I’m reposting this from the Woolaston Writing Workshop blog.

When you write nonfiction, you’re writing about the truth…or at least, you should be. Memoirs and biographies are going to tell the stories of real people: their real personalities, their real struggles and triumphs, etc. This is what makes characters in fiction so interesting and challenging. It’s fiction, so the characters are not real. The writer has to create them. As a writer you can create a character completely off the top of your head. Or, you can weave a bit of reality into them, and base your characters on real people.

I always tell people start with what you know. Who knows you better than you? You and one of your characters can share a few traits. Maybe you both like loud music. Maybe you’re both down on your luck and looking for something better. Its much easier to write about a feeling or an experience when it’s your feeling or your experience. You can give your character a dysfunctional family, and if you happen to come from a dysfunctional family, you have a resource to draw from. Are you a smoker? Your character will know what it feels like to take that first puff of a cigarette first thing in the morning, because you do. Are you a girl dad? Is your character a girl dad? Your experiences can become your character’s experiences, and you’ll be able to write a more realistic and relatable character.

Ah, now here’s the tricky part. Turning someone you know into a character in your book is something that must be approached with caution. You’re basically saying to that person, ‘This is how I see you’, whether you realize it or not. A character doesn’t need to be 100% based on someone you know; they can just have a few traits or behaviors in common. Perhaps you have a friend named Lyn who constantly interrupts people, and you create a character named Linda who constantly cuts people off mid sentence. Your friend Mike is an absolute gym-rat and your character Devon is obsessed with his body image. Of course, I’m sure you’re not trying to offend Lyn or Mike, but maybe you really needed your characters to have certain traits, and since you happen to know real people with those traits, you used them as source material. Are Lyn and Mike going to be okay with this? They’ll probably wonder if they really do carry those traits, and they find themselves practicing the art of self reflection. It could make for some interesting conversations.

Maurice Tillet vs Shrek: real person on the left, fictional character on the right. Plus, there’s a list of characters based on real people HERE.

There’s a lot of me in many of my characters. Why does Val from Valentine like Green Day? Because I do. Dylan from The Witch of Fulton Lane reads tarot cards and drinks tea because I do. I’m not crazy about the idea of using people I know as source material simply because I know it will lead to a conversation I don’t feel like having.: “Oh my God do you really think I act like that?” There are some exceptions. My mother has no trouble voicing her opinion, and that’s a trait I gave to Amy, Dee and Nyda in the Our Lady of Righteous Rage series. I have used my relationships with certain members of my family in my writing as well.

When creating characters based on real people, you’ll need to choose how you want to depict them. People may or may not be flattered by how you present them in your writing. I think if you stay true to how you really see them, you’ll be able to create a memorable and relatable character. At some point, the world you’ve created on the page and the world you actually live in are going to meet up, but if you can stand by what you have created, you’ll be just fine.

Keep writing, everyone.