Power Of Myth-It's All In The Story

Joseph Campbell and Bill Moyers make some interesting points in the fifth chapter of The Power of Myth.  The first one is that all the myths about a hero's journey, including the three major religions of the Western world, say that there can be no reward without sacrifice.  The main reward that readers look for, although most readers don't realize it, is that the main character loses a great deal, enough to send him through some sort of journey, and learns that what he lost was so much more than what he (or she) gained in the end.  The person accused of murder finds a true friend they never knew they had in their partner or someone finds their true love after a hard journey.  Often a person learns to forgive themselves or to love themselves or how to let go of the past and move on to a happy future after a hard mental journey.  Many readers don't realize that the real journey the main character is on in any good book that has stood the trials of time is a mental one leading to the climax, whether it's standing up to the villain or kissing their beloved or feeling welcome in their family or friends again after a long time away.  In Moby Dick Captain Ahab couldn't let go of his past obsession and it killed him.  In Emma she realized that love in a marriage was better than a wealthy husband and she let her friend marry the poorer man Emma had been avoiding the whole book.  Even movies show this reality of stories when you look at Star Wars and the first Avengers movie.  They had to move on from their insecurities and past experiences in order to conquer the evil threatening what they knew.  They talk some about the two types of heroes: the one that purposely sets out on a "quest" like most of the heros in mythology and the one more common in real life, the one who doesn't chose to be a hero but it happens.  Their example of the second type was the soldier that got drafted.  He/she didn't chose to go to war but their number came up and they had no choice.  They still become a hero but they didn't chose to set out on a quest.  In fact, many characters don't realize they are on a quest, like the main character in the movie The Game who thinks he is on a safe Hollywood treasure hunt while really having switch places with a mob hunt, or they drag their feet the entire time, wondering "why me, why me?" and complaining until they decide to do something about their predicament. All those people are heroes in the end that go through and internal journey while moving through the plot, they just started out differently.
    Another thing Campbell comments on is that the villain in a story depends on the perspective of the reader.  Some villains are evil because they want to be or because they were hurt and believe the hero deserves to be hurt.  However, most real people who are seen as villains see themselves as heroes.  Terrorists are furthering what is right and those who get hurt are standing in the way of "progress" or are hurting "the cause".  From the point of view of most villains, they are morally correct and therefore not doing anything "wrong".  It's how so many "evil" characters can continue doing hurting people for years.  They're god is protecting them or they are creating a better future.  Can you imagine watching the some of your favorite movies from the villain's point of view?  In that story, the hero in the regular version is the antagonist in the villain's version.  It is definitely something to keep in mind while you create your characters.
   Campbell also talked about the story of Icarus and Daedalus and the wax wings.  He compares Icarus's urge to fly too high to the modern idea of getting really excited about a new adventure or idea.  How many times have you had an awesome idea you really wanted to tell everyone about before you sat down to start it?  I often tell people about my great idea, only to sit down and not have it turn out at all like I'd hoped and told everyone about.  The choice then is to decide whether it's worth continuing on to strive for days, months, years on the idea or give it up.  Often the initial enthusiasm means that details can be overlooked and science imperfect.  He also mentions that science is proving what myths have told us about.  How many times have you heard about a scientific discovery and assumed it's merely urban legend?
   Something else Campbell talks about which I have often realized.  Our past has made each of us who we are.  Often people can't accept their past, they hide parts of it or refuse to speak of things or even large parts of their lives because of shame or pain.  However, our individual pasts, the friends we made and things we did, are at least as important to our development as the temperaments we are each born with.  That is one reason why twins are never carbon copies of each other's personalities.  One twin was closer to one friend than another, one twin had a teacher that the other twin didn't.  A lot of stories deal with people finally dealing with their past shame or pain and once they do deal with it, once they accept what happened to them and that they are exactly what they should be, only then can they live full lives in the light instead of hiding partially in the shadows.
 

