Amalgamous Characters

Most of the characters in my novels are amalgams of a number of people I have known in life.

For example; in my current project there is an eight year old boy – the son of the story's narrator.  He is comprised of three boys I encountered over the years; one as a Scout leader; one as a Counsellor to at-risk youth, and one I knew as a child myself.  Taking pieces of all three, I have created a boy who is thoughtful and generous, bold in play, and unguarded when expressing love.  Even his physical make-up is a combination of the three; unruly dark hair, athletic and lean of build, and an expressive face.

I have arrived at a boy who is a silent grump in the morning and a happy chatterbox in the afternoon; a boy who plays hard and sleeps with the innocence of a puppy; a boy who is crushed by tragedy, yet courageous when facing it.

Once a character is as fleshed out as he is, his dialogue and actions begin to write themselves.

When a writer creates solid characters that are three dimensional in this way, they are powerful creatures and will change the story by being in it.  They also eliminate writer’s block; whenever I feel the story is lagging, I place my character in a challenging – sometimes inescapable situation, and let them work their way through it.

The emotional downside to this is that you find yourself falling in love with them, so when you are forced to ‘kill your darlings’ – (as Stephen King recommends) – you grieve their loss as though they were real people. 

Yet as Robert Frost once said; “No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.”