I’m thrilled to be doing my first guest post here on The Write Stuff. Thank you, Marcia, for rolling out the red carpet!!
The second most common question we writers tend to hear is how do we come up with our characters. (The first one being where do we get our story ideas.)
Like the story ideas, our characters come from several different sources. Some are loosely based on people we know. Some are loosely based on ourselves (the protagonist of my Kate Huntington stories is definitely my alter ego; the person I wish I was).
How I visualize Kate Huntington (maybe without the flowers) ~ photo is “Sunset at Assos” by Nevit Dilmen ~ Used with his permission ~ I love his photography!
And sometimes a character who was only supposed to have a bit part gets their teeth around that bit and takes off running. One such character is the tough female cop who’s assigned as police protection when someone is trying to kill Kate in Book 1 of that series. This cop wasn’t even supposed to talk much except in the scene where she is first introduced.
Officer Rose Hernandez is short but solidly built (Kate refers to her as “compact”) and she can arch an eyebrow at a forty-five degree angle in the most expressive way. By the end of Book 1, she has rebelled against her incompetent superior – and me – and has gone rogue, helping Kate and her friends find the killer on their own. And by Book 3 she’s a central character in the series.
Still other characters are total figments of our imaginations, perhaps a conglomeration of some interesting-sounding personality traits–someone whom we wish we knew. I have a few of those scattered throughout my books. I’m fond of feisty women, but I don’t meet enough of them in real life. (Note: feisty is tough but with a big mouth and a sense of humor – maybe it’s just as well that there aren’t too many of them *cough* us *cough* running around in real life 😉 )
The main character in my new series is such a woman, although she would probably refer to herself as snarky rather than feisty. She’s a thirty-something divorcee who trains service dogs for combat veterans with PTSD.
I had so much fun writing the first book in this new series. Bringing this character to life was a blast. And now that I’ve breathed life into her, I wonder where she will take me. Because I am quite sure she does not plan to do as she’s told!
But now that I have two series going, I’m having a very interesting experience with my characters. While I’ve been focused on my new heroine, Marcia Banks, Kate and her friends have been whispering in my ear, “What about us?” One of them (most often Kate) will nudge me at some odd moment, with a cool idea for some plot twist in the next, as yet unwritten, Kate Huntington mystery.
So this will be my life for the foreseeable future, caught between two worlds…oh wait, it’s three worlds – Kate’s world and Marcia’s world and my real-life world (which I do try to visit now and again).
When I’m writing Kate’s stories, Marcia will be making snarky remarks about my neglect of her, and when I’m telling Marcia’s tales of mishap and mayhem, Kate will be nudging my elbow and Rose will be arching her eyebrow at me.
And then there is the role that our readers play in our characters’ lives. For without readers, our characters’ life force would fade away. Every time a reader picks up one of our books, they breathe new energy into the people who live inside that book.
And if we’ve done our jobs well, the characters will live on in the reader’s mind for a while after the last page of the book is turned. And the reader will be wondering what Kate or Marcia is up to now…
Authors, how do you experience your characters? Do they haunt you if you’re too slow about writing the next chapter in their stories?
As readers, what characters have lived on in your minds for days after finishing a book?
I’m so excited about this new series that I’m inviting everybody to a Facebook party to celebrate! Please click HERE to say you’re coming and put the date on your calendar, Tuesday, April 12, 2-8 pm, EDT.
Here’s the blurb and links for the new book:
To Kill A Labrador, A Marcia Banks and Buddy Mystery
Marcia (pronounced Mar-see-a, not Marsha) likes to think of herself as a normal person, even though she has a rather abnormal vocation. She trains service dogs for combat veterans with PTSD. And when the ex-Marine owner of her first trainee is accused of murdering his wife, she gets sucked into an even more abnormal avocation–amateur sleuth.
Called in to dog-sit the Labrador service dog, Buddy, she’s outraged that his veteran owner is being presumed guilty until proven innocent. With Buddy’s help, she tries to uncover the real killer. Even after the hunky local sheriff politely tells her to butt out, Marcia keeps poking around. Until the killer finally pokes back.
