Jim Henson with the Muppets
A while back, I mentioned I was going to restructure a lot of my ideas with merging, deleting, and altering stuff. I also hinted that this is in response to a new idea that spun my mental gears around. At first, it seemed like a fun and simple idea. Now, I’m not too sure and I’m also scared that it crosses a line in terms of egotism.
The premise is a struggling fiction author has been getting rejected left and right while working crappy jobs. Something happens to cause his characters to escape from his mind and into the real world. Not sure if a head injury or he goes insane. The first one feels cliche while the second might hinder him from being the hero. Unless he gets saner as he wrangles up his characters, both heroes and villains. The idea of a curse also came to mind, but that puts magic in the real world prior to his characters escaping.
I even played with the idea that I make another book where he combats an author whose trying to take over the world with their characters or invade other fictional worlds. So, it would be one adventure in the real world and another in a fictional world. Maybe the invasion of the author’s world is what triggers the escape. Though, I might be going too far with the idea if I move beyond trying to gather characters in the real world. An alternative could be one of the characters attempts world domination and comes close.
As you can see, I don’t have anything more than the basic idea. I’m also lost on the following question:
Do I create new fictional characters or break that 4th wall entirely by using the Windemere characters for this?
I will admit that part of me likes the idea of Luke Callindor or Fizzle on Earth. The idea of a character attempting world domination actually stems from an interest in turning a certain sorceress evil. This isn’t even counting characters from the other series that are going to be coming up. Again, it all depends on if this is a good idea and/or I blatantly claim it’s me.
Legends of Windemere 
I have no answers, but I like the idea!
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Thanks.
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This should be fun
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Hopefully. Need to work the kinks out of it.
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I have considered a similar idea, myself, and I suspect that it’s one that many authors have toyed with. Stephen King did it in “The Dark Half” (yes, technically it was the author’s pen name that came to life, but the author says that the pen name and the character were essentially the same), George R R Martin wrote a creepy short story called “Portraits Of His Children” in which a writer was confronted by characters he’d created.
Aaron Allston wrote a wonderful little gem called “Galatea In 2D” about an artist who learns how to make his artwork come alive and has to use his drawings to fight another artist with the same talent (sadly out of print).
In films, we range from the poignant “Purple Rose Of Cairo” to the absurd (yet enjoyable) “Last Action Hero”. I’m sure I could come up with more examples if I sat down and thought about it. (Oh, hang on– “Cool World”, “Monkeybone”, “Cloak & Dagger”. I’ll stop now.)
So it is a very workable idea, and I personally enjoy works with that theme.
I can see benefits to doing it both ways, actually, Kurt Vonnegut used Kilgore Trout as a pen name and as a character and wrote scenes in which Trout interacted with both characters in Trout’s novels and Kurt Vonnegut himself as a character. (Now that Kindle Worlds is open to Vonnegut pastiches I have considered writing “Kilgore Trout: secret Agent.”)
On the other hand, you may find that writing Charles Yallowitz (and your wife and child, presumably) as a character is uncomfortably exhibitionist. If I were to do it I would create a writer and characters out of whole cloth (although I would be tempted to go back and write the original novel as a separate book and publish under the author character’s name.)
Oh, “Five Characters In Search Of An Author”, which I adore, kind of twists the concept around and puts it on its head. And in The Illuminati Trilogy the character Simon Moon has an “out of book experience” and catches a glimpse of Robert Wilson.
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Actually, you just reminded me of a book that I started years ago. The main character was a 1960’s B-movie director. When one of his lead actresses suddenly goes missing, the director goes looking for her, guided by dreams in which he talks with the characters that actress played in his movies. I ought to dig that up again…
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That sounds like a fun idea. Unique twist to the creator meeting creations concept.
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I guess if any author has to worry about meeting up with his characters, it’d be George Martin.
After writing this and thinking more, I’d probably do an alternate reality of myself. Adding in the wife and kid would make things a bit more complicated. It would also be hard to go the insane route because they would give him/me grounding. So, the writer would be a variation of me. Besides, Yallowitz is a terrible name to repeatedly write.
With the characters, I have some that no longer have series. They could work, but I kind of want to play with the established too. Might be a bit self-serving though. Unable to let go or that curiosity of going a different route with a character. For now, it might be best to use placeholder characters with vague descriptions and see what happens as I flush the idea out.
Thanks.
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Just came up with a title for my WIP or what I intend to work on for NANOWRI last night… Working title The Scrolls of Sion…
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Interesting title. Really grabs the attention.
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I sort of like the idea of breaking the 4th wall, personally. Been considering a story like that of my own for a while.
Not that my characters would be all that happy to see me, of course. Especially not Travis. Not after all the times I’d killed him…
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I’m sure you’d have to run away from him. I have a few characters like that. Also some that I wouldn’t want in the real world because they’re far too evil.
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That sounds fun! And the cause behind the characters coming to life … I mean, that’s what’s going to decide your genre for you. If you make the protagonist crazy, then the book’s going to get very dark and very bizarre. Whereas if there’s some spell that brings out the characters, we’re into more fun, fantasy territory. I personally vote for fun fantasy, but that’s just me 🙂
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I’m leery about the spell because I was going to bring the characters into the ‘real world’. If magic already exists then it feels like it takes away from that. Unless I can find a way around that. The ‘crazy’ thing could be fun if the character is teamed up with someone else that acts as a straight man. Then again, I don’t think I have many crazy protagonists, so it’ll be new. So many decisions.
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The magic is used on their side to open a portal to our world. Problem solved. And I think it is awesome. Yarles Challowitz would be a great pen name and no one would figure out it’s you… I get 10% royalty for giving you the name… 😀
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So, you’re thinking the characters cross over on purpose instead of an accident?
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Yes. Somehow they figure out that they are merely “characters” in a fictitious world, and are quite cranky about it. They combine their powers or find a sacred scroll that permits them to open a portal into this world. Then wackiness ensues…
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The only issue with that is it makes all of the characters rather sinister and villainous. I’m thinking Holly Wood from Cool World. I’m not sure I want to go that route. At least if I use my own characters like Luke and Nyx. Still, an option to consider or maybe even one character that makes the door.
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