Monday, January 31, 2022

Who Are you? Reds on real people

 RHYS BOWEN: The other day on Jungle Reds I wrote a piece about the new book I am writing and how I am trying to get to know the characters. Creating a character is a mysterious process. For me, once they open their mouths and speak I seem to know who they are. I get a visual image. Something to build on. But how does one ‘create’ a character? I wish I knew. It’s like a good recipe: we take a brief encounter with a woman at the bank, add a touch of Aunt Alice, something we saw on TV, stir together and hopefully a new character is born.

It's interesting to wonder how often we use real people in our books. I hear Sue Grafton started to write mysteries so she could kill her ex-husband on paper. Ian Rankin tells a funny story about his father, who was convinced that every character Ian writes is based on him.

“Is that one me?” he’d say.

Ian would answer, “No, dad. That’s a nun.”

But I suspect we do delve into our personal experience and base our characters on real people. I deliberately modeled Georgie’s grandfather in the Royal Spyness books on my own father: a kind, gentle man from a humble background. Someone you could run to and feel safe with. Exactly what I wanted in Georgie’s life. But unlike Georgie’s grandfather , my father would not have been ill-at-ease among his social betters. He chatted several times with the old Queen Mother. In fact he chatted with anyone he met.



Mrs. Williams in the Constable Evans books was modeled on my Welsh great aunt. A fabulous cook who constantly wanted to feed us up. Several other members of that cast were people I’d met in Wales.

I’m trying to think whether I’ve ever killed off someone in my books I would have liked to get rid of in real life? I know my old headmistress from school features in several books—any cold, spiteful, bossy teacher you see in my stories—that’s her. But I don’t think I’ve actually killed her.

I have noticed that a couple of leading males in my stories are good-looking men with Irish backgrounds and dark hair. Interesting that. My husband, with one Irish grandfather, definitely has the black Irish look. It wasn’t intentional, merely subconscious.

And I realize now that my books are peopled with real historical characters: the royal family, Noel Coward, Winston Churchill, Queen Victoria... but I was thinking more about people from our own lives. 

So Reds, where did your characters come from? Have you deliberately used real people? Killed off real people?

JENN McKINLAY: In my very first mystery I killed off the Hub’s boss. It was delightfully therapeutic for the both of us. My victims do tend to be real people who annoy me even though I may not know them personally. A certain celebrity that I find grating, a cousin that is trying, or a fellow PTO member who won’t shut up so the meeting can blessedly end, that sort of thing. 

But my protagonists are mashups of the favorite people in my life, so it will be a friend’s delightful humor added to another friend’s amazing head of hair, grounded by my mom’s intelligence. Probably, that’s why I’m so fond of them all. None of it is planned out but rather the character grows into these attributes organically or as needed. LOL.

JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I have definitely used real people in my books, usually in small roles and with great affection. Clare’s snappy secretary Lois? My mom, Lois. Investigative reporter Ben Beagle? Was an editor for the Livingston County News when I met him, and is now an editor at The Daily News  serving three western NY counties. His name really is Ben Beagle and he really does always wear Snoopy ties. My sister Barbara and brother-in-law Daniel are recurring characters (and have gotten to the point where they’re dating in the books!)

My rules, as it were, for including real people is that they have minor roles. Ben Beagle comes on stage, annoys Russ, who hates reporters just a little less than he hates lawyers, asks some pointed questions that move the plot along, and then exits. Trying to make a reality-based character grow and change within a novel is a recipe for disaster, I believe. You’ll wind up trying to stuff your organically-grown person into a real-person suit, to the detriment of both.

HALLIE EPHRON: I do not, for the most part, base my characters on real people. Though the old woman in THERE WAS AN OLD WOMAN is how I imagine myself if I persist into my 90’s. And I did kill my father off in the opening scene of NIGHT NIGHT, SLEEP TIGHT. I like to think he’d have gotten a kick out of it. And, now that I think about it, my mother inspired characters in several books as well. My next door neighbor’s dog Phoebe, an ornery ederly pooch with a grizzled muzzle who grunt-snorted about, is in NEVER TELL A LIE. In the book, Phoebe saves the main character’s life. But when they made that book into a movie, Phoebe turned into a little white french poodle. And they killed her. Which infuriated me. 

HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: Well, now it can be told. Charlotte McNally’s mother is precisely my mother, gorgeous and hilarious and brilliant, and whose favorite admonition to me was “I’m not criticizing, I’m just observing.”

But she was, frankly, not too happy about her portrayal at first, putting it mildly, until I convinced her to read the whole book (Face Time) after which she called me, crying, to thank me for having written “a mother-daughter love story.” So all’s well that ended well.

SInce then, however, I have to say no one is anyone. Ever. Ever.  There are a few, if I may quietly divulge, unpleasant judges who are portrayed with tiny bits of insider knowledge just to make my lawyer-husband Jonathan happy.  (And by unpleasant, I mean judges who have ruled against him.)  But they will never recognize themselves.

