Questions Writers are Tired of Answering: Where Do Your Characters Come From?

But if you stopped asking, we’d get all depressed and weird,
so don’t mind our whining.



So, where do my characters come from? My ass? That’s the
honest-to-god answer for that question 99% of the time for me. I make them up. They’re
fictional, right? But that’s not fair. Readers are truly curious and when they
read a character they love, it’s a natural thing to wonder how that brilliant
writer came up with such awesomeness.



So, for anyone wondering where my characters come from, I have a few “inspirational” sources that
help put those characters in my ass so I can pull them out as needed (You like
that visual, eh?):



 



Dreams



Yep. Sometimes I just dream about something and voila! A
character is born. While writing Dirty Truths, I had a secondary character that
I’ve mentioned before named Thomas. He wasn’t even a blip in the book. Just a
tool to add some tension in a couple of scenes. He was faceless, without much
personality. I didn’t want him to be anything fantastic, because he was a prop.
But my brain disagreed and I dreamt about Thomas for several nights. He got a
face, a backstory and I kind of fell in love with the guy. So I rewrote what I
had written (it was about ½ finished at this point) to make Thomas a major
player. I also gave him his own story. I haven’t written it yet, but someday I
will.



People



I’ll never reveal “who” inspired a particular character, because
there’s no one in particular that I base a character entirely on. But I do draw
traits from people I know or have heard/read about. For example, Jackson Murphy
is a compilation of myself, my father, and various ex-boyfriends, friends, etc.
Sometimes, it’s as simple as seeing a stranger while I’m forced to be outside
and imagining their story.



The Story



Sometimes the story itself creates the character. Usually I
write characters first, and proceed with the story. Almost all of my novels
evolve from a character, but once or twice I’ve had the story idea first, and
the characters fell into place from there. For me, this is the hardest way to
create characters because I usually have a good chunk of novel written before
the characters are fully formed in my mind. That means I have to go back
through what I’ve written and rewrite every damn scene so the characters feel
more real and aren’t doing stupid things.



Kurt



Yep. He’s a good character guy. Usually it starts with, “What
if this guy…?” or “You should write about someone who….” But don’t tell him. He’ll
want a cut of my fame later on and I don’t plan to share.



Current Events



I avoid watching the news too often, because it’s usually
depressing as shit, but sometimes, I accidentally catch something.  Sometimes a current event is just too big to ignore.
And a few of the players in these current events spark an idea for a character
of my own. It might be no more than their appearance, but usually it’s
something they’ve said or done that lights my creative fire. Once or twice, I
just like their names and go from there. Yes, it really is as basic as that.



History, Legends and Myths



My upcoming paranormal series, FOR THE LOVE OF GODS is full
of characters from Greek Mythology. I’ve made them my own, but they are based
on actual legends, because their names are too well-known for me to completely
pants them. Other characters evolve from real historical figures or events we’ve
all read about. I have to tell you, I don’t know how any kid can be bored by
history. It’s just crammed full of good shit.



My Ass



And of course, as I said before, most of my characters come
from my ass. Most of my stories begin with a character that needs a plot. A lot
of times I’ll have a name, and I build the character around that or around a
life history I’ve outlined as part of the story idea. Sometimes, I’ll add a
character, slapping a temporary name on him, and flesh him out as I go. More
often than you’d believe, my characters just happen. There’s no inspiration, no
source; they just arrive, fully-formed in my head. I can only guess how long they
were hiding in my ass, waiting for the right moment to emerge. You know, that
might explain my generally irritable nature.



 



And that, dear readers, is where I come up with my
characters. Writers out there, for the millionth time, share with us: Where do
your characters come from?