I'd like to blog about being a Legal Assistant or about working for many years in the legal field, but I get enough of that during the day. People ask, quite seriously, why I don't write legal thrillers. For eight years, I worked for a Circuit Judge and saw enough to write a thriller but when I write I want to escape my world and visit someone else's. It is particularly fun when you can create the world and the someone else.
My favorite hero (in my books) is Morgan D'Arcy. He came to me full-blown, no character questions or sheets, because he is the man I'd like to meet – other than the fact that he is a vampire. He is also a concert pianist and a British lord. So I get to be romanced and fall in love as my heroine does.
As writers we want to transport our readers to that universe of our creation, peopled with our characters. If we succeed, the characters leap off the page and into the imagination of the readers. They then take on a life of their own and are memorable. Example: Rhett Butler, Lestat, you get the drift.
Usually I begin with one character who begins to tell me his story, then another mounts the stage and another until I have a full cast, all clamoring to tell the story.
Would the other writers care to share how their characters are born?
My favorite hero (in my books) is Morgan D'Arcy. He came to me full-blown, no character questions or sheets, because he is the man I'd like to meet – other than the fact that he is a vampire. He is also a concert pianist and a British lord. So I get to be romanced and fall in love as my heroine does.
As writers we want to transport our readers to that universe of our creation, peopled with our characters. If we succeed, the characters leap off the page and into the imagination of the readers. They then take on a life of their own and are memorable. Example: Rhett Butler, Lestat, you get the drift.
Usually I begin with one character who begins to tell me his story, then another mounts the stage and another until I have a full cast, all clamoring to tell the story.
Would the other writers care to share how their characters are born?
Great post, Linda. I meet many of my characters in dreams, waking and sleeping. :)
And I love Morgan!
Mine evolve slowly. Sometimes it's a picture that sets me off. Rarely have I met a character on the street!
Sometimes when I'm writing my character will surprise me by changing his/her name or telling me about a sister or brother that I didn't know about!
That happen to any of you?
Yes, Linda, characters do take on a life of their own. My Marek had his biography all mapped out before a single word was written but it began to change almost immediately--as did the lives and temperaments of his younger twin brothers and Cousin Dan--in fact, in later books, Dan has changed so much you probably wouldn't recognize him as the level-headed steward of the Castel Strigoi!
(Love that picture--glad I found it for you! It really captures something of Morgan, doesn't it?)
Excellent! I know about Linda and her characters.
Mine arrive, history, name, and all. They tell me who they are and what they want. They also lie in the beginning.
Tomorrow I'll post for Pam about her characters.
I get in the zone and my hero or heroine is born. Sometimes I can sit and nothing will come. But sometimes something takes over and I just hold the pen.
They tell me what the story is about.
Been following Morgan's story for a while now! Linda hooked me with the first installment on her website. Interesting how your characters form. Mine too spring full blown into my mind. I write down the information as the character reveals it. Such as hair color, eye color, any identifying marks, etc. Record them incase the character decides to change in mid stream. My characters are also funny about their names. If I don't get it right, they don't cooperate. Once I started an historical, but found I couldn't get the hero right. In my minds eye I could see him, but he wouldn't talk to me. When I questioned him about his lack of communication he informed me I didn't even know his name and he wasn't talking. My answer, really, then what is your name. Jonathan he answered. A few keystrokes and a find and change all and he was happily spinning his tale!
Scarlet