Animating the Inanimate. By Dan Cooke

Animating the Inanimate.

While not a book, the Locomotive in the 2009 film Unstoppable
(not the above) is a great example of an inanimate object being
essentially not only a character, but the main character.

Inanimate objects can be characters too, it all depends upon how they are perceived and written. Now to clarify, what I don’t mean here is that they have minds of their own and are able to think and speak (I.E. Knight Rider’s KITT) that’s another category entirely, although one that is really interesting and I am actually using myself. What I mean is that object although not alive, becomes kind of a secondary character due to the way it is used and the way the other characters respond to it.

So let’s say for instance one of your characters is a pilot and has recently brought himself a small plane and christened it Jasmine. Out on the maiden flight, the way you describe how the craft responds would almost make it another character of its own, as opposed to explaining everything though the eyes of the human pilot character.

“As Ben pulled back on the yoke, Jasmine felt the wind beneath her wings more than ever and allowed them to take her weight, her wheels left the ground. She was home. The wind was more like a cushion supporting her then the solid feeling of being on the ground. Ben requested more power as they climbed together, so she complied, allowing herself, and her pilot, to climb faster than she ever had before.”

Obviously this is somewhat of an extreme example, but that is more-or-less the tactic needed to humanise unhuman characters, allow them to feel and respond to things as if they were, and more attachment can be built to them faster than if it were to be told from the perspective of just the human character. I mean, how upset would you now all be if I had built her up and then decided to crash her?

“The ground looked like it was rushing up to greet them, Ben remained slumped over her controls, pushing her down. Jasmine screamed in protest as her engine reached speeds the like of which she had never felt before. The wind, which had felt like a cushion at the beginning of the flight, now felt more like sandpaper, whipping at her body, like a thousand tiny needles all over. The ground continued to rush to greet them, tiny details growing larger by the moment.”

Again, extreme, but when used in a more subtle manner, or alongside the human characters response to situations, to balance it out, this can be a great tool for making readers care more about what would normally be glossed over.

So I commend you to try this yourselves if you haven’t already, it adds an extra dimension and also gives you more characters, even if they can’t get involved in the conversations.