Playing Not-Favorites
On another board I frequent, writers are chatting about creating characters based on hated or despised real-life people, then doing nasty, terrible, vindictive things to them. Ah, writers' therapy...
Many of my characters - especially in the Jane Madison books - are composites of people that I know. I take one insecurity from here, add a dose of humor from there, create a specific tic out of whole cloth and - voila! A "real" character.
Only once have I based a character directly on one specific person - a former roommate who (with twenty years of hindsight) gave me great stories to tell about the perils of dorm rooms. I turned her into an evil, conniving princess, a bride in an arranged marriage with my dashing, oh-so-perfect hero. I thought that I'd disguised the roommate well, subtly incorporating her quirks while bringing out her essential evilness. That was, until my best friend read through the chapter and said, "I really like the scene between Hero and [Roommate]."
It's probably best that that novel will never see the publishing light of day...
Mindy, musing on the volumes in her trunk
Many of my characters - especially in the Jane Madison books - are composites of people that I know. I take one insecurity from here, add a dose of humor from there, create a specific tic out of whole cloth and - voila! A "real" character.
Only once have I based a character directly on one specific person - a former roommate who (with twenty years of hindsight) gave me great stories to tell about the perils of dorm rooms. I turned her into an evil, conniving princess, a bride in an arranged marriage with my dashing, oh-so-perfect hero. I thought that I'd disguised the roommate well, subtly incorporating her quirks while bringing out her essential evilness. That was, until my best friend read through the chapter and said, "I really like the scene between Hero and [Roommate]."
It's probably best that that novel will never see the publishing light of day...
Mindy, musing on the volumes in her trunk