Fantasy Mindscape:
Breathing Life into Characters Through Psychology
13. Memory and Perception
Memory and perception are integral to how characters interpret events and make decisions. By manipulating these elements, you can create intricate plots and complex characters that captivate your readers.
Selective Memory
Understanding the nuances of memory and perception can add layers of complexity and realism to your characters, enriching the overall narrative. Memory isn’t merely a data bank of past events; it’s a complex psychological process that is influenced by various factors such as emotion, cognitive bias, and even social context. Incorporating these elements can create characters whose perceptions and recollections are as flawed and intricate as those of real people. Selective memory is a particularly interesting phenomenon to explore. Characters who remember events in a way that aligns with their own beliefs, desires, or emotional states create narratives that are inherently biased or unreliable. This can be a powerful tool in storytelling.
For instance, consider a detective who is confident in his deductive abilities. If he encounters a case that he can’t solve, his selective memory might lead him to focus on the aspects he successfully figured out, while downplaying or even altering memories of his shortcomings. This skewed recall reinforces his self-perception as competent, but it also presents an unreliable narrative. Other characters might remember the same events differently, offering readers multiple angles of an incident and thereby adding depth to the storyline.
Selective memory can also serve to intensify conflict and misunderstandings between characters. If two characters experience the same event but remember it differently due to their personal biases or emotional states, it sets the stage for conflict based on these differing perceptions. For example, in a love story, one character might remember the early days of the relationship as idyllic and perfect, attributing any subsequent difficulties to their partner. In contrast, the partner might remember initial hesitations and obstacles, leading them to a different conclusion about where the relationship started to go awry.
Moreover, the concept of selective memory is deeply rooted in psychological theories such as cognitive dissonance, which posits that people experience discomfort when holding conflicting beliefs. To alleviate this discomfort, they may selectively remember or reinterpret events in a way that resolves these contradictions. Utilizing this in your narrative can make characters more believable and create a story that resonates on an emotional and psychological level.
By weaving these psychological insights into memory and perception into your story, you can create complex, authentic characters who engage the reader on multiple levels. Their flawed recollections and biased perspectives can drive the plot forward, generate conflict, and make for a compelling, thought-provoking narrative.
Cognitive Biases
Cognitive biases are systematic patterns of deviation from normative or rational judgment in individuals. These biases often serve as mental shortcuts that the human brain uses to speed up the decision-making process, although they can lead to perceptual distortion, inaccurate judgment, or illogical interpretation. Cognitive biases are inherent to human cognition and are often the result of the brain’s attempt to simplify information processing. They are not always inherently bad; in some contexts, these biases can be adaptive and beneficial. However, they often lead to errors in reasoning, evaluating, and remembering, and can thus have a profound impact on the choices and judgments that people make.
In storytelling, especially in fantasy fiction, cognitive biases can be used to create characters who are more relatable and flawed, mirroring the complexities of real human psychology. By incorporating these biases into characters’ decision-making processes, an author can create narratives that are not only more believable but also more engaging. This layer of psychological realism can add depth to the story, serving as the driving force behind character arcs, conflicts, and resolutions. It allows the reader to delve into the intricacies of the characters’ minds, understanding their motivations and actions on a deeper level.
Incorporating cognitive biases into your characters can add significant depth, creating figures who are more human, fallible, and complex. These biases can also serve as excellent drivers for plot arcs, leading characters into conflicts, errors, and growth. Here are ten cognitive biases that can be particularly useful for fantasy fiction authors:
Confirmation Bias
Characters under the influence of confirmation bias are likely to seek out or interpret information in a way that confirms their preexisting beliefs or values. For instance, a mage distrustful of a rival kingdom may only focus on information that confirms those negative assumptions, inadvertently overlooking details that could prevent war or unnecessary conflict.
Availability Heuristic
This bias causes people to overestimate the likelihood of events based on their availability in memory. A character who has experienced betrayal might be overly cautious or paranoid, suspecting traps or deceit in completely unrelated situations.
Anchoring
This bias involves relying too heavily on the first piece of information encountered when making decisions. A character could hear an ancient prophecy and become fixated on its earliest interpretation, missing out on critical nuances that could alter their course of action.
Sunk Cost Fallacy
Characters might continue a doomed quest or relationship because they have invested so much time, effort, or resources into it, even when further investment won’t reverse the bad outcome. This could lead to tragic or redemptive arcs, depending on how the character eventually copes with reality.
Dunning-Kruger Effect
This is the phenomenon where people with low ability at a task overestimate their ability. Imagine a young, inexperienced sorcerer believing they can take on an elder mage due to naive overconfidence, setting them on a path of humbling experiences.
In-group Bias
This is the tendency for individuals to favor their own group over others. In a fantasy setting, racial or clan-based biases could be a significant source of conflict, leading to misunderstandings, battles, or even wars.
Fundamental Attribution Error
This bias leads people to overemphasize personal characteristics and ignore situational factors when judging others’ behavior. For example, a character might blame another for cowardice in retreat, not recognizing external factors that made retreat the only logical option.
Halo Effect
Here, a character’s overall impression of a person influences how they feel about their specific traits. For example, if a character is viewed as heroic, their questionable decisions might be seen in a more forgiving light, complicating the moral landscape of your story.
Negativity Bias
Characters influenced by this bias would give more weight to negative experiences than positive ones. A warrior who has lost a single battle might dwell on that loss, even if they’ve won countless others, affecting their confidence and decision-making in future conflicts.
