Pirate, Ghost, Pilot, Magician's Son (Melissa Robbins)

                Hmm, that title reminds me of the book Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, but really they are all my characters. Where do they come from? Simple answer. All around me from all walks of life and sometimes I don’t even know where they come from.

               One character, named for an ancestor of mine, appeared in a dream, probably after researching her genealogy. She was a ghost who wanted my heroine to solve the murders of her family that happened decades before.

                When I was a teenager, I created a character, because of my sad crush on Jim Hawkins. Yes, that Jim from Treasure Island. I crushed on a book character! Annie was Captain Flint’s granddaughter trying to break free from his pirate legacy.

                My son and his heart condition inspired another hero. The two share similar features, but my hero is WAY naughtier than my son. As writers, it’s important to let our characters make mistakes and remember that some teen boys don’t think like middle-aged women who know it’s wrong to break into houses, etc. 

                Some of my characters exhibit traits I wish I had. The extroverts I wish I could be. One beautiful blonde springs to mind. Vivian can wrap any man around her finger with her looks and sultry voice. Her friend, one of my heroines, tries her best to be like Vivian and she fails miserably at it and always seems to get herself into even more trouble.

                Many of my characters are Royal Air Force pilots from WW2. What a bunch of naughty boys! These brave men loved every day like it could be there last. My Connor is like that. Doesn’t care what his commanding officers think or for that matter anyone else. Doing what he isn’t supposed to do is what usually keeps him safe. Connor almost never sleeps without a woman by his side, but does he do that because he loves women or to frighten away the nightmares?

                Another character I’m currently creating has a family life quite different from my own or one I grew up with. His father is a magician and his mother is his father’s assistant. The family travels across Europe mesmerizing the nobility and commoners with a great magic show in a time just before WW2 when the political atmosphere is crumbling around everyone. He goes from living out of a suitcase to staying in one spot. Where did he come from? I’m not 100% sure. His older brother is a classmate of another hero of mine. The first chapter (or maybe it's a prologue) came to life one very early morning when I lay in bed awake. 

  

              The most important thing about characters is to welcome them when they do appear. I swear I suffer from multiple personality disorder, but don’t all writers?

Where Do My Characters Come From? (Z Minor)

Where Do My Characters Come From?

Z. Minor

Author of Historical Romantic & Contemporary Suspense Novels.

First I have to have a title for my novel and determine what year the story is going to take place before I can think of any characters and their names. Names have to fit the time period especially historical novels. I have discovered doing research over the years, people and their actions haven’t changed much. Since the beginning of time people have loved, hated, cheated, and killed for numerous reasons. The landscape and style of clothes may change, but people and their motives not so much.

Some bestselling novel I have recently read came from recent headlines. Newspapers, newscasts, and magazines not only supply plot ideas but names, character’s motives, and locations for stories.

Once I have settled on a main plot. I can start thinking about the characters who will have an active role and help to shape the outcome of the story. They can be from any walk of life, rich, poor, male, female, and of course children. Animals add another dimension and will also need a name.

Character names come from baby books. Phone book are especially great for last names. If I hear an interesting name I write it down for a later date. I usually only start writing a story with the names for my main characters.

Juletta, my husband’s grandmother’s middle name, is the name of my contemporary heroine in “Artful Deception.” One of Juletta’s friends in the story is named Ray. She has known him since grade school, and calls him Raymo throughout the story. I believe this adds a personal touch just like everyday life.

I do an interview with my main characters and some secondary characters, but only if they appear throughout the entire novel. The depth of the interview depends on how important they are to the story. Some of my main character interviews are done before I start writing a new story and some are done no later than three chapters into the book. By then I know how important the character is going to be and if the story is worth continuing to write. Some interviews I do when a character appears as I am writing a scene.

The interviews usually cover their childhood or some aspects of it, their likes and dislikes. How they got to where they are, when they appear in the story. Lastly what are their dreams for the present and future? In some cases, I want to know how they plan to get where they want to go. Any information that will help me to give the characters added dimension. Most of the time I don’t use many of the facts I garner from the interviews and the reader will never know them. However, I need them to create a believable character.

Names for secondary characters I find when I need a name after I have written them into an important scene. Actions of characters I take from everyday life. Historical newspapers, like “The London Times”, has given me insights into everyday life during its publication. There are many books that show the life and time of a given time period. There are also dictionaries such as “Dictionary of the Old West” 1850 to 1900 which can help with dialogue.

Names are interesting to me and I have found them while on vacation, reading a book, and meeting new people. My characters actions are many times from something I have seen, read about, remembered from way back when, or heard second hand. I am a people watcher as I think most writers are.

So Beware!! Your actions and your name just might just find their way into one of my books.

My Favorite Fictional Character?

Favorite?  Really?  Impossible!

I loved Trixie Belden, when I was a young reader.  And Madeline, in the Madeline books.  That's probably because they were high-spirited and didn't take no for an answer.  They were strong-willed and different than the other characters in the story.  I tended to be shy as a little girl.  However, once I knew you well, I could be very pushy.  Just ask the kids I grew up with.  And ask the WARA ladies, who'll tell you I haven't grown out of that pushy part. ;)

My reading has always been eclectic, from True Crime to Horror/Suspense to Romance, and everything in-between.  If it's a good story, if it has characters that touch me in some way, it's going to be a favorite.

