Writers of fiction! Yes, you. Have you ever had a character that just demands to be written a certain way? One who basically takes over whatever you had planned for him/her and won’t listen to reason?
Authors are known for saying that this character or that in their own story surprised them with something they did or maybe something they did not do. For those who do not write fiction this must come out as ridiculous, an affectation of sorts. After all, characters are figments of an author’s imagination, the creative product of a writer’s mind.
A characters is an amalgam of real and fantasy, a bit of someone the writer may have met at a party long ago or sat next to on a transcontinental flight. It can hold a little or a lot of the author’s own personality quirks and embody many of her dreams and/or expectations. Conversely it may impersonate the author’s fears and distastes.
Characters, albeit fictional, can be as complex as their human counterparts, so it is not altogether surprising if in the process of writing them the author is suddenly hit with something they didn’t expect or plan. If engaged in the act of creating a story, the writer ends up falling in love with her own characters or feel as if they are old friends, it does not come as a shock to anyone who has “birthed” a few.
In my next few blogs I will be exploring my own process of creating characters for my books. How they develop and become often so real to me, I find myself missing them after I finish writing the story. Come back and enjoy the ride.
Author Natalina Reis 