A question by email form: Is your main character a lot like yourself? If not, which real-life or fictional person would you say your main character most resembles?


Ann Dee Ellis THIS IS WHAT I DID (Little, Brown, May 2007)

Totally. Well, not totally but in a lot of ways Logan and I are similar. I never know what to say and I tend to feel like I'm on the outside of things. I've gotten more confidence over the years and I like to think Logan does too by the end of the novel.

Rebecca Stead, FIRST LIGHT, Wendy Lamb Books, June 2007

I have two main characters.  Thea is sometimes impulsive and usually emotional (these are strengths, for the most part), while Peter holds stuff in more and feels isolated as a result.  I'm probably more like Peter, unfortunately. 

They are both far braver than I am.



Laura Bowers, BEAUTY SHOP FOR RENT, Harcourt, May 1, 2007

Every one of my characters is from some aspect of me, whether they're confident or insecure, bossy or submissive, loud and boisterous or a quiet home-body because really, we're all a little bit of everything.

While my main character, Abbey Garner, is a very loving, caring girl - she also clings on to a lot of bitterness and resentment towards her father, and has an ongoing love/hate relationship with the mother who abandoned her.  To get into her head, I tapped into my own past feelings of bitterness and resentment.  But unlike Abbey, they weren't for my parents!

http://laurabowers.livejournal.com
http://laurabowers.net



Judy Gregerson, BAD GIRLS CLUB, Blooming Tree Press, Spring 2007

My main characters has many of the same qualities I had as a teen. She's perceptive, has a love of the truth, and feels very deeply.  I think that writers often draw from what they know, but building a well-rounded character to fit into your story requires a lot of creative thinking! And that's the real fun in story writing.

www.judygregerson.com


Karen Day, TALL TALES, Wenday Lamb Books, Spring 2007

When I first started writing fiction years and years ago, I went out of my way to write characters who weren't like me. They were more like who I WANTED to be. Then I tried writing a book where the character was completely me. Now I think I've reached a middle ground. All of my characters have a little bit of me in them. That's why I know them so well. Take Meg's dad in TALL TALES. He's a miserable alcoholic, far from what my dad was like. Or me. For years I couldn't get his character right because I was so focused on his disease. But then I started thinking about other aspects of his personality. Why is he so miserable? Why is he so mean to his son, Teddy? Then I realized that he hates the things he sees in Teddy because they remind him (unconsciously) of himself. I can certainly identify with that feeling. And suddenly, I knew Dad in a way I hadn't before.

When I first started writing fiction years and years ago, I went out of my way to write characters who weren't like me. They were more like who I WANTED to be. Then I tried writing a book where the character was completely me. Now I think I've reached a middle ground. All of my characters have a little bit of me in them. That's why I know them so well. Take Meg's dad in TALL TALES. He's a miserable alcoholic, far from what my dad was like. Or me. For years I couldn't get his character right because I was so focused on his disease. But then I started thinking about other aspects of his personality. Why is he so miserable? Why is he so mean to his son, Teddy? Then I realized that he hates the things he sees in Teddy because they remind him (unconsciously) of himself. I can certainly identify with that feeling. And suddenly, I knew Dad in a way I hadn't before.

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