The limits of a writer's imagination: Can Characters Surpass Their Creators in Intelligence?

[MatchaChocolate69]

I've often heard the saying that a character can't be more intelligent than their creator, but is this really the case?
Reading some authors, I'm frequently amazed at how they've crafted certain characters, making me question this notion.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this.
Do you believe that a writer is limited by their own intelligence when creating characters, or can they indeed create a character who surpasses their own intellectual capabilities? Can a character be smarter than their author?

 

[Glitched]

They can, but it's hard. Very Hard. I think it's more important when creating a smart character to surpass the average readers intelligence to make a character look smart. If you really want to make a character smarter than the writer, then you either have to plan out their actions optimally far in advance and waste a lot of brain power that your character supposedly spends much less time thinking about, ask an ai that understands the story, or use examples and reference how other works make a giga smart Mc that's smarter than you, the author.

 

[Tyranomaster]

You can make them sound smart, appear smart, but they cannot actually be smarter.

"I cannot know what I don't know" applies here.

They can be more quick witted though, since the author can think for longer than the character can in short time spans.

 

[Corty]

If you have split personalities and one is smarter than the other, then yes.

Otherwise, no.

 

[J_Chemist]

No. If you failed science class in high school but all of a sudden want to write an MC who's a physics professor, you're probably going to have a bad time if you try to write about them giving a lecture.

A character's knowledge is limited by a writer's. Unless the writer studies and expands on their knowledge base and then incorporates it into the story properly, the information isn't going to look correct and might be off putting. Same goes for personal/emotional affairs that happen in a story. If a writer doesn't have actual experience with certain emotions, situations, etc, then it will reflect in their writing.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

I've often heard the saying that a character can't be more intelligent than their creator, but is this really the case?
Reading some authors, I'm frequently amazed at how they've crafted certain characters, making me question this notion.
I'm curious to hear your thoughts on this.
Do you believe that a writer is limited by their own intelligence when creating characters, or can they indeed create a character who surpasses their own intellectual capabilities? Can a character be smarter than their author?

No. The borders of your world are the borders of your characters. You can fake it, but how long is another question ...

 

[DannyTheDaikon]

No. The character can appear more intelligent, but will be only an illusion. It will fall apart the moment the author tires to go beyond the general statements.

 

[GlassRose]

To a degree, but it takes a lot of time and effort, and probably a lot of working backwards. But the writer's intelligence does still place a cap on the character's intelligence, when it gets to the point that no matter how much time and planning, the writer cannot find a solution to an in-universe problem that the character can find and access with their supposed 'intelligence'. It's also very easy to make a 'super genius' character, but then cheat and just let them know things, and have their plans just work out, even when logically it doesn't seem like they should. It's hard to make a very intelligent character and not make it obvious that you're cheating. Possible, just tough.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

This thread reminds me of an interesting study I once read about intelligence, character, personality, and retention rates in the military ...

 

[MatchaChocolate69]

If you really want to make a character smarter than the writer, then you either have to plan out their actions optimally far in advance and waste a lot of brain power that your character supposedly spends much less time thinking about

They can be more quick witted though, since the author can think for longer than the character can in short time spans.

Yes, this is the way I thought it would be possible to have a character more intelligent than the author.
The author has the advantage of knowing the events before they happen and can ensure that the character reacts optimally to these situations.

No. The borders of your world are the borders of your characters. You can fake it, but how long is another question ...

In the end, isn't writing characters similar to acting? Characters can be more cruel, more likable, or even completely different from the person who wrote them.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

Yes, this is the way I thought it would be possible to have a character more intelligent than the author.
The author has the advantage of knowing the events before they happen and can ensure that the character reacts optimally to these situations.

In the end, isn't writing characters similar to acting? Characters can be more cruel, more likable, or even completely different from the person who wrote them.

I can only relay personal experience ... I have read a lot of characters. So far, few have ever struck me as intelligent. Wise for sure, but intelligent? I am not sure.

 

[J_Chemist]

This thread reminds me of an interesting study I once read about intelligence, character, personality, and retention rates in the military ...

The military is lacking in all of that.

 

[Chaos_Sinner777]

Yeah. Wouldn't say it's easy per se, but you really think Tite Kubo is as smart as Kisuke Urahara? Nah.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

The military is lacking in all of that.

