Since we’re talking about writing inspiration this month, I wondered how much of you is in your characters? I put an awful lot of me in my teen detective Rae Riley. Like me, she’s quiet, works in a library, likes to figure people out, and worries too much about what people think of her. Of course, Rae is a lot braver at nineteen than I ever was. I also sprinkle a bit of my personality into other characters, like Rae’s aunt, who is a writer.
Some of my characters are people I would like to be. Rae’s grandmother is a very laid-back person, which I am definitely not. It takes something cataclysmic to make Gram worry and I love writing about someone who isn’t like me at all.
Want more character inspiration? Click here. For more on finding inspiration for our stories, check out this article on The Write Conversation.
I’d love to hear how much of you is in your characters.
I like to sprinkle in little anecdotes from my life – for instance, my main character Marlee references constructing a stick fort with her sister when they were little, which my childhood best friend and I did. But like Rae and you, Marlee is a much braver teenager than I was!