Characters – Real and Imagined

A few weeks ago after I had a book party to celebrate my new release, A Chance for Kallie Mae, and had fun answering questions those there asked me, I invited you all to throw some questions about my books or writing at me here on One Writer’s Journal. Love coming up with answers. That’s sort of what writers do from Page 1 to The End. We answer one question after another that are posed by our vision of a story.

Back to the question at hand. Actually, Lavon drove some miles and came to my book party and brought a friend. It was great seeing her, and she did ask a question there. Not what she is asking here. That is why she says “new” question.

Lavon: So my new question is… when you develop your characters do you base them (at least in part) to an actual person you know? If so, has that person recognized themselves if they read that book?

I’m often asked this question at a book talk, and for most of my books I can truthfully say not really. At least, not closely. Everything I experience or read or see does go down into a creative well somewhere in my imagination to simmer and cook and then rise up to mind when I am writing. I might take a hair color from this person, an expression from that person, a way of moving or talking from another without realizing I’m doing that. The attributes of whatever character comes to life for a new story just slide up to the top of that creative well.

Sometimes I might use something about myself. Several of my characters in this or that story have had a desire to write stories. That’s my want and dream sliding over into a character. Or love dogs. When Carlyn in The Innocent had a dog that was a friend and protector, I pulled up my feelings about the dogs I’ve had through the years. (Remember, The Innocent is still on e-book sale on Amazon for a short time longer)

I might consider my own feelings of irritation, anger, happiness, joy to color my characters’ feelings. When I’m doing that – pulling from my own feelings while writing – I don’t consciously think about it. That simply happens when my characters come to life in my imagination.

That is for most stories. However, I do have one set of books or at least the first of the Rosey Corner books, Angel Sister, where I did absolutely set out to fashion characters after my mother and her sisters.

The picture above is my mother, her three sisters, and parents. The girls are younger in the picture than they are in my story. And the youngest sister isn’t a natural sister at all in my story. But that’s where creative license comes into play.

When I sat down to begin that first Rosey Corner book inspired by my mother’s and my aunts’ stories of growing up in a small community during the 1930s, I fashioned the main character after how I thought my mother was at fourteen. I had no doubt she was a strong, independent girl who took hold of whatever problem might arise and did her best to solve it. Her older sister was more spoiled by her mother and more worried about appearances. The next younger sister had a middle child personality when young and while she was ready to cry at most things then (according to her own stories), she became strong and sensible. The youngest child was the beloved baby of the family.

I hardly knew my grandfather because he passed away when I was five, but I heard stories. He was a blacksmith. During WW I, he served in France. He came home with a drinking problem. He loved books. My grandmother once told me that her happiest times were when they were both sitting and reading together. My mother loved him so much, but she knew his faults. Some of those faults were hard for her mother to bear.

When I started out writing that first story, I had much of this in mind, but it didn’t take long to know I had to shake free from seeing my characters, the Merritts, as my mother and her family. They were not. While my mother’s stories of those years and where they lived are threaded through Angel Sister, it is not my mother’s story. The setting and the feels of the time and some of the activities were inspired by those stories, but I had to shake the vision of my mother and her sisters away in order to bring my characters to life as completely different people with a different story. Even if some of the personalities and appearances were inspired by my mother’s family, my characters were uniquely their fictional selves.

The two following Rosey Corner stories veered sharply away from any resemblance to the lives my mother and her sisters actually lived. Still, I can imagine Kate Merritt looking a lot like this picture of my mother in those two other books.

The second part of Lavon’s question is about whether anyone has recognized themselves in my stories. I don’t know if my mother or her sisters would have or not. Sadly all my aunts had passed away before my book was published and Mom had dementia. I let her read my manuscript. She seemed to like the story, but then she always liked all my stories. The book was published before she died, but not before her mind could no longer keep a storyline in her mind. Dementia is a sad disease.

Here’s a picture I’ve shared before, but it says so much about how much fun they always had together. They would laugh about all those stories of when they were kids. They were sisters and the best of friends.

I hope that answers your question, Lavon. It certainly took me down memory lane. I’m still entertaining other questions if anybody else has something to get me thinking.

What do you think is the best thing about having a sister or brother? 

Book Giveaway Chance

Leave a comment on my post here to be in a drawing for one of my Shaker books or a Rosey Corner book since I’ve written about them in this post. Any comment will do. So far not many have entered the giveaway. So, you might have a good chance of being the lucky winner. If you already have the books, you can always gift it to a friend.

You must be at least 18 years old to enter. Deadline for entries is September 1, 2o26 at midnight EST. Each time you comment on a new post before then, you get an additional entry. The winner will be selected by random, notified by email, and announced, first name and last initial only, on my post on September 2nd.