When I think of favorite characters, I think of three heroines, all in books by Susan Elizabeth Phillips aka SEP.

• Phoebe Somerville in It Had to Be You will always be an all-time favorite.  Phoebe appears to be the Queen of Voluptuous Dumb Blondes.  In fact, she might even agree with that, to some degree.  But Phoebe isn't dumb.  She knows how to use what she's been given to her advantage, but deep down inside, she's insecure and hates those curves.  At my very first RWA Conference in Dallas in 1996, I attended a workshop given by SEP.  She explained how she came up with the character of Phoebe, and when she finished, I was in complete awe.  You see, beneath the clingy, low-cut dresses and outlandish outfits, Phoebe wears "white, old lady underwear."  What she appears to be on the outside is the complete opposite of who she is on the inside.  She's not the outrageous airhead everyone thinks she is.  She had a childhood that would cause most women to have vapors, and because of it, she has no faith in herself.  But as she grew up, she learned that, with the right clothes and "attitude," she could have men falling at her feet.  In doing so, she has the upper hand, enabling her to never let anyone know the real Phoebe.  I LOVE PHOEBE!
• Sugar Beth Carey in Ain't She Sweet is about as close as second place can be without edging out Phoebe.  Sugar Beth was raised by her mother to be Parish, Mississippi's "princess."  Believing what her mama has taught her, she left Parish, thinking the world would always be hers.  But she returns, some years later, humbled by the "real world" and the horrible choices she's made.  The trouble is, she's unable to do much of anything except be the person everyone still believes her to be.  And then she meets up with the teacher who met his teaching demise, thanks to her.  Talk about sparks!  Talk about intricate but human characters!  I laughed and I cried, throughout the book.
• Blue Bailey in Natural Born Charmer, tied for second place with Sugar Beth, is as tough as nails, but has a heart of gold.  And that's a big problem for her.  Stubborn as the day is long, she first appears in a headless beaver costume, walking down the road.  She's broke, has nowhere to go, and would be the last person to take anything from anyone.  Of course, she has no choice and must accept.  Blue can fix anyone...but herself.  But there's one person she refuses to help--the driver of the car, who offers her a ride.  To reach her HEA (which she stubbornly refuses to acknowledge is possible), she has to grow, and she insists that's the one thing she doesn't need to do.

Of course there are dozens, if not hundreds, of heroines that could go on my favorites list, but these three have yet to be unseated, in almost twenty years of reading.  I often wonder why these three characters remain at the top.  Of all the books I read and movies I see, the ones I like the most are the ones where a character grows from the opening to the ending, all the while battling that growth.  (Miss Congeniality is a good example.) They start with a goal, but by the end of the book or movie, that goal has changed into something bigger and better.

Tough as nails, with a strong backstory and an overwhelming need to help others.  I like strong heroines, possibly because that's the type of person I want to be when I grow up.  I have a long way to go.  Who doesn't?

I'll tackle heroes later in the month.  (Now doesn't that sound like fun? *wink*)  Those heroes will take some thinking, but I have no doubt I'll find at least one...or two...or three.

Favorite Literary aka Fictional Character(s) by J Vincent

Having read thousands of books I believed this would be an easy topic.  Then I went blank.  I thought of a lot of the books I had read, of the characters in them and couldn’t pull any one of them out as a “favorite.”  Over the next few days I mulled over the topic and two characters finally came to mind.  Many will recognize the first from this quote:

“They seek him here, they seek him there
Those Frenchies seek him everywhere
Is he in heaven or is he in hell?
That demned elusive Pimpernel”

Yes, Sir Percy Blakeney in The Scarlet Pimpernel by Baroness Emmuska Orczy.  He is a hero disguised in a foppish dandy exterior and manner known for witticisms on trivial matters such as: “Odd's fish, m'dear! The man can't even tie his own cravat!” or “Sink me! Your taylors have betrayed you! T'wood serve you better to send THEM to Madam Guillotine”   Sir Percy endures the disdain of the wife he loves while he and his band of aristocrats rescue French aristocracy from the guillotine.  I love his daring, his cool headed reactions to imminent danger, his fly-in-the-face manner to the authorities.  It was people like him I strove to be in my childhood playtime adventures.

The other favorite character is a man of a far different sort:  Atticus Finch from To Kill a Mocking Bird by Harper Lee.  Atticus is not as witty, but is a far deeper thinker than Sir Percy.  He tells Scout, "You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view... Until you climb into his skin and walk around in it." and in another instance says, Courage is not a man with a gun in his hand. It's knowing you're licked before you begin but you begin anyway and you see it through no matter what. You rarely win, but sometimes you do."
His enduring belief in people and the law, his humility, his daring to be different in a time that held little patience for such, to hold different--even dangerous--views for the time in which he lived will always keep him at the top of my list.

I am troubled that I haven’t come up with a favorite female character.  There are female characters I like an d enjoy.  Some I admire like Charlaine Harriss Lily Bard in her Shakespeare series.  But I haven't come up with any that I think fondly of like Sir Percy and Atticus. It must be a senior moment.  Which female characters would you propose as favorites?