Inside Fictional Minds

As a clinical psychologist who fell into writing fiction by accident, it took a long while for me to stop and reflect on the impact of my profession on characterisation. As a writer, you may find that elements of the story seem to write themselves or attributes of a character appear to come from nowhere,  perhaps as if the character themselves is guiding you!

What I think is happening during these moments is that everything you’ve picked up since being a small child about how people appear, feel, behave, react, speak and the specific patterns that arise in individuals has been logged as information without deliberate effort. When you write, some of these natural predictions of human behaviour spill out on the page.

There’s nothing wrong with this approach but it’s possible to dig a little deeper. The aim of my course Psychology of Character and my new book Inside Fictional Minds is to give writers some tools for digging below the patterns of their characters to really figure out the most important question: WHY.

Let’s say you have a vile, narcissistic antagonist, or a people-pleasing character who is too busy looking after everyone else to act on what she needs, or a prickly character who pushes other people away even though he would really benefit from support.

These are recognisable figures to a reader. But what differentiates the three of these characters? Maybe they all had difficult times in childhood, maybe they all long to be noticed, maybe they are all trying to protect themselves in some way. So, the trick is to look through lots of different lenses until you figure out the interactions between elements such as attachment patterns, beliefs about the self and others, how emotions are experienced and which have been learnt to be ‘disallowed’, what tricks of the mind protect them and how their perceptions are skewed. Now we start to differentiate A from B from C. 

This leads us on to a crucial part of any length of story: change! Something has to change in the character, whether that is subtle or huge, internal or external.

After taking you on a tour of thoughts, feelings, coping and defence mechanisms, Inside Fictional Minds has the longest chapter to look at how change occurs in characters. Because no matter what terrible hardships you’ve hurled at your poor characters, it’s human nature to resist change.

We don’t want those painful insights or to face the threat of undoing our carefully constructed ways of coping, even when life is tough. So I think one of the most important aspects of the book is to guide you in how to make any arc to your character step-wise and realistic. 

I’m particularly interested in how the unconscious or ‘forbidden’ emotions and longings move upwards into awareness, get stopped in their tracks by defence mechanisms, but can eventually make their way closer to the surface.

This pattern mirrors the process of therapy where the painful realisations have a purpose – to give choice and freedom to become more authentic. If your story has a darker ending then it works really well too. By showing your readers what the true emotions and longings in your character are, then that character packing it all away tightly into a box, the reader gets the wallop of empathy and tragedy of the situation.

The style of Inside Fictional Minds mirrors my background before novel writing of being a flash fiction writer – micro stories of under 1000 words.

The short chapters on different topics offer a taste of many different areas of human psychology followed by sets of tasks to personalise the learning to your current project. It’s an active approach that doesn’t get bogged down in references or long explanations to keep you in the creative domain and challenges you to apply the methods rather than get lost in the detail. 

I hope Inside Fictional Minds will provide you with a rich, easy to read resource to deepen your understanding of character and you may just find that you reflect on yourself a little, too. 

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Dr Stephanie Carty is a writer, NHS Consultant Clinical Psychologist and trainer with a qualification in teaching higher and professional education. Her fiction is widely published and has been shortlisted in competitions including the Bridport Prize, Bath Flash Fiction Award, Bristol Short Story Prize and Caterpillar Story for Children Prize. Her novella-in-flash Three Sisters of Stone won Best Novella in the Saboteur Awards. She is represented by Curtis Brown

Follow Stephanie on Twitter https://twitter.com/tiredpsych

Find out more about her on her website

About INSIDE FICTIONAL MINDS

As a psychological thriller author I found this book both educational and inspiring; such a useful resource to help writers create intriguing, authentic characters – and maybe learn something about themselves too.’
~Jackie Kabler, author of the Cora Baxter Mysteries, Am I Guilty? and The Perfect Couple.

‘An invaluable guide to creating authentic characters by peeling back the layers and searching for the ‘why’ that lies behind all our actions. I have really enjoyed applying psychological theory to creative intuition, led by Stephanie’s accessible approach to creating believable, motivated characters.’
~Sarah Steele, author of The Missing Pieces of Nancy Moon and The Schoolteacher of Saint-Michel

‘What are the subliminal influences that really drive a character? How can these be revealed in a way that pulls the reader in and keeps the pages turning? In Inside Fictional Minds Dr Stephanie Carty offers an insightful, easy-to-read guide for all writers seeking to create believable characters who keep us gripped by their choices.’
~Jane Bailey, author of Sorry Isn’t Good Enough and Larksong

‘Inside Fictional Minds is an accessible and invaluable tool for any writer of fiction wanting to get underneath their character’s skin. Packed with psychological insights into motive, reason and desire, it’ll have you unravelling the intricacies of being human in new and exciting ways.’
~Hannah Persaud, award-winning short story writer and author of The Codes of Love

‘A truly exceptional book, a classic in the making. It offers unique insights into human psychology that are easy to apply to fiction writing, but that also taught me a lot about myself. Inside Fictional Minds is a journey of discovery.’
~Sophie van Llewyn, author of Bottled Goods, longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction.

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, How To and Tips