The day I had feared had finally arrived. The day had come when Danny, my SO, asked to read a few chapters of my novel. Why did that request make my knees shake, my hands tremble and my stomach drop to the floor?
Because, my friends, when I started writing an outline for the novel, my characters were chosen based on people in my life. I knew that I would be swimming in some very dangerous waters. Danny is all over the first chapters of the novel and he reappears in future chapters. Although I changed the name to protect the not-so-innocent man in my life, no-one who knows Danny will have a problem recognizing him.
I knew the risk of using people around me as characters in my book. They might not be able to take a joke, or appreciate the fact that I took their individual quirks and put them into print. Some of my characters are a mix of different people. I’ve taken a little creative license with their personalities and made them into the type of characters I needed to make my novel work.
But, how else does a writer find the characters necessary to make their novel interesting? We can put all the events into place, but if the reader doesn’t like the characters, you’ve got nothing. Readers need someone they want to cheer on or sympathize with. The characters make the book; the events are their playground to strut their stuff. And the best source of finding these characters is right in your own backyard.
So, yes, writing characters that use or resemble the people around you might have you swimming in dangerous waters. But, it’s worth the risk because you know these people and can use them to your advantage. Just be sure to change the names!
Danny read the first two chapters, chuckled in a few places and handed the pages back to me. “Did you like it?” I asked.
“Yeah, but I’m not grouchy,” he replied, smiling. Yeah, right! Whatever!