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In Die By the Pen, Jared Gniewek discusses what feeds his fires as an author of comics, screenplays and radio dramas.

In my last entry I started to divulge a few ideas I have in regards to furthering of your empathy. I believe fully that the trait of empathy is crucial to the act of writing. The work of authoring stories in whatever format we prefer (or are paid to write in) can hone the skills needed to be empathetic towards others and our characters but there are other tricks to entering the bodies and minds of others that will only make us all the stronger.

We can never really know each other. It is one of the curses of being human that we must live in a type of isolation, guessing and hoping that we have a strong enough sense of the workings of the other humans in our lives. We fly blind and lonely star ships tethered by fragile conduits to our families and friends. It is a theme I explore over and over again in my own work. It is worthy. Empathy is our attempt to bridge the gaps between us as creator and characters as subjects through which we express all the facets of our will.

So without further ado, here is empathy part 2!

Watch people eat. This can cause a bit of awkwardness so try to be subtle. I lack the skill of subtlety so people think I want to eat what is on their plate and often begrudgingly offer it to me. I don’t want to eat their food… in fact that’s the last thing I want to do.

What I want is to notice the texture of their food and imagine it in my own mouth and going down my own throat. I want to conceptualize the flavors and how they interact with one another. I want to see how often my observed friend drinks water and what foods they return to first. And then what is eaten in what order and how those flavors would mesh over the course of a meal.

Try not to stare and don’t let them know what you’re doing. It’s important that you come to an imagining of how the food is “hitting them” on your own. You must have as complete an understanding of their experience as possible.

Pause and let the aromas of their food linger on your nose. Is it acrid and stinging? Is it sweet and tender? Let the smells wash over you and fill you with an acceptance of their integral potency. Try to sense the distinctions between the different parts of the smells. Be sure not to shove your nose in your buddy’s cheeseburger (at least not before they leave the table for a minute or two).

Now, understand that whatever suppositions you made about their eating experience is probably mostly incorrect. The point isn’t to be right. You aren’t a mentalist. The point is to fabricate an experience and understand how it could be perceived.  You are going to use your fake experience (that you have used an unwitting dinner companion to create–there’s a sad price to pay as a writer and we all must pay it in the end) to make a character just that much more real.

Those who diet are often instructed to begin with a food diary. This is a log of everything the dieter eats on a day by day basis. I encourage you to start imaginary ones for your characters. These need not be exact down to the sesame seeds on their bagel but then, what could it hurt to go that far? In any case always try to list their favorite foods. Imagine what their last meal would be if they got the death penalty. What was their family’s secret recipe and who in their family could actually execute it?

For each meal in your imaginary food diary, try to imagine how they eat it, where they eat it…the whole experience. You don’t need to document this. It will strengthen you regardless. Just write notes and mull them over for a time.

I recommend a week long food diary for your protagonist. You will see their lives unfold as you imagine the slices of pizza on the run and the Sunday dinners with mother. The window into their being will grow wider and wider the more fully you understand what they need to survive.

You are growing so mighty!

Next week I’m going to look into fashion and the impact of clothing on empathy. I can hardly wait!

Jared Gniewek has worked in the music industry as a back line technician, performer, and promoter. He has also been a freelance writer whose work can be seen in the recent re-launch of Tales from the Crypt and heard on The Dark Sense, an audio anthology of the macabre for which he is also the story editor — http://www.earstage.com/darksense.htm.

He also once spent an entire day inside of two lockers whose dividing wall was cut away with a pair of tin snips.

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