Status Quo Bias
Resistance to change can be a powerful motivator or hindrance for a character. Those who fear the unknown might resist going on a quest or rebelling against a tyrant, providing internal and external conflicts that they must overcome to grow.
Each of these cognitive biases offers a different lens through which characters can view their world, driving them towards actions and decisions that can serve as the backbone for compelling narratives.
Memory and Perception in Fiction
“In Search of Lost Time” by Marcel Proust serves as a seminal example of how the concept of memory can be wielded as a powerful narrative device. Proust’s magnum opus doesn’t just recount events; it explores the intricate ways in which those events are remembered and subsequently how they shape the identities and psychologies of his characters. This deep dive into the mind offers readers a nuanced look at human consciousness and the subjectivity of experience. Proust uses the famous “madeleine moment” to illustrate the involuntary memory, showing how a simple sensory experience, like the taste of a madeleine cookie, can evoke a complex web of recollections. These memories are not just retrospective but form the essential elements that make up the characters’ present selves. In doing so, Proust challenges the reader to consider the fluidity and fallibility of their own memories and how they contribute to individual identity.
Similarly, “Fight Club” by Chuck Palahniuk serves as an exploration into the nature of perception and identity, albeit through a very different lens. The story employs an unreliable narrator to create a world that is continuously destabilized by the character’s fractured sense of self. Unlike Proust’s exploration of how memory shapes us, Palahniuk questions the very nature of individuality and self-perception by destabilizing the narrative itself. The unreliable narration serves as both a plot twist and a psychological insight, forcing the reader to question not just the character’s sanity but also the stability of their own interpretive frameworks.
Both works use psychological concepts to layer additional complexity into their stories. Proust’s utilization of memory serves to enrich the internal lives of his characters, making them more relatable and multi-dimensional. Palahniuk, on the other hand, uses the skewed perception of his narrator to challenge the reader’s understanding of the story and, by extension, their grasp of reality. Both methods serve to elevate the narrative, embedding psychological depth within the confines of the story’s universe.
These works underline the potency of incorporating psychological elements into storytelling. Whether it’s exploring the complex landscape of human memory or questioning the reliability of our perceptions, these layers add nuance and depth to literary works. They push the boundaries of traditional storytelling, offering readers a more immersive experience that provokes them to question their own psychological landscapes.
Both “In Search of Lost Time” and “Fight Club” demonstrate that integrating elements of psychology into storytelling doesn’t just make for more believable characters—it makes for stories that resonate on a deeper, more universal level. They show that the most compelling narratives often blur the lines between the story and the psychological intricacies of its characters, providing not just entertainment but also a space for introspection and, perhaps, self-discovery.
Memory and Perception Nuances
Unreliable narrators can serve as a fascinating storytelling device that exploits cognitive biases, flawed memory, and selective perception to introduce layers of complexity and intrigue. By deploying a character whose account is questionable, writers can achieve a variety of effects: building tension, evoking empathy, and encouraging readers to be more active participants in deciphering the story. This narrative style challenges readers to confront their own cognitive biases and question their interpretations of events and characters.
It can also add suspense and uncertainty, as audiences continually reassess what they know—or think they know—about the unfolding plot. For instance, in works like “Gone Girl” by Gillian Flynn, the unreliable narrator makes us question our initial sympathies and understandings, thereby transforming a straightforward story into a complex psychological drama.
Flashbacks and retrospection serve as another set of tools to explore memory and perception, although they often offer a different form of complexity. By presenting different or even conflicting versions of events, authors can force readers to engage in the narrative more actively. This strategy allows for the coexistence of multiple ‘truths,’ urging readers to weigh the reliability of different accounts and the motivations behind them.
For example, in “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, flashbacks serve not only as a method of revealing past events but also as a vehicle for exploring the mutable nature of truth and memory, particularly in the context of war. In doing so, flashbacks can make readers question the reliability of their own memories and how they, too, are susceptible to reinterpretation over time.
Both unreliable narrators and the use of flashbacks and retrospection can provide audiences with a more immersive reading experience. They invite readers to consider not just the events of a story but the very mechanisms through which stories are told and remembered. This metacognitive aspect of storytelling can make narratives more engaging and memorable because it goes beyond mere plot or character development to implicate the reader in the unfolding drama. It turns passive reading into an interactive experience, asking for the reader’s engagement at a deeper, more introspective level.
These techniques also play into broader themes that resonate in real life, such as the post-truth era where ‘alternative facts’ can sometimes gain as much traction as objective reality. They tap into very contemporary anxieties about the reliability of information and the influence of perspective on ‘truth,’ adding an additional layer of relevance to stories that employ these strategies.
Using unreliable narrators and flashback techniques allows authors to not just tell a story but to explore the subjective nature of storytelling itself. These tools can introduce ambiguity, provoke thought, and engage readers in an ongoing interpretive act, raising questions that linger long after the last page is turned. Through these mechanisms, a story transcends simple entertainment to become a platform for examining the complexities of perception, memory, and truth.
Writing Exercises for Memory and Perception
Rewrite a Scene: Take a pivotal scene and rewrite it from the perspective of a different character, utilizing their unique memory and perception to create a different narrative.
Memory-based Dialogue: Write a dialogue where characters recall a shared event differently, causing tension or conflict.
Integrating memory and perception into your narrative not only deepens your characters but also adds complexity to your plot. By using psychological theories and learning from renowned literature, you can craft a story that keeps readers questioning, engaged, and enthralled.
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Last Modified: 09/29/2023