I did this in the hopes of getting a handle on the character, but I found that to be problematic. For one thing, no way would Lindsey put up with this shit. He wouldn't answer questions about leggos and tootsie pops for anything but to save his own ass, and then he'd be bitchy and monosyllabic and that'd be no fun. These questions rather do seem like something W&H would give their employees just to keep them on their toes, but again, Lindsey's response would be fuck this shit, because Lindsey doesn't like his chain to be jerked. I think a lot of people doing these things are sort of having this problem--for instance, bellatemple did one for Kennedy in which Kennedy gets annoyed and walks out after 27 questions. Which was funny for one survey, but if we did that on all of them, it'd be no fun.
Anyway, so beyond that hurtle are weird questions like who's giving the survey, and is he typing this or not? Unless you talk a lot on the internet, like we do, your writing is a lot more formal when you type than when you talk. So if you want realism, you have to sacrifice the character's voice.
And that comes to the issue of making the reading of the questionairre interesting while still in character. For instance, on the question about swimming I had him telling this whole story about a place he and his brothers liked to go to swim, and they had this rope they swung off a rock out over the water on, and one of his brothers almost died doing it. Then he goes on about how that brother started doing heroin once he [Lindsey] started sending money back home from W&H, and about how he just wishes his brother had died that day at the spring. But while I think Lindsey would bitch about his misfortunes etc to anyone who would listen, it's not his habit to ramble about it all the time, and he wants to appear anything but whiny and weak (of course, he's both).
In the end, I decided he'd probably just say "Yeah." So while I feel Lindsey stayed in character there, the value of the question and its answer as reading material for your (and my) entertainment is completely lost. "Yeah" is boring; there's nothing behind that answer for you as a reader; the story about the swim hole is more interesting. (On some questions, that's not true. I think his monosyllabic replies to the dog and divorce questions say a lot about Lindsey. With characters who say less as a rule, like Oz, this is almost easier. You're already reading a paragraph into every word Oz says, because he says so little, and the sparseness itself is entertaining.)
But anyway, on some of them, I felt like I sacrificed voice to be entertaining, especially when Lindsey goes on about W&H, as in the drug question. Lindsey doesn't want you to be amused by W&H's goofy stances on things. He wants you to be amused by him and how clever he is.
So there's being entertaing vs. being in character, and there's also being honest vs. being in character. For instance, on the addiction question, I had Lindsey say "power", which is true about Lindsey. But does Lindsey know that about Lindsey? I'm not sure he does. He thinks being in charge is something he deserves, not some crazy addiction.
Lastly, there's spelling the character's name right. That's always tough.
The only thing I found helpful about this, in the end, is it prodded me to create some back stories for Lindsey's history, and what happened post S2 of AtS and pre S5. But those are things I think about when I write fic anyway--what I really wanted to work on was Lindsey's voice, and no, I didn't get that I don't think.
no subject
I did this in the hopes of getting a handle on the character, but I found that to be problematic. For one thing, no way would Lindsey put up with this shit. He wouldn't answer questions about leggos and tootsie pops for anything but to save his own ass, and then he'd be bitchy and monosyllabic and that'd be no fun. These questions rather do seem like something W&H would give their employees just to keep them on their toes, but again, Lindsey's response would be fuck this shit, because Lindsey doesn't like his chain to be jerked. I think a lot of people doing these things are sort of having this problem--for instance,
Anyway, so beyond that hurtle are weird questions like who's giving the survey, and is he typing this or not? Unless you talk a lot on the internet, like we do, your writing is a lot more formal when you type than when you talk. So if you want realism, you have to sacrifice the character's voice.
And that comes to the issue of making the reading of the questionairre interesting while still in character. For instance, on the question about swimming I had him telling this whole story about a place he and his brothers liked to go to swim, and they had this rope they swung off a rock out over the water on, and one of his brothers almost died doing it. Then he goes on about how that brother started doing heroin once he [Lindsey] started sending money back home from W&H, and about how he just wishes his brother had died that day at the spring. But while I think Lindsey would bitch about his misfortunes etc to anyone who would listen, it's not his habit to ramble about it all the time, and he wants to appear anything but whiny and weak (of course, he's both).
In the end, I decided he'd probably just say "Yeah." So while I feel Lindsey stayed in character there, the value of the question and its answer as reading material for your (and my) entertainment is completely lost. "Yeah" is boring; there's nothing behind that answer for you as a reader; the story about the swim hole is more interesting. (On some questions, that's not true. I think his monosyllabic replies to the dog and divorce questions say a lot about Lindsey. With characters who say less as a rule, like Oz, this is almost easier. You're already reading a paragraph into every word Oz says, because he says so little, and the sparseness itself is entertaining.)
But anyway, on some of them, I felt like I sacrificed voice to be entertaining, especially when Lindsey goes on about W&H, as in the drug question. Lindsey doesn't want you to be amused by W&H's goofy stances on things. He wants you to be amused by him and how clever he is.
So there's being entertaing vs. being in character, and there's also being honest vs. being in character. For instance, on the addiction question, I had Lindsey say "power", which is true about Lindsey. But does Lindsey know that about Lindsey? I'm not sure he does. He thinks being in charge is something he deserves, not some crazy addiction.
Lastly, there's spelling the character's name right. That's always tough.
The only thing I found helpful about this, in the end, is it prodded me to create some back stories for Lindsey's history, and what happened post S2 of AtS and pre S5. But those are things I think about when I write fic anyway--what I really wanted to work on was Lindsey's voice, and no, I didn't get that I don't think.
Bet you weren't expecting an essay! Whew! Sorry.