People, Children, Tools

Yes.

In repsponse to the question: Do you see your characters as people? As children? As tool?

My characters are my babies. I create them, I nurture them, I watch them develop, I fall in love with their quirks, make my audience fall in love with them, and then kill them off for effect. Which would make me a bad mother, except for the fact that my characters are not my babies except in a very loose metaphorical sense. They seem like people. They have their own lives, feelings, thought patterns, etc. So yes the are people.

But people I have complete control over.

Which brings us to the last part of the question, and the real answer. They are tools. They tell my story. They are carefully crafted tools, that dance across the pages, like puppets doing my bidding, responding to my every whim, thought, or delusion. I want this character to save that character's life? Done. Another character to break the law? Done. This crowd favorite to die? That was predetermined at birth.

I will admit to the fact that once I create a character, there are some things I cannot do without completely changing the character. If it is against a character's morals to break the law, I cannot logically make him break the law without creating a motive strong enough to make him do so.

Some writers say that their characters write the story on their own. Personally, I don't know what they are on. The writer is always in control of the piece and characters. No characters come off the page and write it for you. They may give pointers in the way of 'would that character really do that?' or 'why does this happen?' But other than that, they are figments being written on paper.

Which is why, ultimately, characters are tools.