Just $1.99 during the Pre-Order period. Available on:
AMAZON US AMAZON UK AMAZON CA APPLE NOOK KOBO
P.S. To connect with me, check out my website, email me at lambkassandra3@gmail.com, or come “like” me over at Facebook (Or feel free to send me a friend request)
What a great post! In addition to the way Kass’ characters abuse her, I particularly liked her observation on the role of readers. It’s so true that the way readers respond to characters really influences their development in a series.
LikeLiked by 2 people
So you like seeing me get abused huh? Gee thanks, Barb! LOL (Seriously, glad you enjoyed the post. 🙂 )
LikeLiked by 1 person
Loved this post. My characters do give me prods and pokes when they think they should be written about and tell me what they would do, they live constantly inside my head and I`m happy to share space with them but I do tell them that real life things have to be done too.
LikeLiked by 2 people
Mine don’t understand that the real-life needs attention too. They think they’re the real thing and my own life is just my aberrant fantasy. 😉
LikeLiked by 1 person
Absolutely perfect post, Kass. Perfectly written and perfectly entertaining. 🙂 As for my own characters, they are with me all the time. While writing, they nudge me and make suggestions, sometimes even giving me dictation, which I’m supposed to follow to the letter. When I’m not writing, they bang around in my head, urging me to get back to it, and letting me know when something important is happening to them.
I have an eleven-year-old mountain boy who NEVER stops talking to me, and when I ignored him as I completed Chapter 26 of Harbinger, the whole point of the chapter fell apart. My betas let me know it didn’t work. I finally just let Rabbit take the bit in his teeth (that’s for you, Debby) and tell his part of the story the way he wanted to. “Just let me tell ’em what happened on that there ol’ mountain. I was there, an’ I can make ’em see it, clear as anything.” So that’s what I did.
In addition to Rabbit, I left a character in Finding Hunter in a pretty bad way, as I set up the premise for the next book in the Riverbend series, and I’m beginning to think that was an awful idea. This guy never stops yelling at me to get the heck outta the mountains and back in Florida, and take care of his problems. He’s truly angry, and between his cursing and raging, and Rabbit’s happy chatter, it gets really noisy in my head.
And yes, readers have so much influence. I hadn’t planned on writing a series, but they wanted more, so now I’m writing TWO. Ack. How did that happen? I have other stories I’d like to tell, but putting out two books a year is not giving me much time for exploring them.
Thanks so much for your thoughtful and fun post, Kass, and you are welcome to join us again as a #FabulousFridayGuesBlogger any time you’d like.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Glad you liked the post, Marcia!! Yes, I’m having second thoughts now about starting this new series. Way too many people in my head now. It’s starting to sound like an office Christmas party in there! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Love the photo in the banner, btw. Very summery!
LikeLiked by 1 person
We needed a fresh look for summer. I like to change things up now and then, just for the fun of it. 🙂
LikeLike
Mine sounds more like a drunken street party! GAH! Except for Rabbit, who’s standing off to one side, chatting with me about harbingers of death, and being gifted with The Sight. 😉
LikeLike
Suddenly the like star button has stopped working for me, so here it is: I LIKE your comment.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Words are always good, too, Kass! 😀
LikeLike
I would like that if the site would let me. 🙂
LikeLike
Awesome post, Kass! I found myself nodding all the way through…yep, yep…. They sort of take over, LOL. Good luck with your new book and series!
LikeLike
Thanks, Kathy! Isn’t amazing how our characters feel so real to us?
LikeLike
Although I’m the vehicle my characters use to tell their stories, most of the time I feel like I’m just “along for the ride.” That’s hard to explain to people who aren’t writers. They think we have total control over our creations–but, like unpredictable children, characters grow up in our minds and go off on their own!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Or they stay young forever, and wear you slap out trying to round them up and get them to behave! 😀
LikeLike
LOL Yes, they definitely wear me out some days!!
LikeLike
Yup, “along for the ride” about describes it sometimes. Other times, the phrase “herding cats” comes to mind. 🙂
LikeLike
Reblogged this on Judith Barrow.
LikeLike