What Our Characters Know
By Mike Apodaca, High Desert Branch
The philosophy of knowledge (epistemology) is important when developing our fictional characters. Philosophers have traditionally seen three parts to knowledge: belief, evidence, and truth. As writers, we can use these different aspects of knowledge to develop the characters we create.
Belief can be defined as what our characters think is real. We all believe many things and they may be true or they may not. If a character has belief alone (without facts to justify the belief), then they can be fully mistaken about the reality of the situations you put them in. It can be fun to have a character who is out of touch, drowning in their fantasies or delusions—especially about themselves or a situation they are in.
Conspiracies, baseless rumors, and misconceptions can also make this kind of character come alive. Oftentimes, they will ardently defend their false beliefs against overwhelming evidence. This is also the basis for comedy (when the reader knows the truth and the character does not). Many television and movie scripts are based on watching a character who is in the dark while others are trying to keep up a charade—consider the movie Move Over Darling.
This can be seen in many story twists. The reader as well as the characters think they understand what is happening and then discover in a sudden flash that their preconceptions about a character, an organization, or the entire world were incorrect. Think The Matrix.
We also see this in manipulative situations. Consider the movie Gaslight. Philosophers add to belief the element of evidence. Most people, when they hold to a belief, want to justify it with some kind of proof. The problem is that the “proof” can be insufficient or bogus. Again, it will delight your readers when they see a character who justifies what they believe by evidence that doesn’t really hold up. For example, you may have someone in your story who believes that famous people always die in threes. When
two famous people die, they scour the news to find out who the third person will be. Although famous people die all the time, it is easy to cluster them in threes (providing false evidence) to justify this mistaken belief.
Finally, for something to really register as knowledge, it has to have the last element—it must in fact be true. This truth element justifies all knowledge. It is the basis for all detective stories. It is the brilliant detective who sees through all the false evidence (the lies and false appearances) to come to the truth of the situation. S/he deduces from all the clues what has really happened. S/he alone has true knowledge.
Meeting these three levels of knowledge also requires we research our characters and understand what they believe and why, and if it is really justified.
We also need to understand where our characters are getting their information, the basis for their beliefs. Are they depending on hearsay? Are they listening to conspiracy theories on the internet? Are they basing their understandings on their own limited life experience? Or tradition? Or their culture? Understanding our characters’ knowledge sources will help us understand why they believe what they believe.
The key to story is the protagonist’s transformation. Sometimes the best stories are where the character realizes that s/he has been living their lives on the basis of a false belief. Watching a character get new information, come to the realization that they have been wrong, and change their thinking and life is the basis of many great stories.
I have found this especially enlightening as I am beginning my memoirs. I am beginning to understand how I have had to adjust my thinking throughout my life, casting off misconceptions and attempting to live according to realities I wasn’t seeing. I am sure this process is far from over.
This piece first appeared as the President’s Message in the February 2024
Inkslinger, newsletter of the High Desert Branch.