Time To Watch The Details

You’ve gone through your story and edited it some and taken out the scenes you decided were no longer needed. Now you need to sit down and go through your story with a highlighter. Read the story slowly, preferably out loud if you aren’t disturbing anyone, and don’t just read what you think you wrote. Read only what you actually wrote and make sure all your character and story points are still valid. Often my view of my character, especially details and background, changes throughout the book. Maybe I thought she had a cousin early in the book only to decide later in the writing process that her parent was an only child. Readers will notice those things and editors are paid to notice those differing details. If you wrote a story over a few months or years, you may have very different backgrounds to your characters that will confuse editors and lose you a deal on what could otherwise be a very well written story with excellent characters, at least at the end of the book. Details can make or break a story and reading through your story in a short period of time such as a week or weekend will allow you to keep all those details in your head and allow you to notice differences.
As you’re reading your story look for clichés or dialogues that go on too long. Early in the writing process it is easy to write a cliché or explain everything at once so things are on paper quickly. During the following revisions is when you need to notice those things and rewrite or remove such things.

Watch How You Tell Things

One of the hardest things to do as a writer is to balance the action with description. When I write a story, I tend to write down all the description at once. I remember reading the Babysitter’s Club books years ago and getting annoyed after the first few books because the writer always did the same thing. Whenever the Club had their first meeting in the book, the writer always spent a whole chapter describing every person at the meeting. The idea was that if the reader hadn’t read ever book in the series until that book, it wasn’t hard to meet the characters. To those that had read most or every book in the series, it was plain annoying. I quickly got in the habit of reading the first page or so of conversation and flipping through the chapter to the rest of the conversation, effectively skipping all the family and personal data of the characters I already knew. Now that I’m reading books for older people, I’m noticing a much more effective way of describing people and their backgrounds, which is in little pieces. It’s expected that when a character is introduced the writer will give a description and maybe an biographical paragraph if the point of view character knows the information. Saying the guy is tall, brown haired, and has a gorgeous smile but the character knows he’s hiding a black heart behind that smile as she used to date him often works better than having all their past history fly through her mind at the sight of him on the way to her important meeting. Although seeing him again may serve to distract her at the meeting, a long description of the past may slow down the pace for the reader.

Depending on the effect you want to create, a better way to introduce character may be more subtle like giving a brief physical description and the point of view character doesn’t realize for a few pages that his sister’s friend has lovely green eyes up close rather than the plain brown eyes he assumed because of her hair color or the friend’s dimples don’t make it into the book until he actually smiles.

As you write your story, I want you to keep in mind the different effects you can use in description and introduction of characters and settings. Think about how you want your readers to view this new place or person and what mood you have going in your story or scene. Once you know those things, you can decide how you want to craft the description to create the desired affect.

More On Characters

Since I've been talking about characters and character development these last few posts, I thought I'd finish up by posting some great articles I recently found on characters.

This is an interesting article about seven basic types of characters that may give you a different way to think about the characters you create.

While I'm talking about a different way of looking at characters, I thought this article quite useful. It's an intriguing look at character development combined with story and setting. The writer wrote about generalities on how to write an unforgetttable book with unforgettable characters using small details that had me itching for my pen in order to write my forgotten stories.

Although the writer of the previous article spent little time on specific details, this article can give you some ideas to help breathe life into your characters while this article is an excellent reminder of how important body language is in real life and therefore in fiction.

This is a useful article to keep in mind when creating your characters and here is my character profile if you still need help interviewing your characters. Feel free to add to it or ignore parts that don't apply to your particular character.

Character Profile

Character profiles are, in my opinion, necessary in any story. Developed at least in part at the beginning, a profile should grow as the story continues. Add items that come up during the story, such as family members or old flames or an old memory told of a vacation. Doing that will help you keep the details straight as the story progresses or if the story becomes a series and you need character details years after writing the first story. You may not put everything in this profile in your story, especially in the case of profiles of side characters such as a mentor or a roommate, but every character in your story should have a profile so you can keep straight everyone as you write.

Name:

Gender:

Age:

Position in story: Is this the main character, a love interest, a sibling, a friend, or an enemy? There are many other positions a character can play in a story, such as a rival-turned-grudging-ally or mentor. What part will this character fit?

How do people view this character?: Do most people see her as the quiet one in the corner or the vibrant girl no one can control? Is he the sociopath people think is awesome or is he the gentle man everyone thinks is a freak? You don’t have to go in depth here, that is what the rest of this post is for, but it may be helpful to put down how others in your story stereotype this character.

Ethnicity: Ethnicity is a major part of character as it can dictate limits to how your character can look. It can also dictate things like language spoken or known, temperament, and influence choices such as education, career, hobbies, and where they live.

