How Do I Make My Characters Authentic?

One of my readers wanted to know how I make characters from different ethnic and geologic backgrounds so authentic, particularly those in the Vampire Queen series. Her specific question was: “I am currently reading the Vampire Queen Series and one thing that I found refreshing about the main characters is that they come from different ethnic and geologic backgrounds. Reading about Jacob being an Irishman or Dev being an Aussie, you really capture the essence of these different cultures. How do you go about making them authentic?”

Well, I admit I never have done much research on the Irish side of things, because Jacob and Gideon Green were born and raised in the States. Their “Irishness” is more in the blood than in an awareness of heritage. Any authentic quality is therefore due to my exposure to Irish-Americans growing up and into adulthood. My childhood best friend’s mother had Irish-born parents, for example. Jacob and Gideon’s unrelenting morality and practicality, their stubbornness and a bit of a hot temper (Gideon has a bigger dose of that than Jacob), probably came from exposure to her and people like her (grin).

However, for my Australian and Scottish heroes (Dev of Vampire’s Claim and Niall of Taken by a Vampire), things were a bit different. Dev and Lady Danny’s story was set entirely in 1950s Western Australia. Though Taken by a Vampire happens in current times, Evan, the vampire who took Niall as his servant, met him in eighteenth century Scotland. Evan himself was Jewish, which presented its own challenges.

I’m going to use these two books as specific examples of how I create authentic characters, since I employ the same process whenever research is needed on a character’s personality or background, or for the setting of the book.

VAMPIRE'S CLAIM - With Vampire's Claim being set in 1950s Western Australia, history as much as culture and language was essential to doing the story right and presenting Dev accurately. Usually I pursue a mix of strategies to make the story and characters feel authentic. I seek out “book” sources to help me with history and culture, but I like to have someone with a direct connection to who my characters are to guide me toward what those best sources are. In the case of Vampire’s Claim, I had the invaluable help of the wonderful author Denise Rossetti, who lives in Australia. She not only gave me firsthand guidance on language, geography, history and mannerisms for Dev, but pointed me toward many great research resources, books and online, to bring the story to life.

I don’t want merely encyclopedic summaries. I’ll read memoirs, popular fiction from or about a time period, as well as travel logs and magazines. I’ll also watch recommended movies, documentaries or TV shows to internalize the “voice” of the time period and people inhabiting it. For instance, here’s a list of my sources for researching Vampire’s Claim and Devlin’s character:

Fiction: A Town Like Alice by Nevil Shute; Death of a Swagman by Arthur Upfield

Memoirs/Autobiography: Mutant Message Down Under by Marlo Morgan; The Road from Coorain by Jill Ker Conway; Daisy Bates in the Desert by Julia Blackburn

Travel Guides: In A Sunburned Country by Bill Bryson; National Geographic Traveler Australia

DVDs: The Australian Outback is a beautiful video of scenes from the Outback, combined with an appropriate music score. Dev felt a deep kinship with the Outback, and watching this visual praise of those landscapes helped me articulate that through his character. Rabbit-Proof Fence is about three Aboriginal girls traveling in the Outback together. Dev has Aboriginal blood, so this gave me more insight into how their culture might have influenced his character.

Alas, the movie Australia with Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman came out after Vampire’s Claim, but you can bet I would have watched it for research, since it featured an Australian cast and focused on the events in the country around WWII. Though in a way I’m glad it did come out after I wrote the book, because Hugh Jackman reminded me SO much of my character Devlin, I would have felt like I’d copied him, lol.

Online: Countless visits to Wikipedia, cross checking with all sorts of Bing searches on details of Australian history, language, geography, etc. Also countless emails with Denise, and she kindly reviewed the full manuscript to help me with the Australian colloquialisms and dialect. I overdid it because I was so enchanted with all those lovely turns of phrase – smile.

TAKEN BY A VAMPIRE - Because the book takes place in contemporary times, the history and exposure to Scotland happened more in the way of flashbacks. As such, I had less research to do on that side of things than I did in Vampire’s Claim. I did plenty of Internet research similar to what I noted above for Australia, read Neil Oliver’s A History of Scotland and watched his ten-part BBC documentary series. That pretty much covered that. However, to make Niall and Evan’s characters more authentic required the help of people who understood Scottish dialect/mannerisms and the Jewish faith, respectively.

