“Recasting” Characters

Admit it, as a writer you sometimes picture people (actors, musician, models, the guy who works at Starbucks) as characters in your work. They aren’t the exact some people, just a player to picture, someone to fill the role of the person. No one will ever know who it is (unless you tell them), and your readers are going to come up with someone else entirely.

But knowing who you’ve casted, do you ever repeat your physical muses? The thought crossed my mind when I was watching a show where I could sit and point to actors that appeared in the creator’s other works. Almost never as the same character (unless it was a cross over or a cameo), but to me they’re still, say, “Mer’s Dad’s”, “Rick’s ex-wife”, “The guy that shot everyone.”

I also had trouble separating the mental casting of Tom from Unscripted Transformations and a character in a yet to be published novel. It drives me nuts that the characters kept crossing over, even though I described him to look different. I think that’s one reason I skipped over it and edited my fifth piece instead.

So could you ever reuse a physical muse, or would you be unable to separate the characters you created.