. (“OC” in this context being Original Character, in case the acronym means something else in whatever corners of the internet you’re more familiar with.)

This is a metric crudton of detour-ridden rambling with no particular end goal, written first and foremost to sort out some thoughts I’ve been mulling over for the past month or so. It takes a big detour into character development talk that’s only tangentially related to the main topic. Editing? What’s that? You’ve been warned. (Or, uh, enjoy! if that’s your cup of tea.)

( obligatory cut for length )