Over the years, readers have become an invaluable resource for me. Ebooks have given me the gift of an international readership, which means I had readers who could offer me firsthand guidance on Niall’s use of language. All in all, four readers kept me on track with both Niall’s language/mannerisms and Evan’s religion. My Jewish readers helped me believably reconcile Evan’s faith with being a vampire, and they and my Scottish sources assisted me with the playful verbal fencing he and Niall did in Hebrew and Scots tongue in scenes like this:

* * * * *

Niall gave Alanna a sidelong glance and a half smile, then returned his attention to the road.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I was an arse.”

She shook her head, denying the need for the apology, but it made something loosen in her chest, especially when he reached out, touched her knee. Glancing behind her, she saw Evan still writing. “Don’t be fooled,” Niall advised. “He doesn’t miss anything.”

“No, I don’t,” Evan said, not looking up. “You acting like an ass is such a common occurrence, I didn’t figure it required any comment on my part.”

Niall shifted gears, making the Rover jump and rev with a brief spurt of gas. Alanna saw Evan lift his pencil a mere second before it happened, preventing a jagged slash across his paper, then he calmly went back to scribbling. “I think you just underscored my point,” he said.

“Numpty.” Niall snorted.

“Best you can do?” Evan returned. “Noshech kariot.”

“That part’s mostly your fault, isn’t it? Och, weel, you wur brocht up mair refainit than me then.”

Seeing Alanna’s blank look, Niall grinned. “Numpty is the Scots term for idiot. He called me a pillow biter in Hebrew. I think you can figure out the rest.”

She wasn’t sure she could.

* * * * *

The excellent side benefit of research is it enhances the characters as well as the story. There have been many times I’ve added additional scenes or picked up ideas for how the story/characters could go in a better direction, based on what I found out during my research.

For instance, learning about the soldiers who worked the grueling Kokoda Track to prevent Japanese invasion of Australia provided an important insight into Devlin’s character for Danny, since Dev was one of those WWII veterans. It also led to a very emotional scene between him and her. Here’s a snippet:

Danny knew Dev probably didn’t realize it, but she knew about the Kokoda Track, knew about the 39th battalion, the men who were sent back into the thick of it again and again. Who’d endured battles where eight hundred men went in and as few as thirty would come out. It seemed no matter how hard Dev endeavored to die, to end his own misery, Fate wanted him to live. During his startling burst of rage, she’d heard his words, felt the futile hopelessness in him, the deepest, darkest well of his soul screaming out at the heavens, and it had torn her own heart to pieces.

That scene would never have been in there if I hadn’t stumbled upon the Kokoda Track during my research. It made Dev’s character more authentic, yes, but it also pushed his and Danny’s relationship and the story further forward as a result.

As a closing note, I’ll mention this mix of research mediums works for contemporary book characters as well. For instance, in the upcoming Worth the Wait my hero Desmond Hayes is a Type I diabetic. I researched the facts related to this condition, but I also frequented blogs by people who live with it day to day, watched YouTube videos along the same lines, and talked to a friend who has a teenager with Type I. Those first hand accounts made the way Des coped with this condition more realistic and better-integrated into the overall storyline. How he lives with it also gives the reader a better grasp of his character.

When I have a character who requires additional research to make him or her more realistic, I usually compile a list of questions as I write the books. Once I finish the second draft (sometimes the third), I run the relevant parts past any expert who can handle me inflicting myself upon them (lol). As such, you’ll often note quite a few acknowledgements at the front of my books, thanking these experts for their invaluable help. There will always be things I miss, but I try very hard to get all the details right. Whenever I slip, it’s always my oversight, not those who have been so patient and wonderful as to help me try to get it right!

Note: A special thanks to Tessciela for her great question.

If you’d like to read more about any of the books discussed above, here’s the link to excerpts/blurbs for the Vampire Queen Series - storywitch.com/series-vqs

And here’s the link to Worth the Wait – releasing in one more week, May 31! - storywitch.com/book-nod-wtw