Characters in your books

[Jason]

Do you use people that you've known in real life as the basis of some of your characters in your books? I'm interested to know if any of the soldiers you've served with have made it into any of your books, and if so, which ones?

[Steven]

Oddly enough, no, Jason. I actually had an epiphany years ago, which was never again to write from real-life. I don't believe in Write What You Know; I believe in Write What You Don't Know. Again and again, I've found that scenes and characters that are totally made up are the ones that readers respond to with, "Wow, that was really REAL." When I try to base something on real life, people say, "Man, that was phony as hell!"

[Jason]

You are my favorite author and I'm so happy I found this site. I think that most authors don't produce interesting enough characters. In your books, EVERYONE is interesting. I'm on The Afghan Campaign now and each chapter brings more soldiers that catch your attention. Please keep up the great work.

[Steven]

Jason wrote: "You are my favorite author and I'm so happy I found this site. I think that most authors don't produce interesting enough characters. In your books, EVERYONE is interesting. I'm on The Afghan Campa..."

Jason, if you want to see something that might be of interest, try my updated site at www.stevenpressfield.com. It's not really book stuff but some new op-ed videos. And thanks for the kind words!

[Jason]

Thank you

[Jody]

I recommend The Afghan Campaign to anyone interested in our current involvement there, as well as having an interest in history.
It is a masterful book.

[Jason]

I agree. You could change a few details and the book could be reffering to our current war.

[Steven]

I did when I was first starting out (first three unpublished novels, which deserved to be unpublished) but, like I said, I discovered that purely fictional characters came out "realer" that real characters. I think a lot of writers have that experience. A character that's totally fictional will have his or her own voice, all by magic, leaving the writer to tune in to that voice and put it on the page. I've heard many writers say that they've drawn up in the middle of writing a line of dialogue and heard a little voice say, "No, that character wouldn't say that"--or wouldn't say it in that way.

[[deleted user]]

Two questions if you don't mind, from a sincere admirer of your books....

1) If you don't use real life experiences or personalities as a basis of any kind for your characters, from what or whom did you develop the character Telamon in Virtues of War and Tides of War?

2) How or why did you become convinced of the concept of past lives? I lived in Thailand for 3 years where Theravadic Buddhism is the dominant relgion and the concept there is as natural as rain to the S.E. Asians. Very few Westerners of your or my generation take it seriously though. Or so it seems...