Aaryk Noctivagus

Well you wrote 'correct me if I'm wrong'... No that's not really what I was saying. I'm talking about the place and significance of character in story.

I'm talking about what a character actually is in relation to the mechanics and construction of story-telling.

I did make the mistake of trying a simple picture regarding dialogue to try and get my point across, but that only served to confuse matters further for some - because then attention was drawn to exceptions to the picture I drew, rather than to what I was trying to get across with the picture.

Nearer the mark in a sense but not really nearer the mark in actuality. 'Absolute reality doesn't play well' is near the mark... but 'because' is wrong. It is not because of it, that story-telling requires...

When writing a story it is a folly to try and write real people... that is not what story telling is about. Think about characters as devices which serve a particular service to the story... devices which only have an outward display of stylised reality. Characters have a service to perform within the structure of any story. The reality of the character to the casual viewer is simply a mirage caused by the skill of the story-teller/s. Understanding the skill of the story-teller requires understanding how the parts of the story function... including how characters function within the mechanics of story.

That's my last shot in trying to get it across. One gets exhausted from repeatedly failing miserably. Like I said... my fault and not the fault of you guys. I understand it in my head: I should be able to explain it clearly enough.