Basing Characters on People I Know

Never before have I written a character inspired by someone in my life. Previously, in my screenplay Secret Lives, I reshaped a story using people I knew as adults, telling a fictionalized story that took place in the 1950's, when they were children and young adults. It was my dad's story, told through my eyes, about an event that happened before I was born. That's a long way from what I am doing now.

Now I am taking some of the qualities I admire in a real person: a whip-smart, wisecracking woman who often says what everyone in the room wishes they had the guts to say. The similarities between fiction and reality don't stop here; the two women also share the same profession and are very independent, rarely seeking others approval unless it carries weight and meaning.

Lest some of you take this literally when reading the book, there are also some choices I made with the fictional character, for various reasons, that are very different from the real woman. If I shared the largest difference, it would be a plot spoiler but it is definitely huge.

When writing, I really didn't picture the woman I know. Instead I took the essence of her self-confident demeanor, her rocking good sense of humor and went from there. I never intended to base this character on anyone. It was one of those serendipitous moments that we writers live for -- as I was sketching out the character, I kept thinking of this person I know. What would she say and do in this or that situation? The more this happened, the more the fictional woman sort of ran off the page and started doing her own thing. She's a fun character to write and hopefully a lot of fun to read.

Who is she? Well, stay tuned....