I think the conclusion was that the intelligence level among generals and admirals mirrors that of sales department managers ... The literacy scores were surprisingly low compared to the civilian sector. They didn't appear to like reading much.

 

[P.R.S]

It happens, but its rare
Sometimes a author may have something prepared in the future for one character but as the things flow somehow that creature surpass the author expectations or in a way the thing the author planned now dont make any sense to happen because the character evolved
Soo, yes if you consider it like this

 

[KuromiMago]

It is possible to kind of simulate it.

I have in multiple occasions made characters not only act smarter than I, or even say things much wiser than I could normally, which in turn kinda of...made me reflect a lot on how that got to surface when I was, just as someone said before, acting. It is possible to simulate knowledge, phrase it into a logical framework that makes sense, or prepare a situation to set up intelligence by artificial means using creativity; as Chaos Sinner said, Kubo is not as smart as the genius that is Urahara, but he is capable of making a scenario by using storytelling and build up that Urahara comes up as the big brain.

What you can not, however, is dump knowledge into something that you're completely ignorant. I mean, you do you, but it takes only one person with said knowledge to wreck our shit up. This is also the reason why I not only study a lot of history and mythology to my works, but I also try to put up a lot of narrative and creative fail-safes to suspend disbelief.

EDIT: A quite popular brazilian youtuber has a video dedicated to connecting King Assurbanipal with Psy using the Five Handshakes method. It is amazing. I...just needed to share this.

 

[J_Chemist]

I think the conclusion was that the intelligence level among generals and admirals mirrors that of sales department managers ... The literacy scores were surprisingly low compared to the civilian sector. They didn't appear to like reading much.

checks out.

 

[someawkwardflame]

Ofcourse you can. The author knows everything in the world, ans while they would be dumber than the character in the world they decide what the character knows. They also have tools to find a solution and can write a character having found tbe solution without those tools. I can Google a really hard question, find the answers and then the character just knows that answer.
Even without that you don't have to show every solution in detail. You can just say that a character is outstanding at maths, and do some examples of them using math were you are not actually showing what they are doing.

Being smart isn't just knowing things, it's how you know things, what you deduce without assistance and how you apply it. It's incredibly easy to have characters do things you could never do, because you don't have to do them to write them. Characters can make predictions you could never make cause you don't have to actually make the prediction, you decide ir anyways.

You just have to use tools and outside assistance that your character doesn't have. I can Google Pi to the whatever digit if I want to and then my character can recite that for memory. Or I can just say they can? Who wants to read 50000 numbers of pi in a novel anyways.

When it comes to wisdom and thoughtfulness, also yes. Because what a character comes up with in a moment, you can edit over months and months. I can't deliver a perfect monologue in a second, or come up with amazing metaphors or whatever ut I can over months.

Its all a matter of scale, time and access to assistance.

 

[GlassRose]

You can make them sound smart, appear smart, but they cannot actually be smarter.

"I cannot know what I don't know" applies here.

They can be more quick witted though, since the author can think for longer than the character can in short time spans.

"I cannot know what I don't know" doesn't really apply here. A character cannot be more knowledgeable than the writer (though you can 'fake' it, and really, what's the difference between faking it and not in a story book, if the reader can't tell it was faked?) but that is different from intelligence.

Intelligence is the rate at which someone internalizes information and processes information, as well as their proficiency in finding and applying logical connections in that information. Someone of lesser intelligence can do much of the same as someone of greater intelligence, it'll just take more time. There are however a few cutoffs. Someone of abominably low intelligence may not have the capacity to handle even the lower-level tasks that build up to the higher level ones, without sufficient rationality they may also wind up going down a rabbit hole that leads away from any possibility of reaching the goal. And trying to imitate someone of super-genius level intelligence might not be feasible either, simply because the gap in ability is so high, or the difference in the method by which they process information itself so stark, that you can't reach it with mere time. But that part is more speculation on my end.

 

[Assurbanipal_II]

checks out.

Funnier were the personality studies, where authoritarian and dictatorial traits in front of subordinates and obedience towards superiors clearly prevailed. Were the 90s admittedly, but I doubt that anything changed ...