Hello, my name is...

 

 

How do you come with character personality sketches for your books-do you plunge in and let your characters develop on the page, use real life people as inspiration, turn to personality frameworks like the enneagram? How do you keep your new characters from looking and feeling like your old ones?

 

I love this question because it seems that it’s one that always comes up once anyone realizes you’re a writer. It’s right up there with where do you get your ideas from. From the idea fairy, of course!  But there are no character fairies. Who needs them anyway.

For me, characters are the beginning of every story. When that first character steps onto the stage of my creative brain and announces themselves, they are fully formed. I can see them and hear them as clear as any other co-worker. But I won’t lie, sometimes these characters do seem a bit familiar.

The first book I ever wrote, Fat Chance, centered around three strong-minded, brave, audacious black women, that some in my family will argue, fiercely, that those three characters were based on them. It doesn’t matter how many times I try to deny it; they stand firm in their belief that I have essentially stolen their character and used them to tell this story. Good thing they liked the story.

The thing is, and it’s quite wonderful too, is many other readers, not in my family, have told me the exact same thing, that these characters could be them, or their sisters, or best friend, which is what I think we writers want more than anything, relatability. We want the reader to find something in our characters that feel familiar, for good, or bad, it’s that connection to the character that keeps readers turning the page.

Have you ever picked up a book that everyone swears is the greatest book ever written but for you it’s as dry as reading an encyclopedia? I bet if you thought back to that book, you’d realize that there was no character that you connected to. Without that connection, forget about it. That’s why for me, character is king.

Full disclosure, I’ve never actually sat down and completed an actual character personality sketch. I am definitely a plunge in and let the character develop on the page kind of girl. Having said that, I will acknowledge that intentional or not, it’s impossible not to be inspired by the people around you.

I’m at the beginning of my writing career. But I do believe that as long as I continue to let my characters reveal themselves to me, I won’t have to worry too much about them looking or sounding like each other since every character has their own story to tell. I hope.