Appearance: Although you don’t need to be precice in all the questions, you should have a general idea
Skin color:
Hair color:
Eye color:
Height:
Weight:
Distinguishing marks: Such as scars or moles or birthmarks

Culture: Although culture and ethnicity seem the same, culture has more influence on choices made, even if ethnicity can narrow the choices some.

What religion is your character?: Like ethnicity and culture, religion can have a huge effect on a person’s life and choices.

Style: Does your character prefer to dress up to go out or wear jeans and a tee shirt? Maybe your character prefers to stay in and wears lounge wear if it needs to leave its house. Although influenced by culture, style shows a lot about the character’s personality or the image your character wants to project.
What jewelry does your character prefer? Is there a favorite piece they usually wear?

Major places this character has lived: Along with helping to define the culture a person has been in contact with, where your character lived can influence what memories they have of years past.
Memorable places visited:

People who influenced this character in the past and currently: This can include family, friends, rivals who made your character work harder and get better, random acquaintances who had a strong influence, teachers, old lovers, children in your character’s life, or anyone else that may come up in a story. Here is one place you may not need to fill in at the beginning, but be sure to fill in anyone who may come up in the story as you write it. That way you won’t confuse people in later chapters or books.

How was your character’s childhood?: Were they well loved and spoiled or neglected and raised themselves? Did a relative die that effected them when they were young or did they have pets? Were they picked on at school, ignored or popular? What secrets does your character have? What memories do they have or stories of the past that they tell in the story?

Education: Where did your character go to school and what for?

Occupation: What does your character do for money or spend much of their time doing?

Hobbies/interests: What does your character do to relax and forget about the world or wish they had studied more in school?

Mannerisms: Mannerisms are an excellent way to show personality or past experiences. They could be anything from how a person shows emotion to addictions to posture to things they may be conscious about such as smoking when annoyed or chewing on their lip as they think.
Now that you have a good ideas about what formed your character you can explain your character’s personality and what its self image is.

Where will your character be at the end of your book or series? It’s always good to have a destination in mind as your story progresses. Although the destination may change as your character develops throughout your story, it should still be reflected in your character profile.

15 things to remember when creating your fictional character:

How does ethnicity affect your character?
What education does it have?
How has family affected who your character is?
How have certain memories affected its development?
How has its appearance affected your character?
What addictions or major flaws does it have?
What mannerisms does your character have?
How is its posture?
What are some of your character’s habitual mannerisms?
What are its hobbies?
What is your character’s job?
What are some subtle ways it shows emotion?
What motivates your character?
What secrets does it hold?
How does your character grow throughout the story?

Secrets affect everyone

Everyone has secrets, whether it’s that they killed someone or were molested years before or even that they accidentally broke the expensive vase their mother-in-law gave them as a wedding gift. Each secret, no matter how small or large, affects their relationship with someone. A man who has killed another may always be looking over his shoulder, slightly paranoid to an extent or may crave another kill. A child molested may have trouble connecting emotionally or trusting and may go from lover to lover all their life unless someone can get through to them. Breaking the mother-in-law’s expensive vase may mean your character doesn’t invite her over or has to invent reasons the gift isn’t on display. Many secrets kept are things the character has done or had done to them but people also have “family skeletons,” things their family did that they don’t talk about, like that their grandfather or uncle was a well known domestic terrorist or not talking about the death of a sibling. Such secrets can separate families or cause tension at gatherings. Maybe the gatherings are awkward because of the many silences at the table. Maybe they’re awkward because everyone tries so hard to be cheery to avoid the conversation they most need.
When thinking about your fictional character, remember everyone has secrets. Know its secrets and you’ll learn another motivation in your character’s life. Can you think of how some of the secrets in your life have affected you or the relationships you’ve had with others?

How does your character grow?

People read stories to be taken away from their life for a while and see other people overcome things. They want to see a character do something amazing or entertaining. However, most readers don’t merely want to read the last few chapters to know the climax, they want to read about the journey it took to get there. Stories are written about people doing things in the final chapter that they couldn’t do in the first one, for whatever reason. Each story tells about a journey taken because it had to be but rarely is the character the same when they finish as when they began. Think of your favorite books or movies, think about how each one was about a character finding the courage or the facts to face a giant of some sort, whether it be the ability to face the future as a child becomes an adult or the courage to face a fear or stand up to a bully or evil person. In each case the character refused to face that giant in the beginning of the story for some reason. Something forced them to try and later something made them resolved to win. Does your story have that same character growth or is the reader going to read it and realize that the beginning and the climax were cool but there just wasn’t any reason to read it again, no reason for them to cheer for the character. Very few stories can work without showing the reader the struggle the character is having and making your reader long for victory. While your story may be one of the few that don’t need character growth, I’d recommend making sure the reader won’t be left wondering why they just bothered to read that.

