How real do your favorite characters feel to you? As an author, I go to great lengths to make my characters as vivid as possible in my mind. I have a character development list of about 50 questions that covers everything from physical description which includes any outstanding feature or markings such as scars etc, personality, likes, dislikes, job/career, educational background, family history, past relationships, religious beliefs, pet peeves, habits, favorite foods, food dislikes, philosophy on life. You name anything you might want to know about a person and chances are it’s on my list. I also do a lot of searching until I find a picture of that character. You see the picture and you say, “OMG, that’s him/her.”
I did something last night that showed me just how real some of my characters seem to me. While trying to find a suitable picture for the heroine in my current WIP, I went over a CD I have of photos for possible characters. Anytime I see a picture of a person that jumps out at me as someone who would make a great character, I save it to my character CD. Anyway, I found a photo of a woman in her mid-thirties, exact hair style, eye color, everything that fit the picture I have in my mind for Beth in my current story. There was only one problem. That was the same picture I used for Cinda Ellis in SOLD TO THE LOWEST BIDDER in my TEMPTING FATE HOLIDAY FANTASIES collection. In my mind, even though the picture was a perfect match for Beth, I couldn’t bring myself to put it on my character visual page for the new story. That picture was of Cinda, a single mom with a young daughter who was currently living happily ever after with her hero. To use that picture for another story I’d feel like I was breaking up the perfect relationship and happy future I’d created for her. Besides, Cinda would NEVER do some of the things Beth does in her story. So, as I continued to peruse the CD, a picture of a woman who did not fit my original vision or description for Beth literally jumped out at me like she was saying, “I’m here! Pick me, me, me!!!” Needless to say, I was forced to give Beth a make-over. I actually like the new Beth better than my first, her look fits the personality and even the situation better. For some strange reason, the story just took off as soon as I cast the proper Beth in the staring role.
In all honesty, as authors, we spend more time with, and know our characters more intimately than we do some members or our family and friends. If we aren’t sitting at our computer in the heads of our characters, they are attempting to get into ours while we go about our other activities. We know what they feel, what they think, what they want and need. We talk to them, try to reason with them, or downright argue with them, and they have a habit of responding in kind.
So readers, how many characters have you read about who stick in your mind long after reading …THE END? Characters you felt you would recognize if you met them on the street?
What about you authors out there? How well do you know your characters? Are you so involved in the lives you created for them that you almost feel as if you could pick up a phone and give them a call to see how they are doing?
