Friday 6 June 2014

Inspiration for my Characters

June 6, 2014
Where do you find inspiration for your characters?

First, once again, here is a description of the characters with no mention of inspiration. I'm not going to speak about all of the characters. Just my favourites. (I play favourites). Plus, some characters just 'became', they weren't inspired by anybody but my brain and the people in the story.

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My friend JUST asked me that, kind of. He's reading my novel right now (the unpublished emailed version).  His comments (so far) are below. I like to save proof that people have read my novel (and found it interesting).


The character he was asking about, Lucy, is the main character. I didn't base her on anybody, or really have anybody who inspired me to write her. Because it was my first novel, and I am still getting used to writing my characters, the main character took on a lot of my characteristics. I'm sure she reacted to some things the same as I would have.

The Grandma is partially inspired by my Grandma Burton. Strong, loving, tough, and family was her first priority. The Grandma in the book ended up taking on her own personality, quite different from my own Grandma's.

The younger sister, Kristy, was actually my favourite to write, and she was inspired by the fact that I wanted to write about a smart young female. We see too many young woman portrayed as stupid, ditzy, or mean girls. I wanted to change that. I didn't really use anyone as inspiration, BUT for her book smarts, I did imagine Rory Gilmore a little bit, not in all of her personality or looks, just the striving for perfection in school.

My friend, James, was correct. The character of James was not him. In fact, I know this sounds silly because James (friend) and I speak frequently through email, but James (character) was such a real character to me that I didn't even realise they shared a name. I was inspired by my own perfect boyfriend when I wrote him. Although, they are quite different in many ways.

Last, the best friend, Shauntell. My inspirations were my friends. She's little pieces of many of them. Denise, Karen, Nehal... Every once in a while, she'll say a line that reminds me of one of those three woman.  Once again, the world has enough mean girls. I wanted somebody who was there for her friend, but also honest with her.

The other characters all had inspirations, but these are the ones I wanted to focus on in this post.

And as always:

©ErinLeahMcCrea All photos I share on my blogs are my own, please Ask Me For Permission Before Using Them.


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