Where does it come from? What makes all of us so interested in what imaginary people do? And why do we want to share those people with others?

Personally, I don’t find this surprising. From our earliest memories we are immersed in stories about what people (or people placeholders like animals) do, how they behave, why they do what they do. This is how we teach children the theory of mind, to understand what motivates various behaviors in various circumstances, both for themselves and for others.

Some of this is practical: “See, this is how people behave (and why).” (So you know what to expect.) And some of this is moral: “This is what people should do, (and why).” (So you know how you should behave, if you can.)

Animals do this too, by observance if not language. They may not think in terms of morals, but they definitely want to know what behavior works for them, and what they can expect from others under various circumstances. (I do wonder about morality in animals a bit, since they certainly seem indignant when others don’t behave as they expect.)

We all experience questions and doubts about what we think other people will do or what they meant, about what we could do, or should do. When we write fiction, it’s a bit like showing our work to experts: people who have the same psychological training that we do, that our whole species does. We want to convince our readers that our people are real, too. It matters.

I believe this is why our characters live so strongly in our own heads, when we write. We are constantly moving them around in there, testing them for reality, looking for little betrayals of that behavior, little falsenesses, so that we can make them more real. We are trained to detect that falsity in the real world, and we apply that training when we write.

There are instrumental things we want our characters to do, to move the plot along, provide motivations, and so forth. But most importantly they have to feel real. And so, we chew on them to make sure they stay real under all circumstances.

That’s what I think, anyway. What about you? Ever get lost in a feel of character falsity, and stymied to detect just where that comes from? What do you do about it?

It’s not easy playing god believably in our invented worlds. But it’s a survival skill in our real world, so we ought to be good at it, like a musician making up tunes as he strolls along, even if he’s the only one listening.