Jabrosky
Banned
Fantasy Faction: Five Reasons to Cast Your Novel
I agree that it can be fun to imagine what kind of actors would play your characters if your stories were ever adapted to film. Nonetheless, I reckon this exercise would be easier to do if your story takes place in the standard pseudo-medieval European setting since most big Hollywood actors are of European descent. You might be able to find some African-American actors if your story has African influences, but many of these (especially the actresses) will have visible European ancestry due to latent colorism. How many major Middle Eastern or Polynesian actors can you name off the top of your head?
At the heart of every great novel are great characters. Love them or hate them, their escapades propel the narrative forward. Readers empathise with them, cheer them on and cry with them. Writers need to know how to make their characters as real as possible. Therefore, in your own writing it’s essential that you are able to know how your characters will act in any given circumstance.
There are many ways that writers do this. Some can conjure characters from thin air, are able to construct the nuances of a fictional person’s life bit by bit, built on research and experience. Some base their characters solely on people they know. And some cast actors and actresses in the roles as if the book was a film. There are as many different methods as there are fictional characters. Each is as valid as the next, dependent on what the writer feels most useful for the project at hand.
But for the sake of this article, let’s consider the last option — of casting your novel with actors and actresses — and why it might be a good idea to break out the imaginary casting couch when you start your next novel.
I agree that it can be fun to imagine what kind of actors would play your characters if your stories were ever adapted to film. Nonetheless, I reckon this exercise would be easier to do if your story takes place in the standard pseudo-medieval European setting since most big Hollywood actors are of European descent. You might be able to find some African-American actors if your story has African influences, but many of these (especially the actresses) will have visible European ancestry due to latent colorism. How many major Middle Eastern or Polynesian actors can you name off the top of your head?