LUCY BURDETTE: I guess I’m an outlier here, because my Key West books are chock full of real people. Some of them play smaller parts, like the cat man, and others have bigger roles such as Lorenzo, the tarot card reader, and Martha, the chef. Martha burst out in A DEADLY FEAST and plays a big part in A DISH TO DIE FOR, coming in August. She’s also in the book I’m writing (slowly) now. The only time I made an egregious error was when someone bid on a character name and I turned him into a possible child molester. That was not kind, as our daughter says to her daughter…

DEBORAH CROMBIE: In my very first novel I modeled a character I really like after my grandmother, but of course in the writing she became her own person, as characters tend to do.  Since then, I don't think I've ever used a specific person, but I'm sure that people I know creep into all of my characters because that's where we draw our experience from. I think it would be fun to use real people the way Lucy does, but my books don't seem to lend themselves to it.

Rhys: Okay, writer friends. Who has killed a real person on the page?  Used a family member? Did they recognize themselves?


63 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Rhys on your Best Novel Edgar Award nomination for “The Venice Sketchbook” . . . .

    This character creation process is so interesting . . . I’m amazed at all the ways you ladies do . . . or don’t . . . use the people around you to create your characters.

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  2. Congrats Rhys on your Edgar nomination. I do love seeing this process of your writing life.

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  3. Aleria Farrell, the judge/protagonist in my series, was physically modeled on my dear friend Shula, who was living in Israel when the books came out. The cover art looked a lot like her. She wrote me that when she read the copies I sent her on public transport, people would stare at her and her reading material (The covers ARE pretty sensational!)

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    1. She must have been striking in some way, Ellen.

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    2. That's fascinating. Fame through a book cover!

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    3. Shula was a tall, red haired, brown eyed professional dancer. Lost her to leukemia three years ago.

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  4. I love these peeks into the people behind the characters! And yes, many congratulations, Rhys!

    I slid my real mother into my Local Foods books, as Uncle Albert's new lady friend at the assisted living. My mom had already passed away by then, and the character insisted on having a small glass of wine and using her smart phone to text her grandchildren, things Mommy never did. Also in that series, I slid in a woman who won naming rights as a customer on the farm. I was as surprised as she was that Diana Weaver turned out to be an undercover DEA agent!

    I have used traits of my unpleasant ex-husband in a number of characters, which is highly satisfying.

    I'm working on a new series proposal, and the protagonist is nothing like anyone I know - she kind of blew into my head fully formed! I'll let you know if my editor likes Cece as much as I do. ;^)

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    1. Edith, I am 2/3 of the way through Murder on Cape Cod and speaking of characters, Mac is terrific!

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    2. Aww, thank you so much, Judy! She's another one who just popped up fully formed. ;^)

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    3. It's so funny how characters take on lives of their own. I admire writers who can allow them to do that, instead of wrestling with them as I tend to do.

      Edith, a dear young friend of ours had her second daughter yesterday, and they named her Cecelia, aka Cece!

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    4. Cool, Karen! My (fictional) Cece's twin sister is Alicia, who goes by Ally...

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    5. That will be an interesting experiment--to try a character way out of your range of experience!I find mine all have something in common with me somewhere.

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  5. Rhys, congratulations on your Edgar nomination. It's a fabulous book and well deserved!

    I do wonder whether real people are the inspiration for characters. Georgie's grandfather is one of my favorite characters in the Royal Spyness series and I am always so glad when he is brought into the story. The photo of your family is lovely. Please tell us more about that picture.

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    1. Yes - I meant to ask, Rhys, if you are one of the children in it!

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    2. Yes, Edith. That photo is me, my grandmother, great aunt, father and brother. I'm about eight, I think. Skinny girl!

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  6. Jenn, I'm going to investigate which book was your first mystery. I bet you and your husband had tons of fun killing off his boss. LOL

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  7. I don't suppose this really addresses the question you asked but I am curious about names used, names that you the writer has made up, and then it turns out there is a real person with that name and recognizing himself in the character is none too happy. Has that ever caused problems?

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    1. I've had that happen. Obviously a writer is free to choose any name, unless that name and the description of the person is so obviously a real person and slanders them. If you made a serial killer called Barak Obama then you might have a problem...

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  8. Congratulations on your Edgar nomination, Rhys!

    I have killed off someone I knew in a story. It was a short story and he...really, really annoyed me. But not since. I don't think I've ever completely based a character on a real person since.

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  9. Huzzah, for the Edgar nom, Rhys! I'm so pleased for all the recognition your so-worthy Venice Sketchbook is getting.

    When I read some authors who I've come to know I often picture them in certain of their characters. Rose and Robbie look and act like Edith Maxwell to me; Charlie McNally is Hank all over; and I always pictured Russ in Julia's books as her own dear Ross. Perhaps none of that is on purpose, at least not consciously.

    Rhys, is that jolly, smiling girl you? It must be.

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    1. I thought so too, Karen, about the girl in the photo.

      Interesting that you imagine those two characters as me. They are quite different in many ways.

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    2. Karen, I had already published several books when someone pointed out my husband's name was R-o-s-s and my hero's name was R-u-s-s. I honestly never made the connection.

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    3. Julia, I am falling down laughing here!

