How characters come to exist (for me anyway)

    Since my novel, Two Truths and a Lie (available now on the free Kindle app from Amazon (you don't need a Kindle, just the app) com'on, you know I had to plug it!!!!) came out, a number of people have asked me how close the characters and settings are to real people and how much is fiction - my best answer is that the novel is a work of fiction, and also that the first advice every writer is given is "write what you know." So I write about short women, because I have no idea how tall men navigate their worlds, and this novel takes place largely in the NY suburbs and in a New England prep school in the 80s because those are the places I know best. However, once the writing starts, the whole story - places, and characters take on a life of their own. 

    (I could show you some cringe-worthy teen writing that completely disregards the "write what you know" advice and takes place in a NYC the writer longs to live in, but hasn't yet even visited. But I won't, 😁 because it is baaaaaaaaaaaaad! Spoiler alert, the subway doesn't seem to exist in that NYC.)

    Instead, let me tell you how the character of Willie Hooks in my novel (did I mention it was available on the free Amazon Kindle app????) came about. He came into existence because of a cool denim jacket I once saw some guy wearing. I don't know the person who wore it, I can't quite remember where or when, I saw it - it isn't even exactly the same jacket that is described in the novel, but the image of this super cool denim jacket, and wondering who might have bought it, and why, got stuck in my head. When I started to write about a boy Kat took for granted at Mansfield, that jacket reshaped itself and its story until it became Willie.

    So to answer those writing questions, yes, some of the stuff in my novel is real - sort of, kind of, but really, truly, actually, not real at all. There is usually a tiny nugget of reality that gets swirled around into a vat of "what if this happened" and then a lot of  "oooh, or how about that!" and some, "no that's not quite right" and poked and prodded and massaged for how ever long it takes to becomes a fully baked 80,000 word novel. Or at least that's how happens for me. Your milage may vary.

    I've heard of writers who meticulously plan out the entire arcs of their books...but that isn't my style - I daydream stories and make up people to go in them, hanging them all on the tiniest of frameworks until they tell me they are set and their story is ready to be told. One time I found a treasure trove of stories at a yard sale - twelve, tiny, engraved, silver baby spoons - and made up a life for each each of the names and a family tree and home life that encompasses them all. (You have to wait for the next book for those stories.) 

    I'd love to hear what you think about Two Truths and a Lie. Please read it, so we can talk about these characters and their stories. See if you can figure our which parts are the truths and which parts are the lies. 

Until next time,

-S