“The first and most important requirement is an understanding of human nature. … A man learns nothing when he talks; he learns by listening. Which is why those who talk the most are, in the ordinary run of things, fools.” – Essay on Novels, The Marquis de Sade
More writing advice from the esteemed (alright, notorious and dubious) Marquis de Sade. He is onto something, however.
Writers need to be students. Students of all that life has to inform us. I am a firm believer in reading, observing, listening and contemplating (possibly to a fault – I do drift off sometimes into my own private world of wonder). How else can a writer put him or herself into the mind of a character –a character who does not share your own life’s experience, beliefs, opinions, motivations, desires or biases?
Ask the why and the what for? What motivates people to do the things they do? Is it a lust for power, wealth, fame? Or duty, honor and family obligation? Or most nobly, for love?
Observe people talking to their partners across the table at a restaurant. What do you gather from their facial expressions? Is it a romantic evening or is tension in the air? What can you gather by listening to the person next to you on the train as they talk on the phone? Is it business, a family matter, personal? (I am not advocating stalking, FYI!)
Just like traveling to the location we wish to use as our setting so as not to get it wrong, the characters we write also need to be authentic. And thus as we listen and observe, we then become empaths, placing ourselves in the situations we wish to write about.
And in the spirit of the above advice, I will stop talking and let the marquis’ words stand on their own.
Image thanks to NPR
Meg Sorick, Author/Artist 
This is my favorite part… placing ourselves in the situations, being empaths, listening and understanding people. Love this, Meg!
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Thanks, Kay. I think so too. Imagining how it feels to be someone else. The height of fantasy
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Yes. And I believe that empathy and ability to put self in other’s shoes translates to real life too.
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Most definitely. Oh if only more people would try to do that…
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Yes!!💜
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I like this, I sometimes wish I had the nerve to say “listen, fool!”. 🙂
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Hahaha! Well I wasn’t trying to call readers ‘fools’ but yes, I would love to say that to some people once in a while, myself. Thanks, Holly! 😀
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It’s so true. Sometimes they just won’t shut up lol! So tempting.
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I know!
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Love this! It’s one of the best-and possibly worst- feelings to put yourself into the mind of a character you’re writing (or reading). I’m an avid people watcher. Just as long as I don’t have to talk to them, lol.
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It is! I felt a little sick the first time I killed off a character in my book, even though he was a bad guy. But being somewhat voyeuristic is probably the lot of every writer!
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True! I love to watch! 😉 In the fan fiction I used to write, there was a very big tradition of killing off a hated character in the worst way possible. I just can’t do it. Not even for that slimy guy. 😄
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Right! I totally get that!
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Ah the Divine Marquis is full of sage writing advice. This one is brilliant. He would make a very good creative writing teacher. As regards killing of a character, Nabokov said that every writer shouldn’t be free of sadistic impulses towards his characters (he certainly wasn’t). Lolita is full of references to De Sade. I am loving the De Sade writing course. He pops up everywhere.
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The Essay on Novels really is practical and timeless. I’m trying to come up with a post with his advice about avoiding moral ernestness. “Morality is not something anyone wants in a novel.” I love it!
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I couldn’t agree more. That was groundbreaking advise back then, Virtue always had to triumph. You can see how morality ruined Lewis Carroll’s later books. He had quite rightly worried that Alice didn’t contain a didactic lesson and set about correcting the omission to dire effect. One of the reasons that Alice is brilliant is because it was the first children’s book not to contain a moral to the story.
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How dull! An adventure can just be an adventure for its own sake
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Indeed, but the Marquis was a good 50 years ahead of the art is its own purpose, or art for art’s sake. That wouldn’t come before the romantics turned decadent.
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All the greatest innovators are men/women out of time and place. No doubt about his far reaching influence.
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Indeed, I still need to do that post on his last will and testament. I will soon. I posted another Breton poem, look forward to hearing your comments.
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Of course. Still waiting for Bloody Mary…
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Patience is a virtue
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I hate being virtuous!
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I like being mysterious
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Oh, I know you do.
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Yet another reason why I need to spend lots of time in Paris with a really hot romantic man who adores me. For research.
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Ooh! Precisely! 😍
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Too true: the owl he was a wise old bird … the more he spoke the less he heard … the more he heard the less he spoke … there never was such a wise old bloke. Sometimes we are wise when we abstain from speech.
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Well, you had me right up to the ‘no stalking’ thingy.
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Well stalking optional! How bout that? 😜
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Yippee! I’ll go change into my night goggles
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I recommend stalking. It always works for me.
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