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Welcome

I started this blog in 2013 to share my reflections on reading, writing and psychology, along with my journey to become a published novelist.​  I soon graduated to about twenty book reviews a month and a weekly 99-word story. Ten years later, I've transferred my writing / publication updates to my new website but will continue here with occasional reviews and flash fiction pieces, and maybe the odd personal post.

ANNE GOODWIN'S WRITING NEWS

Take a long hard look in the mirror

4/4/2014

17 Comments

 
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Writers learn early to be wary of mirrors. It’s painful to have to score through that purple passage eloquently describing our protagonist’s physical appearance from the top of their head to the tips of their toes. When what we took for writerly innovation is revealed to be a cliché; the first time we allow our narrator to look in the mirror, could be the last.

Yet a character who never caught sight of their reflection would be an odd kettle of fish indeed. Plate-glass windows, stainless steel doors: the built environment abounds with reflective surfaces, never mind the mirror above the bathroom sink. Should these be totally out of bounds for writers? Our protagonist’s relationship to mirrors can be useful way of illustrating their character or mood. Are they obsessively drawn to mirrors or avoidant; are they anxiously checking their appearance, or an ordinary woman using lipstick and mascara to compose her outdoor face? Surely it’s the information dump that’s the problem. After all, Elmore Leonard preached against detailed description, not mirrors.

A skilfully employed shiny surface can reflect more than is apparent to the eye. For example, in Harriet Lane’s debut novel Alys, Always, Frances sees

a pinched, nervous-looking girl, with blue shadows under her eyes: a pale, insignificant sort of person (p10)
looking back at her from the metallic doors of the office lifts. At this point in the novel, she’s painfully aware of her lowly position in the social hierarchy. Her colleagues, particularly the underqualified and overprivileged deputy editor, Oliver Culpeper, serve as metaphorical mirrors, or character foils, the contrast drawing attention to Frances’ drone-like diligence and lack of connection.

Other people serve as mirrors in real life, too; we’re constantly processing feedback, both direct and indirect, to tell us how we are perceived. Sometimes it’s hard to judge whether this mirroring is accurate or distorted; I’m still wondering about the boy on the bus who saw me as older than I saw myself.

In fiction, mirroring from other characters brings another perspective to an unreliable narrator. In Emma Healey’s Elizabeth Is Missing, Maud is a lovely old dear with significant memory problems who is mystified by her friend’s disappearance. She is a highly sympathetic character, but her bemused discovery of her daughter’s injured arm lets the reader know about her tendency to act out frustration. Similarly, via the responses of the adults around her, we piece together what the narrator of Claire King’s The Night Rainbow, five-year-old Pea, is too young to comprehend.

Our experience of mirroring in infancy impacts on the way we look at ourselves and at others in later life. Psychoanalytic theory suggests that the responsive gaze of a mother (or other primary caretaker) is the foundation of a secure sense of self. A baby continually confronted with a depressed, angry or emotionally absent mother figure, or a baby that feels ignored, is deprived of the capacity to learn to tolerate a range of emotional states within itself and to relate confidently to others. That child may grow up never feeling good enough.

The most poignant scenes for me in Alys, Always occur when Frances visits her parents. These are also the most hilarious, as well as the key to her character. The lack of emotional engagement between the adult Frances and her parents suggests an absence of mirroring in infancy, bequeathing Frances a powerful sense of deprivation and envy, which drives her to infiltrate the world of the privileged Kytes.

I’ve written about a character who has missed out on that early mirroring in my short story “Reflecting Queenie”. A personification of the mirror in the fairytale “Snow White”, Myra attempts to compensate for what she hasn’t had by reflecting others’ desires back to them, but even she can’t contain her sister’s narcissism.

Our capacity for mirroring might contribute to our enjoyment of fiction. The discovery of mirror neurons suggests that our brains are hardwired for empathy. We feel the athlete’s exhilaration and exhaustion when she crosses the finishing line; we feel the anguish of the baby’s cries. When we’re wrapped up in a book, we’re rooting for the protagonist to win out in the end. Yet our capacity to empathise might be what makes it difficult to stick with novels that feature the experience of terror.

Thanks for looking in the mirror with me.  I’d love it if you would add your reflections to the comments below.

Thanks for reading. I'd love to know what you think. If you've enjoyed this post, you might like to sign up via the sidebar for regular email updates and/or my quarterly Newsletter.
17 Comments
Safia link
5/4/2014 06:22:58 am

I may not always have the time to read every one of your posts, Anne, but it's so worthwhile when I do get a window of opportunity. Yes, looking in the mirror is a cliché in fiction but I also think it's a lazy way to 'do' descriptions. I'm not keen on too many physical details and prefer to imagine how the character looks for myself after a few salient clues. As ever, your examples are excellent. I was reading a sample on my Kindle last night in which the MC meets a former lover - an awkward situation etc. As she moves off after saying their goodbyes, she purposely looks at herself in a shop window (something she normally avoids)- now that was fine - convincing and lets us know that vanity takes over (however temporarily) and/or she still feels something for the guy. But using a mirror in the bathroom or bedroom to describe the MC in the opening chapter? A whopping great 'no no' IMO.

Reply
Annecdotist
6/4/2014 08:49:46 am

Thanks, Safia, yes, there's a lot of good stuff out there and not enough time to read it. I really appreciate your support and you always have something interesting to say when you do have time to comment.
Thanks for sharing the example of a mirror being used in a useful way. I tend to agree with you in not really liking detailed description, and rarely find myself building up a proper picture of the person. I'm more interested in what they think and do than what they look like. (Although I have to say, a recent twitter conversation has exposed my tendency to give a disproportionate number of my characters red hair!)

