Psychology for Writers: Lesson 3 Perception

Sleeping through class? Catch up here!

Lesson 1: The Unconscious
Lesson 2: Association


And today, let's get the lowdown or the DL on Perception. Ooooh Baby!

Perception broken down--it's the way our thoughts, emotions, memories, and so on influence our brain to interpret the things we see and feel around us.

What's important to remember is that not everyone is going to see things the same way, and more importantly (especially for you writers who like to write misleading/misguided/misdirected MCs) our perceptions can be very very wrong!

Let's check out the way literary characters perceive the world.

Our first patient today is Bella Swan.

Bella's perception of herself is clearly very off. She's smart, pretty and funny (hello advanced chem, 5 guys drooling and jokes about being albino). But...her low self esteem do to having a rocky time growing up with her unstable mother and distant father has caused her perception of herself to shift so that she sees herself as a sort of dull, whatever, average piece of blah. She's closed off (literally we find out in book 4) to people around her and while her self sacrificing tendencies and her ability to love suggest she has potential to be a warm and fun loving person, her misguided perceptions tend to make her come across as sarcastic, a bit catty and not necessarily someone you'd want to be friends with (she does totally snark on Eric for Chess Club and can't be bothered to remember Jessica's name for like 2 classes).

This perception of herself and her self worth become exacerbated when she falls for Edward Cullen. He's everything she's not (in her eyes). He's beautiful, he's a genius and...well he's not that funny, but he's intense and intriguing with a charismatic personality, so we'll forgive his inability to make jokes. Bella has a hard time accepting his love because she can't percieve herself as someone worthy of it. Savvy?

It's Bella's perceptions of herself, oddly enough that guide most of the plot and action through the series. In New Moon when the epic dumping occurs, despite the fact that...ok come on, you really believed Edward was leaving???--Bella totally believes him because his lie goes straight to the heart of her self perception--fully ruled by her low self esteem. Her lack of self preservation seems to stem from this perception too, and leads to her attempted sacrifice in Eclipse and then becomes her super vampire power in Breaking Dawn--she's so closed off to seeing the world around her, to living outside of her own perceptions that she can literally close her mind off to other vampire's powers.

What can you take away from Bella's experience for your book?

Everyone has a slightly off perception of who they are and their place in the world. Often in YA books, the main characters are trying very hard to figure out what that place is, and they strugggle, often through a series of outside forces, evil vampires, nasty teachers and bullies, but they also struggle because of themselves. Perhaps if Bella had a slightly more healthy view of things, she might not have believed Edward so easily and suffered so much, but then...there would have been no New Moon.

So make sure one of the questions you ask yourself about your main character is not only how does the world see them, but how do they see themselves in the world? What perception do they have about themselves and why do they think that? Where did those feelings come from? Bella lacked mature parental figures to embed her with proper self esteem. But for another character they might come from a specific culture or time period that creates similar effects.

Katniss has a misguided perception of herself as well. She has little value on her life and is extremely self sacrificing--but her perception has nothing to do with self esteem and everything to do with the fact that she's living a harsh world of kill or be killed and all she can hope for is that her loved ones will have food to eat.

Examine their perceptions and understand the source. Does your characters view of themselves come from experience, emotion, culture, upbringing, one tragic event?

Ok so we looked at the way a character's perception can guide their inner world. Now...

How perception guides the way your character sees the world.

Our next patient today is Harry Potter. (BTW you can easily apply Bella's lesson to Harry and then see the way his self perception changes as he learns to enjoy life and value himself at Hogwarts). We're going to look at the way Harry percieves the world around him.

By the time we roll around to the Half Blood Prince has some very unique perceptions of the world around him. One: you can't trust the government at all. I mean, wow, I just get blown away every time I reread the moment he disses Scrimgeour--pretty heavy stuff for your average 16 year old, but remember, Harry spent an entire year being wrong by the government, not to mention tortured by the toad Umbridge. He's seen the way Ministry of Magic tried to get rid of Dumbledore--just to keep the quiet, and he's seen the way justice was never served for his godfather, Sirius. Harry's radical perceptions stem from real life experiences--we have a direct corelation here.

But what about his perceptions concerning Draco Malfoy? Sure Malfoy's a rat ferret, but why would some stupid 16 year old be at the center of the most evil wizard of all time's plans? Harry is Positive (with a capital P) that Draco is behind the attacks....but for once, Ron and Hermione don't really believe him. Actually, no one believes him. And really, Harry's been wrong before, multiple times. Remember Quirrell? Remember his initial perception of Sirius? Heck, by the time we read the Half Blood Prince, most of us don't even trust Harry's judgment.

But Harry's perception never wavers and here's why. While everyone is scoffing at the idea of a 16 yr old being important and integral the future of Lord Voldemort....they're forgetting one important thing. Harry is a 16 old who is important (chosen one anybody?) and integral to the future of Lord Voldemort (he's the only one who can defeat him).

Harry's unique experiences have shaped his perception of what he sees. He knows that you can't trust anyone, and to expect the unexepected and he knows that you can't write someone off just for being a teenager (even 16 yr old Tom Riddle was capable of murder).

Where another character might not have suspected Draco so heavily, even a pre-prophecy Harry might not have been so suspicious, Harry's perceptions are directly related to what he's been through.

So the questions for you to keep in mind, are how does your MC see the world around him/her--how is the world ACTUALLY around him/her--and WHY does s/he see it that way? What experiences or past self perceptions led to this current belief system?

Homework!

Self-Perception
Write a paragraph describing the way the world percieves your character. Then, write a paragraph about the way your character perceives themself. How do these two perceptions collide? Next, make sure you can answer the question: Where did this perception come from? Is it cultural? Emotional? Experiential?

Next...

World-Perception
Write a paragraph about the way things are in your world. Then write a paragraph about the way your character sees the world around them. Is s/he right or wrong? And make sure you can answer why they see things this way.

Then have fun incorporating these perceptions into your WIP, it's a guaranteed way to add depth and development to your characters. And character development rocks:-)

Hope you enjoyed!