As a writer and author, one of the more challenging tasks is creating characters. It’s important they are somehow relatable and have depth.

In early drafts of chapters in Shadows in the Fog, I found Katie too happy and too positive. Her good cheer was almost inappropriate for the story. Her character, in that form, limited the story and needed changing. When I finally understood her and made the necessary changes, I found her even stronger than at first. Lewis, on the other hand, stayed true to form and through the story developed an inner strength I didn’t see at first. His change was natural and developed well. The other characters in the novel didn’t change much from my initial idea.

While I found personality of Lewis to be, at times, unbearable; I still liked something about him. Were he a real person, I might like meeting him … occasionally. In that novel, I liked something about all of the characters and their personalities.

In my newest novel, The Last Train to Milan, which is available around November 14th, the characters bother me a little bit. They are not people I would personally choose to associate with. These are flawed people. Freddie reminds me of guys I met early on the English teaching circuit when I first arrived in Germany back in 2006. He also reminds me of people I knew back in college who bragged of their exploits the night after. Lana would be someone who would catch men’s eye and be interesting to meet but would be unbearable to close to. Sofiy, on the other hand, would probably end up being entertaining. She is the coolest of all of them. She would probably be that woman rolling joints at a party. But even now, I still do not know who she really is.

I once wrote a 30 thousand word start to a novel last year that will not make it to print anytime soon. In that story, based in West Virginia, I hated the characters, the location, and the storyline. It was a trifecta of irritating points. The setting was in rural Appalachia. The characters were mostly rednecks, and the storyline followed a Ragged Dick and weak male narrative. I hated it, but still wrote 30 thousand words in hopes of finding a way to redeem it.

Characters matter. Tbey drive the story more than the plot itself. They can even change the plot at times. In Last Train, I like the story. The characters have since grown more on me and they make the story work. In many ways, this book is about them. I think there’s potential!