Gracie asked Francesca Zappia:

Hi! I saw in some of your answers that you had concepts for some of the characters in your books as early as fourteen years old. How do you usually come up with character concepts?

Francesca Zappia The first kernels of a character usually start as tropes or aesthetics I like from something else, and I can't always remember where they come from. For example, for Wallace, I knew I wanted him to be a football player because of the juxtaposition of him also writing fanfiction, and I knew I also wanted him to be big and strong in a way that I don't often see in YA fiction, in which he is THICK, not ripped or chiseled. And I wanted his personality, like sports and fanfiction, to be at first glance at odds with his physique. He's introverted, thoughtful, smart, etc.

Obviously lots of people are both strong and smart, but Eliza makes some incorrect assumptions about the new boy at first and that makes it more interesting for the reader as she learns who Wallace really is.

So as characters are emerging, I take into account both their physicality and their personality, how the two influence each other, and build in little pieces from that!

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