Emotions in story.

Emotions could very easily be a whole different series but I’ll just briefly touch on emotions in a book. You don’t always have to tell your reader what the characters are thinking. Often hints through facial expressions or body language or dialogue can go over easier with a reader than constantly being told that this character feels this way, then it feels like this, then it does this because it feels that. Such writing can be informative but sometimes readers like to figure things out on their own. After all, they are reading instead of watching a movie that tells them what to think. Keep that in mind every once in a while and let the reader make their own conclusions about what is going on. Since you’re writing from the perspective of one character, to an extent, it may be possible to mislead the readers as well. How many times have you watched your friends talk and thought you knew exactly what was going on only to realize later that they were talking about something else completely or that there was an undertone you didn’t understand? That can happen in books as well although I would suggest care as misleading the reader can only be done if the reader is willing to forgive you for it later if it is believable.

What does an occupation say about people?

Something else to ask yourself is what is your character’s profession? What does that say about your character? Often your plot will dictate what job your character has but you may want to spend some time thinking if that job is really the best job for the plot. Once you have to decide what traits your character had to have to get those traits. If your character is high up in the military or in business you know it has to be motivated and have a strong persona, unless favoritism was involved. If your character has been very low level worker for a number of years you know it has little motivation or is too honest to get promoted. Or else the job is very hard to get promoted in, which could make the character rather bitter. If your character works with kids than they must have a good imagination to understand the kids as well as a lot of patience and kindness. If the person is a sales person than they’d better hope they are a good people person or at least be able to fake it. If your person is a college professor they are likely very intellectual while a preschool teacher is likely very playful. When you think of a job, be sure you don’t have a character that is happy with their job if their personality doesn’t fit the job they’re in. What does your job suggest about you?

What can a hobby say about your character?

Something else to keep in mind is what your character does for fun. Does he like to shoot hoops with his sons after work or just want to sit in his home office and play fantasy sports games? Does she prefer to put in her favorite movie after a hard day at the office or would she rather flip through channels until something catches her eye? Maybe she picks up a good book or he turns on his favorite CD. Maybe she spends the weekend at the beach with her friends or he goes hunting with his dad. Maybe she goes to play sports with her friends or neighbors while he goes to the gym to lift weights. Each one of these things says something about the character and suggests a few more habits the character has. A guy who goes to the gym every day to relax obviously cares a lot about looking good and eats right and he likely takes care to eat extra protein. A girl who hangs out at the beach probably does her best to feel comfortable in a swimsuit or at least beach clothes. Someone who prefers tv or books to sports may be slightly overweight. A man that plays sports with his children may be a very involved dad. Someone who does crafts likely has a house showing off their accomplishments or at least a few crafts decorating their house somewhere. What do your characters’ hobbies say about them?

Habitual mannerisms

Habitual mannerisms are things that have formed habits and are really hard to break. Does your character smoke or leave the toilet seat up all the time? Those are habitual mannerisms and everyone has some. Maybe your character likes to pace when frustrated or chews their lip or cheek when thinking. Maybe they play with their lighter when bored or strokes their mustache when thinking. Things like that they do without thinking and can make the character seem more real to the reader, as long as the actions are inserted correctly and not overdone. What are some of your habitual mannerisms?

What does posture have to say with anything?

For the last two posts I’ve been talking about mannerisms and how they can add depth to a character. Today I’m going to talk about posture. Have you ever noticed how people with different hobbies or jobs walk differently? I rarely have trouble telling what service of the US military a man is in due to his build and how he walks. If they’ve been out a while it’s harder to tell but they never quite lose the swagger and pride instilled in their branch of military. Sports also affects posture as athletes use different muscles for different sports. A dancer will likely have very straight posture while a skateboarder may have the typical slightly hunched posture typical of American youth. Politicians spend time perfecting their public image and as such likely stand straighter while looking more comfortable than a typical person perhaps used to being crammed in a subway everyday. Politicians and the rich often are more comfortable taking up space than people used to being crammed together in tight apartments or small cubicles. All of these are things to consider when writing your story. Although they may be more important on television or the big screen than in books, keeping these things in mind may allow you to hint at facts that you don’t need to talk about in the story, such as past sports or interests.