Reply
Norah Colvin link
6/4/2014 05:06:28 am

Hi Anne,
This is a great post, as usual. I am really interested in the concept of mirror neurons and being hardwired for empathy, alongside what you said about the responsiveness of a mother to a baby's gaze. I have been reading about the importance of empathy to relationships and how many anti-social people (e.g. pedophiles, psychopaths) have little empathy or understanding for others so don't realise the pain they are causing. You have given me more to ponder here. Thanks.

Reply
Annecdotist
6/4/2014 08:57:42 am

Thanks, Norah, I remember you did say you were writing about empathy and hope you don't think there's too much of an overlap here. I think it's quite a complex area – including the issue of how you actually define it – but, in general I don't think we can expect people to behave empathically unless they've experienced it themselves at a critical time. Of course, lots of people who unfortunately haven't been sufficiently nurtured do manage to rise above it and be empathic towards others. But, from a teaching point of view, I'd think it's a do as I do rather than a do as I say kind of learning.

Reply
Caroline link
6/4/2014 09:10:44 am

Hi Anne,
I liked this reflection (oh ha ha). It definitely is a clicke to have characters looking into a mirror in order for the narrator to describe them.
HGere's another kind of mirroring, the kind listeners do - consciously and unconsciously - when they mirror the stance and body position of a speaker. I dont know of any novelists who used it. A bit of challenge I guess. Just mention it in the light of your therpary interest.
Caroline.

Reply
Annecdotist
6/4/2014 09:53:38 am

Thanks for your support, Caroline.
Great point – never thought about that kind of mirroring. Will now be alert for it in my reading and writing. Thanks for flagging it up.

Reply
Clare O'Dea link
7/4/2014 01:06:32 am

Hi Anne, great post! I do agree that the mirror scene is cheating in some cases, especially for the first introduction to the character but I'm against a blanket ban. What you mention about the mirroring in infancy reminds me of a couple of cases in The Examined Life - which I really enjoyed by the way, thanks for the recommendation!

Reply
Annecdotist
7/4/2014 04:06:37 am

Thanks, Clare, and glad you mentioned The Examined Life. There must be lots of relevant stuff in there, and funny how, after I've been raving about it so much, I didn't think to consult it for this particular post. So glad you followed up my recommendation and found it worthwhile. Maybe, like Norah, you'll be posting your reflections on this book on your own blog?

Reply
Marianne Wheelagahan link
7/4/2014 02:21:24 am

Hi Anne, I really enjoyed reading your post, thanks. Like Clare I'm against a blanket ban of 'into mirror looking characters' etc. Rules sich as these ( like never use an adverb when a dtrng very will do etc) are helpful reminders for us writers not to be slack but as with everything in writing, I think we writers should do what we want, as long as we can get away with it :)

Reply
Annecdotist
7/4/2014 04:08:36 am

Thanks, Marianne, and welcome to my blog. I'm also against blanket bans and writers doing as we want, but it's the getting away with it that bothers me … !

Reply
Teagan Kearney link
9/4/2014 04:14:23 am

As always, Annie, a thought provoking, informative and enjoyable post. I immediately started mentally checking the mirror scene in chapter 1 - and my protagonist (fading auburn, has daughter with gorgeous red hair - I know it's a wish fulfillment thing) and I have used a shop window where she couldn't help catch sight of herself. In my defense she was trying to avoid seeing her reflection.
I like some detail - I just read a short story on wattpad where there was no description of the protagonist, and she felt more nebulous, to me at any rate.
On the subject of red haired heroines - how much of our novels contain, to some degree or other, that element of wish fulfillment, either of fantasy, or to bring a solution to something in our psyches which needs it?

Reply
Annecdotist
9/4/2014 08:21:30 am

Thanks, Teagan, glad to think I'm keeping you on your toes ;).
But I think your character avoiding her reflection is an interesting one – I think there are lots of ways to do this and make mirrors okay, and we all have different tastes regarding how much detail we appreciate.
I tend to agree with you that a lot of our fiction serves an internal need. I did enjoy having (dyed) red hair in my 20s but now it's grey I think henna would send it orange

Reply
Teagan Kearney link
9/4/2014 02:14:28 pm

Lol! Oh, yes, been there and done that! :))

Charli Mills link
16/4/2014 07:34:56 pm

Your posts send me into fits of thinking; kind of like exercise for my brain. I felt that I struggled with my first protagonist's description so this is something I need to revisit while in revision. Yet in my second project which is just wild penning (at the moment resting) I had fun with a scene where I had a character contemplating her looks with a polish of vanity, then stepping off the airplane, the view shifted to another character who quickly summed up her looks is a disagreeable way as if he were the anti-mirror.

Reply
Annecdotist
17/4/2014 03:18:42 am

Thanks, Charli. Re: struggling with your character's description, I generally find it much easier to imagine how they think and feel than what they look like. Appearance does matter, but in my reading and writing it has a much lower priority.
I like your idea of the anti-mirror. Your comments and some of the others makes me think that once we are over the cliches, we are free to subvert them in really interesting and creative ways. It's a great opportunity to explore the contrast between how someone sees themselves how others see them.

Reply
Charli Mills link
17/4/2014 04:30:39 pm

I'm glad you said that, Anne--about prioritizing how a character thinks and feels. One of my favorite storytellers, Robert Jordan, doesn't go into detail on appearance, but really brings to life physical traits like one character who is always tugging on her braid in temper or another who wonders why "wetlanders" are so shy in a sweat lodge but dress half-exposed in public. He's not really saying what they look like, but in essence, those traits become the mirror in the imagination.

Annecdotist
18/4/2014 04:59:25 am

These are great examples. It's what I'm also trying to do, but seem to end up with a disproportionate number of characters with red hair!!!


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