The Secrets We Keep by Poppy Gee

My husband can rest assured I'll never share our secrets!
(Maybe I shouldn't be sharing this funny photo either!)

How do you choose your characters? Do you base them off of people from real-life? If so, how you disguise your characters so their real-life counterparts don't recognize them?

Guilty as charged.

I used to deny this, and insist that all my characters are fictional. The truth is, they're an amalgam of people I know really well, people I've met briefly, people I've seen on television or in a movie, or have read about in the newspaper. The trick is to pinch details here and there, and then artfully disguise them within the character so you don't get sued or told off at a family reunion. 

When I start writing, it helps me to think of someone I know as the basis for the character. This is a compliment, because the person is someone who stands out to me: they're intriguing, complex and fascinating. By the time I've got the story up and running, the character has grown into themself, and are quite different to the real life inspiration.

In my novel Vanishing Falls, my protagonist Joelle was inspired by a newspaper report I read about a young teenage girl who got caught up in a heinous crime. I read everything I could get my hands on about this real girl, and there wasn't much. She had an intellectual impairment, she was a foster child, she was underprivileged, and she disappeared out of public records after the men who committed the crime were sent to jail. I believe she changed her name and hopefully, got on with her life. I was so intrigued with her that I decided to write a novel about a girl like her whose life had a happy ending. In my novel, Joelle is happily married, is the proud mother of twins, lives in quaint cottage beside a creek, and is a valued member of her community. I did a lot of research/interviews to shape the character, too. 

In my debut novel, Bay of Fires, I was intrigued by a childhood friend who is obsessed with ocean fishing. I grew up hearing his stories, watching him fish for fun and professionally. This is an industry/hobby that is very removed from my life, and I imagined a female character who has a similar environmental consciousness, a strong sense of autonomy, a person who doesn't feel particularly compelled to conform to social expectations, with loads of integrity. Apart from those things, my protagonist is very different to her muse - her back story is her own, and that's what shapes her decisions. No one except my friend has ever really questioned me about it. I interviewed him at length so he knew what was going on and he didn't mind. 

A mistake I see some writer friends making in early drafts is writing about the problems they have with their husbands, parents, siblings, or friends in an attempt to make sense of it, and not concealing the recognisable qualities of those people. I think it's an amateur mistake but I also think it's lazy, and, if it's unflattering or biased, it's potentially cruel. None of us as writers would want to be written about unfavourably in a published document. Change their job, the city they live in, the decor of their house, the sport they play, the school they went to and the restaurants the adore etc... it's easy to do, and will save much heartache and embarrassment later. 

Unless, the person has become an arch enemy or a nemesis. But that's a post for another day!