Character Inspiration or, How Everyone I Have Ever Laid Eyes On Ends Up in My Book.

Everyone I have ever met or crossed short paths with may show up in my storytelling. As an only child who moved a lot as a kid, I feel adept at observing people and behavior. You’ve got to if you want to survive new schools, new cliques, new dynamics. I think moving so often so young contributed to my empathy and my loneliness. It’s also helped me feel at home in my inner world, all the people I’ve observed playing interesting and melodramatic roles in the stories I craft in my mind.

Now that I’m putting those stories on the page, every character study is helping me build more relatable, complicated people to write.

My friends show up in cheeky one-liners and anxieties.

My family members show up as high expectations and constant love and support.

My exes show up as villains.

KIDDING.

But bits and pieces of them show up. Just like pieces of me, whether it’s in a character’s insecurities, hobbies, or greatest fears. Everyone makes a cameo. They’ve had a role to play in shaping me and my worldview. My writing is my way of sharing some of it.