OK, big reveal coming . . . .
You are not a character in any of my books! (I know, rude!)
None of the characters in any of my books are intended to be exact portrayals of people I know. However, I have definitely pulled bits and pieces of personality traits from the people in my life—usually their most unique or quirky or annoying or dangerous or questionable character traits—to inform my characters and make them richer.
They are amalgams, let’s say. A word I probably wouldn’t know to this day if not for the opening scene of Parenthood (1989).
People are endlessly fascinating. And the decisions they make, the things that drive them, the secrets they keep, the people they care about most, and the countless other details of their existence are what make them so.
The truth of the matter is, unless you’re really paying attention to the people around you, you’ll never be able to create layered, flawed, lovable characters readers can relate to and root for. Which is why people-watching is one of my favorite and most useful past times.
It can also help you create awful, selfish, detestable, layered characters that your readers will somehow still root for. I once wrote a character by the name of Ariana Osgood (Private/Privilege), who readers rooted for with a fiery passion, even though she killed pretty much anyone who got in the way of what she wanted.
The funny thing about Ariana is, she was mostly based on me. Although I’ve never killed anyone IRL. Every day I sat down to write about Ariana I thought long and hard about what I would do in whatever situation I’d written her into, and then I had her do the exact opposite.
So Ariana Osgood is really my evil twin. If you’ve ever read any of the Private or Privilege books, you now know exactly who I’m . . . not. You can check them out here: Kate Brian Books.
Writing Exercise #1
Try writing a scene in which the person you’re writing about is your exact opposite. Put them in an intense situation: A convenience store robbery, a crowded plane with a crying baby in their lap, cramping up in the middle of a marathon. Now think about what you would do in the situation and write your character doing THE EXACT OPPOSITE. Would you cower and apologize profusely for the baby? Then have the character get up and enlist the entire plane to sing a lullaby while they rock the kid. See where I’m going with this? You never know where your story will take you if you pick the most outlandish (to you, anyway) option!
Writing Exercise #2
Write down a list of the five most interesting people in your life. Then write down five (or more) things about each person that make them so interesting. Use one or two traits from each person to create a new character. I bet that character is messy, layered and intriguing!
Feel free to send me the results of these exercises! I’d love to see where they take you!
Currently Watching: Rooster. I’m calling it adult cozy comedy. I sort of thought I could never love Steve Carell again after suffering his jackass character on The Morning Show, but guess what? I do!
Currently Reading: Amy Poeppel’s FAR AND AWAY, which I bought at Malaprop’s on a recent trip to Asheville. I love Amy’s books. I just want to crawl inside of them, curl up on a couch in one of her characters’ living rooms and stay there. This one is a perfect house-swap romp between two working moms, one in Dallas and one in Berlin, and their messy families are so unique yet relatable. Highly recommend!
That’s it for this week! Thanks for reading!
xo
Kieran
PS: If you’d like to pre-order either my next adult thriller, THE GETAWAY, or my next YA rom-com, FALLING INTO YOU, the links are below!
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