Monday 2 May 2016

Plotting Characters

I am currently reading The Kind Worth Killing by Peter Swanson.  It's an exciting read with a massive plot twist - I am only half way through so there may be more twists to come, I'm pretty sure there are.

People sometimes ask me if the characters in my novels are based on people I know.  My answer to that is no, absolutely not.  For one thing, it would be impossible.  We really do not know people as well as we think we do.  We have very often little idea of what drives them, what their childhood experiences were, what really influences them and - most important of all - what they really think about important things.

Characters in my novels are probably based on bits and pieces of character traits I have observed over the course of my life.  I've met a lot of people from different backgrounds, people with a completely different view of life and its values to mine.  I've met people who have profoundly impressed me and people I didn't care too much for.  That is true of all of us, I guess.

The characters I create do what I expect of them, I can manipulate them, move them around the story like figures on a chessboard. Their role is to people the story and drive the plot. But I do like some of my characters more than others!  And yes, once in a while they want to behave differently than I planned.  This is all the fun of writing a novel. And it's hard work, too, of course. But that's what keeps me writing. 

Here is my latest novel, the second in the Sergeant Alan Murray series, now available as an e-book from Amazon.
ENDING IN DEATH (U.S. link) and U.K. Amazon link


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