Mannerisms, part 2

Mannerisms are defined on Dictionary.com as “a habitual or characteristic manner, mode, or way of doing something; distinctive quality or style” or “marked or excessive adherence to an unusual or a particular manner, esp. if affected.” They are how people show emotions, such as a tendency to sigh loudly when aggravated or where they always go to think or cry. Mannerisms cover everything from how a person eats to how they speak, even how they greet another person. Some people wave, others merely smile in passing. You may notice that many people have a standard way of greeting people. Most people they will greet with a firm handshake but they may hug close family members or greet them in an established way such as a family handshake or something they came up with as kids. The handshake or hug are common mannerisms, any other greetings will likely need explanation which could add some memories to the story and give the character more depth. Just remember when you think up mannerisms for your character to be sure they fit with the character. A super shy girl is unlikely to greet everyone with a big hug and a New Yorker is unlikely speak in a Boston accent.

Mannerisms: how people live

Mannerisms are little things everyone does unconsciously such as biting your nails when nervous or a girl twisting her hair while in thought. They are ingrained in our behavior and very hard habits to break if we need to. Mannerisms are often learned from a caregiver or close friends. How many times have you seen your best friend and her mom do the same thing, whether it’s a quirk in the kitchen or something they do while they think? When was the last time you noticed your friend and his roommate do the same little thing? Have you ever noticed that both you and your siblings have a habit of tapping you feet while waiting or that you all have the same smile? Things like that can distinguish a character in a story or tell others that they are family or hang out too much. There are so many things to chose from for your character, just remember not to overdo it. The story may believably point out a few mannerisms but pointing out too many may be overdoing it. How many of you would notice a person having over a hundred mannerisms and comment on all of them (not counting significant others)? That would likely be overkill unless done just right.
However, mannerisms done right can add depth to a character and possibly add plot points to a story or change someone’s emotions towards them (either good or bad).

What about addictions?

Yesterday I spoke of creating perfect characters versus scarred characters. What about recovering characters. I personally have no dangerous addictions but I’ve heard said that the cravings never go away. Many movies show a recovered alcoholic staring at a bottle of alcohol debating how much they really want that drink versus how much more it would screw up their life. Ex-druggies often think on how easy their life was on drugs and ex-smokers still crave the nicotine years after stopping. Adding an addiction or old addiction to a character can add another dimension to their personality. It also usually covers another deep seated issue that the person refused to face and possibly still does, the reason they needed to escape in the first place. Figure that out and you can look into helping your character find inner peace.

Appearences

Who wants to create a character that isn’t gorgeous or perfectly charming? Many new authors create characters that look exactly as the author wished to look and act just as the author wished the world saw them. However, nobody is perfect. Everyone has scars whether it be a visible one or invisible. That scar above his eye could be from a fight he proudly won as a boy, a car crash the character barely survived, or a drunken night he can’t remember. That scar on her stomach may be a c-section mark, a scar from a beating she hates to remember, or a scar she got climbing a tree in her youth. He may be perfectly charming to hide his insecurity if he settled to dating one girl or she may be gentle because it’s expected by her family or husband while inside all she wants to do is scream or strangle someone.
My point is that often the more flawed characters can be more interesting than seemingly perfect characters and seemingly perfect characters always have stuff under their surface that is not so perfect but can make them interesting as well. Just remember that a “perfect” character not only has nowhere to build to in a story, they also ring false with readers and should be avoided without some explanations.

How do memories affect development?

