I don’t spend a lot of time developing my characters. They seem to spring out of my mind almost fully developed and ready to take part in the story I have waiting for them. It is the edges of the characters that I work on to make sure they are original and fit the circumstances of what I hope to accomplish with the story.

Take Mike Johnson, the hero of Dead Man’s Gambit, as an example. He is someone I would know from my own experience. We both are veterans although with different experiences. Also Lawyers again with different careers. Parts of him come from people I know and parts come from what I believe his set of experiences and family background would have developed in him.

Once I have a characer set in my mind that is fully developed, I get into his mind and think like him and use his eyes to see the action I am generating in the story. Sometimes I have to do that with all the characters in a scene. I will have to see the action from all of the points of view to make sure it works not just for that scene but for all the others that led up to it and that will follow. Once it all fits then the scene becomes real and I am “witnessing” it and recording it.

Then I hope that the reader when reading it will have the movie going in his/her head seeing the action and the characters in a way that fits.

When it all works it is exciting to write. When It isn’t working, words may flow but it just doesn’t feel right.