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    4. Edith, I think it's your voice, and different aspects of your life and personality that I respond to.

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    5. Edith, I imagined Kellie Martin or the actress who played Rory Gilmore as Rose and the blonde actor from the Paper Chase as her doctor fiance / husband ?

      Diana

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    6. Karen in Ohio,

      I often imagine the characters based on the physical descriptions and sometimes I imagine the actors as these characters.

      Diana

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    7. That is me. With my grandmother, great aunt Dad and brother

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    8. Rory Gilmore as Rose! Interesting, Diana.

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  10. I killed off a realtor in my first book, which lives in a drawer. Not a real person, just the profession. Very cathartic. I heard enough criticism about the house to last me a lifetime. My customers don't want built-in bookshelves because they don't read.

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    1. Interesting--I find I tend to make my policemen petty and not very bright, but I have had no bad experiences with the police personally and know some really smart detectives.

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    2. So you consider Evan not bright and petty? Interesting.

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    3. No, but he's my protagonist! It's the policemen who make problems for my heroines in my series who are the problem.

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  11. Mega congrats on the Edgar nom, Rhys!

    I have killed off people who, well just needed killin', in short stories. Beyond that, my characters are a mash up of real people and imagination. A hairstyle here, a sense of humor there, a quirk to round them out.

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    1. Thanks, Kait. Just needed killin'--I can think of a few of those in the world at the moment, can't you?

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  12. I do have another real life character in a couple books - the slimy suit who was responsible for "rightsizing" Ross out of his last legal job. I didn't kill him however - I made him a sleazy villain. And then threw him in jail.

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    1. Julia, I think I'm going to reread your books before the next one comes out. So many juicy things to look for.

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    2. That's great, Julia! My only sorrow was my real life partner died before the book in which the always-unpleasant fellow artist - disguised of course, but not too much - was killed!

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  13. Did you know that by 2019 Rhys had won over 20 awards? I am putting my money on Rhys for the win (congratulations).
    This year I moved from reviewer to guppie; I can answer this too. For me the name comes first.

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    1. I'm excited that you are writing now, Coralee. We're waiting to see that first book

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  14. Rhys, this is brilliant!

    Everyone, I enjoyed reading about your characters.

    Since I am currently writing my first novel, I am creating different characters. In my novel, I want to see the villain get their comeuppance!

    Diana

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  15. Congratulations on your nomination, Rhys!

    Diana

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  16. I love that Grandpa is your own dad, Rhys. He's a lovely guy.

    In my first published short story, my characters were inspired by a local, world-famous writer and a locally-infamous politician. It was deeply satisfying to have the writer bump off the politician.

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    1. Anyone who kills an infamous politician gets a cheer from me!

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  17. Congratulations on the Edgar nomination, Rhys. I really enjoyed The Venice Sketchbook. You have been on my "read every word" list for a long time.

    Much of what I am writing these days is cathartic and too personal. The characters are very real and close to home. That has caused me to wonder about using that material in broad contexts. If you have a good story, but the reality of it is either too close to home or not really your story to tell, how do you alter it and still share the story?

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    1. That's always the problem with writing anything like a memoir, isn't it? Do we change reality to fit our plot? Do we change behavior of a person we know? I've seen stories fail because the writer has based a character on a real person or a real incident and is unwilling to change it to make better fiction.

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  18. My first reaction when I encountered Ben Beagle in one of your books, Julia, was that it had to be coincidence. But the more I thought about it, I wondered if there was a connection. I live in Livingston County and see his name quite a bit. Nice to know the answer!

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  19. Congratulations, Rhys, and best of luck. I suppose coming up with characters is easier in a standalone, where they don’t need to fit in with established series people.

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    1. Thanks, Rick. Yes, stand alone characters can also be killed off more easily. They just have to fit in with their time and place

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  20. Congratulations on the Edgar nomination, Rhys.

    On my bucket list is to be the victim in someone’s mystery. Do with me what you will. Just spell my name right

    Or maybe I’d prefer to be the serial killer???

    I always wanted to be infamous

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    1. I'll remember that, Ann. I'll let you know when I need a female victim!
      And thank you for the congrats.

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    2. Ahh....think twice about this, okay? And it would feel very creepy for me to write that...xoo

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  21. Rhys, congratulations on your Edgar nomination! If they give awards for covers, the cover of that book should win, too! So captures the mood of your writing!

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  22. Chiming in late here. First, congratulations to Rhys. And yes, I have used real people in my Samuel Craddock series. Most notably, I had a botched shoulder surgery. I was urged to sue to doctor, but didn't have the heart for it. But then I had the brilliant idea of killing him. So I did that in my seventh book. Alas, I found it kept him in the front of my thoughts too much, so probably won't do it again.

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  23. I'm not sure we can ever erase real people from our writing - the way people talk, move, behave - whether we can name them of whether they just passed us in the grocery store aisle. But I, too, killed off someone who was always unpleasant to my partner in my first book! And my main characters usually have real life avatars, people I my know or not whose "skins" I inhabit with my invented actors. It helps me to see a face or hear a voice, be it a TV actor or a former neighbor.

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