Next we’ll talk about how memories can affect the life of characters. One thing to remember is that everyone sees things from their own perspective and doesn’t have all the facts. An example would be a story I’m working on. The lady thinks a guy hates her when really he has no real emotion towards her, he just hates how he sees the situation someone else put them in. They could one day become a couple or the greatest of enemies. It all depends on if they ever bother to talk it out and see neither of them is to fault so they can stop blaming each other. Misunderstandings are common because people forget that everyone sees something different. Have you ever seen the movies where two people are arguing and don’t realize they are arguing about different things? The scene in Ocean’s 11 comes to mind. One guy was arguing about the girl and the other guy was arguing about the job. They didn’t realize it until one of their buddies asked them what they were talking about. Things like that happen because of what they bring to the argument. One guy was thinking about the girl that was so important, the other thought the job was more important. They had to realize they were seeing things differently before anything got done.
Another way memories can affect a character is how they perceive their childhood. If their parent worked a lot, the character may have felt unloved whereas the parent was doing their best to show love by providing for their child. Even though the parent thought the child was the center of their world, the child may feel like a burden or neglected and grow to avoid the parent as soon as possible. To the opposite extent an adult may feel forced to smile and play with the child or listen to hours of talk when all they want is to be out partying or at the office. The child may think they are loved and secure while the parent grows to resent the child.

Family and friends make us who we are

Another thing to think about is who your character’s family is. I know I would not be who I am today if not for my family. Whether it’s the quirky sense of humor or the fact that as the youngest I’m kind of a “mommy’s girl”, my family is my support network. I know I would be much different if I had been raised in a faster paced home or a dysfunctional one or one where my parents worked 24/7 and never had time for us growing up. I’d be much different if I was in the foster system, always getting shuffled between families with no dependable link or I would cling to any link, such as a sibling, as the only “solid” thing in my life. Also, people with no siblings or only one parent are raised differently than people with both parents raising multiple kids. Adopted kids often have things to work through such the question “Why was I given up” that they need answered or have to learn to have peace with not knowing. I have a friend who was adopted in grade school and still has contact with all her siblings overseas. That can add a whole new list of worries as can remarriages and even in-laws. I’ve been lucky with my in-laws so far but what if my brother marries an attention grabber? That would change the family dynamics at the Christmas party as my family and in-laws are rather laid back. How has your family affected how you are today? I’m sure you can think of a number of things whether it’s religion, morals, level of emotional honesty, or just a sense of humor.
Another thing that affects us at a young age is our friends. I know throughout high school I was mostly friends with the drama kids or the artsy ones. Now I have trouble fitting in with the girls I work with, the ones fascinated by fashion trends and being popular but seem to have no other hobby than hanging out at malls with friends or flirting with boys, and I have little to talk to with the boys who prefer to play video games and flirt with girls or go drink all weekend then pickup a book or make something with their hands. Who my friends were growing up made me comfortable to be me. Most people have friends or acquaintances like that and they may pop up in the story, whether to annoy a character or explain something. Also, friends can affect a person’s social confidence. A girl or boy who had few friends growing up could be really shy whereas a popular child may be very outgoing and possibly overconfident as an adult.
Another thing to remember is that how someone interacts with friends can be judged. A love interest may be watching how a guy reacts to girls in his circle or how a girl reacts to her coworkers. That could be an interesting scene if played right. No matter how you decide to use your character’s friends, or lack of, it will affect the character in some way throughout their life so you may want to at least decide how popular in what crowds they were and how that affected them, even if only for the duration of the story.

Why is education so important?

Once you’ve figured out age and ethnicity, as I explained in the last blog, it would be a good idea to decide on their education. If the character is only seventeen, it’s a pretty safe bet that they only have high school behind them. However, some seventeen year olds have already graduated,, whether by being a genius or by taking a GED, and many high school students are already taking college courses in high school. A number of my friends at that age were spending more time at the colleges as part time students than they were at my high school taking courses. Here is probably also a good place to decide on how “smart” your character is. Is she book smart or street smart? Does he prefer art classes over math or music over science? Is she a genius musician that needs a tutor for history or is he a mathlete that avoids art class and public speaking? Is your character very political and good at speeches but unable to hold a funny conversation or is she an awesome researcher that can’t stand up in public? Remember as far as school goes everyone has a favorite subject and there’s always one they hate. Then again, your character may never have graduated into high school if they were needed to support the family or they may have dropped out of high school to join a gang, pursue fame, or become a mechanic. Or maybe they became a lawyer that would have preferred to be a mechanic. Knowing how they did in school is often an indicator of future interests or current pressures. They may love dance or they may hate it but excel in it because their mother makes them practice three hours a day outside of class. All these things can help develop a character and indicate things like who their friends are, who they want to be, even hint at experiences they may have had with friends.