Heather Ames's Blog - Posts Tagged "characters"

I'm often asked whether I draw my characters from real life. Some of their traits, yes, but usually only for minor characters. The main protagonists come strictly from my imagination, and most of the time, they come with their own personalities and opinions, once I have the basic details worked out. My characterizations start from hair and eye color, work their way through height and then somehow, they take on a life of their own and start telling me how they are going to live their lives. Brian and Kaylen were that way. I knew he was blond with blue eyes, very tough and sarcastic. I also knew that she was strikingly beautiful with long, curly chestnut hair and a lot of attitude. I realized that when I had them face to face, she was as tall as him, and that she was going to have to learn to stand on her own two feet in any situation if she was going to keep up with him and make him want to be with her whether he thought it was a wise choice given the circumstances, or not.

Who wants to read about a handsome and dashing protagonist whose name is Basil? Maybe a reader of Cozy mysteries. What about a heroine named Blanche?

For anyone out there who's reading this and is named either Basil or Blanche, I must qualify my previous remarks by saying, not me.

I have to find strong names that appeal to my senses, and my muse. I picked Brian for "Indelible" because it's short, to the point and without frills, which, minus the short part, describes Brian's nature if abrupt and tough are added. Kaylen was chosen because it's not a common name and it just suited my perception of a gorgeous, feisty socialite with long, curly chestnut hair.

If I'd written about Blanche and Basil, they would probably have been found with Martinis in hand, him wearing a smoking jacket and she a skin-tight black dress.

But that's a story I'll leave for someone else. Someone who doesn't write mystery/suspense with thriller elements, which is what I do best.

I just read an excelled article on how Jewell Parker Rhodes writes. Some of her methods really spoke to me. The old adage about sitting in front of the computer screen and just getting it done in first draft only works for me part of the time. Jewell talked about how she writes in ebbs and flows, spending time reading, researching or just thinking and dreaming.

Me, too. I've been printing pages of character interviews this weekend. Reviewing what they said and preparing to tackle a return interview between Brian and one of the witnesses in "Swift Justice." Just "getting it done" won't work this time around. My brain has to figure out some of the dialogue and interactions before I sit down to write.

I just saw an article about short men in Hollywood. The short guys ran from 5"5" up to 5'10". I have never though of 5'10" as short, especially for those women who are not 5'8," and there are a lot of them. I also had a conversation yesterday which focused briefly on height, and the fact that tall men like very small women, and small men like tall women. Is it a matter of opposites attracting or something a lot deeper?