Editorial Article

Mrinali Jadhav : Editor-in-chief at Unverbalise

Have you ever wondered about the lives, writers pour in the characters they create? It’s after all just words that we read, but what makes all these words, these sentences come to life on the pages we read through?

Characters in any story tell their story through the actions they perform. On a broader spectrum, they create scenarios from the decisions they make. And thus the setting of the characters play and important role in pulling the story to It’s ultimate ending.

Just placing and adding words will not help with the progress of the story, and this very difference separates good and wonderful stories from the mediocre and forgettable ones.Stories are driven by emotions. And the emotions needs to be felt in the heart of the reader who is reading through those words.

Character design plays far more important role than it is often considered or given credit for. Pictures of lives of individuals we could never meet in our entire life, can be seen while looking at the book and reading through it.

Lives get decorated on the pages when the motives of the characters get fleshed out slowly through the entire pace and the theme of the story. It’s not as difficult as it may sound like, but can prove to become the make or break point for the entire peice of work.

So why is it even considered complicated to begin with? What brings in the complexity to this portion of study regarding building characters in the world that doesn’t even exist? For me, the complexity is driven by the idea that an entirely new person is born to favor the pace of the story.To ease the process of narrating it no matter what the medium, maybe through books or visual drama or even a song.

The characters are the vehicles to deliver the motive for which the story begun in first place.Their motives, their actions, what makes them happy and sad, all these factors then become crucial to know the nature of their reactions to their surroundings. Also these points are necessary to be very well jotted down to avoid massive plot holes in any peice of work. Let’s be honest here, we all humans love answers. We might probably hate questions most of the times, but answers make us feel relieved and makes us think it is easy to move on.

Cliffhangers in story can really work well in stories due to this very principle, since it becomes tough overall to move on from the story, but what if the novel ends right there? Without any answers? With just massive and unreasonable plot holes?The story is obviously going to lose its magic. I think this part of our thinking for the stories or the peices of art we see comes from what we are taught in our childhood.

Having morals to every story makes it an habit to seek for one every time.Villains getting punished, heros finding peace, villages getting saved and a happily ever after makes the story a perfect mix of entertainment. We love conclusions that matches our sets of morals, and the characters is the story delivers them to us.What’s more important to understand though, is not just the designs of the lives that the characters are given but how they behave in the nature they are placed in.

Their response to the surroundings and responses to the stimulus around them, actively stimulates us to decided whether we should root for them or hate them.A lot of times, it is clear who the bad guy is but the method of story telling definitely makes it unique to predict one sometimes.

The lives these characters live on the pages of the novels, through the sentences and the words make a much bigger motivation for us to live our lives.We draw strength from the imagination to go ahead with our lives and often put ourselves in the position of the characters we read through. ‘What will my favorite character do in this situation?’

This question can prove to be a part of us that deserves answers even when we don’t have them. We reason our actions with the help of fiction we read.Character design can certainly become the most complex part of telling a story. To know the human or creature we are trying to build knowing fully well that they don’t exist, and telling their story to the people reading it truly requires a set of skills.

To connect with others with the help of fiction is truly intresting and what makes it even more precious is the idea that we will never stop looking up to the stories and our favorite characters to draw inspiration for living our life.

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Mrinali Jadhav is an Indian novelist, poetess, entrepreneur and a medical student. She writes under her pen name Luna Arsyn and is known for her first poetry collection series (2021) ‘If Only Happiness…’. The collection series has a total of Eight Books with poems written throughout the last decade in her teen years.Her novel series ‘The Kingdoms Of Mirage’ was launched as a part of WSA 2022 (Webnovel Spirity Awards 2022) with the first book in the series ‘REGINA’.She is the founder of SOSHA (Society Of Self Healing Arts) and Editor-in-chief of the Indian Literary website Unverbalise.

Instagram – @lunaarsyn

Email – lunaarsyn@gmail.com

Author Portfolio – https://issuu.com/lunaarsyn/docs/pdf_20220611_113549_0000