MISC: Do what extent do NON writer characters have free will?

[Scott Eiler]

On 6/3/2012 10:21 PM, Martin Phipps wrote:
> On 6月4日, 上午10時32分, Scott Eiler<sei... at eilertech.com>  wrote:

>> It's not just a problem for characters who know they're fictional.
>
> Indeed.  I hear people talk about "God's plan" for example.  People
> say "God has a plan for all of us".  They also say that "God gave us
> free will".  I find it impossible to reconcile those two statements.
> If I, as a writer, have a definite plan then the characters in my
> stories do not have free will.

Ah, but there's no shortage of Writers who'll let their characters have 
input to the story.  It's a pretty poor Writer who can't adapt the plan 
if need be.  The good ones even improve the story that way.

>> In my favorite storyline, I've had three characters (Ellipsis, Wyatt
>> Ferguson, and Kristi the Animal Girl) who've been to the future
>
> That's another problem.  If it is THE future and you cannot change it
> then you don't have free will.  Nobody would have free will.  People
> would only believe they had free will because they had not seen the
> future.

Ah, but is it really THE future?  My characters live in a continuum with 
alternate *presents*, so they naturally expect alternate futures.  It's 
probably quite surprising to them that their Higher Power keeps driving 
them toward *one* future.  You may recall from various comments of mine, 
their Higher Power was kind of surprised it turned out that way too.


-- 
(signed) Scott Eiler  8{D> -------- http://www.eilertech.com/ ---------

Let's take a look, if you will, at the Second Amendment of the
Constitution, which protects every American's right to shoot another
American.  This cherished constitutional right to shoot people and make
them dead is currently recognized in all fifty states, most recently
Florida.

- The Borowitz Report
(http://www.borowitzreport.com/2012/03/29/an-argument-against-healthcare/),
March 2012.