In order to write fiction you have to be an actor. That immediately seems wrong, when worded in that way, but stay with me here. The job requires accurate descriptions of many different people, and if you're doing that job right, you see the world through their perspective. So every line of dialogue and every single action, is an informed decision based on the character's point of view.
If it sounds like a daunting task, I assure you that it can be. Career screenwriters and novelists can still miss the mark after decades of practice. The requirements of genre can add a great deal to the difficulty. Imagine being asked to write an inhuman organism, with behavior contrary to what we know.
Let's say you're cast as a xenophobe, in the next Alien movie. They zip you up into the suit and you start to move around. If you start acting like a monster from outer space, they should relieve you of your duties immediately. From that being's perspective, humans are frightening; we're the grotesque creatures posing a threat to their existence.
It takes a lot more than expressive movement; you have to get inside the mind and become what it is. Of course, that requires an extensive amount of knowledge, but it taxes your imagination and ability to live outside yourself. After reading about and doing it for countless hours, whatever instincts the subject would have are your instincts. Until you are able to find that place, you can't act properly and you certainly can't write about it.
Classic Movie Trailers - E.T. the Extra -Terrestrial (1982)
Sympathy and empathy are not synonyms. The former is an appreciation of someone else's position, but that may not include a full understanding. For example, let's say that your neighbors go through a messy divorce. The groom loses his life savings and the house is foreclosed. You may recognize it as a terrible turn of events, but that doesn't mean you can feel what he's going through.
Maybe you were born into wealth with no financial concerns. Maybe you're in a rock-solid relationship, that hasn't changed since high school. If that's the case, you would still be able to contemplate the reverse, but it can be difficult to feel the emotions involved. However, if you happen to be an empathetic person, you get the total picture and you're able to cry with the unfortunate person.
Please note that if you're skilled at empathy, you don't need to have lived through a similar tragedy. In fact, if you're really good at it, the situation can be fabricated. There is no example of an immortal race of beings in this life, but if you want to write about Tolkien's elves, you better be able to empathize with them. To date, I believe that people have varying amounts of empathy, and some people try to defeat what is an essential human skill.
According to this film, we're empathetic amateurs. E.T. comes from a race of beings far more advanced. It's humorous to regard superiority in that context. Fiction generally assumes that otherworldly life means better technology. Instead, an alien from a galaxy far away, touches down to show us how we suck at relating to each other.
It's possible that we're not born with that deficiency. Some things, like imagination, are tougher to hold onto as we get older. Think about the alien's first meeting with the young boy. Think about their identical reactions and how they quickly realized they were feeling the same things. If Elliott was an adult on that fateful day, it might not have been as heartwarming as it turned out to be.
As it was, he was put in a position to receive an incredible gift. Suddenly, he could empathize with E.T., even from a great distance. At first glance, it would seem like a simple, science-fiction invention. You probably won't recognize the biting satire.
When it comes down to it, the human condition is a direct result of our emotional shortcomings. If we empathized correctly, imagine the problems we'd solve! Racism and gender bias wouldn't even exist. Social classes would be trivial and in danger of irrelevance.
Creativity is linked to imagination. A strong imagination enables empathy, which allows for better creativity. So as an author, I'm motivated to feel emotions that I'm not experiencing. The ability produces quality fiction and better life forms.
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@ChannelSeals
Next Week: "Journey to The Center of the Earth".
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