Building character/s

 A friend asked me the other day whether I ever base any of the characters in my stories on people I know.  The short answer is NO.  At least not a single person. As a general rule, in part because I mostly write in the speculative fiction space, it doesn't make any sense to do so. 

There are some subtleties to this position.  I have used the names of people whose paths have crossed with mine if I think they have cool names.  Oddly, coming up with character names can be quite hard.  It was easier in my Panopticon series of books because they were based on gods mythology so was able to use existing names from various pantheons from around the world.  In contrast, the Peitho series took more effort but I ended up basing most of the characters on well known names from the cultural heritages prevalent in the story (i.e. Welsh and French). 

I have attached the physical attributes of friends and acquaintances to some of my main characters because it is easier to describe someone I know than to imagine it. Plus I seem to befriend people with distinctive features (I am a sucker for a good "French nose").

As for personality traits and mannerisms, this is where no one I know (who are or have been a part of my life) features as a whole in any character I write. This aspect is much more mix and match and make up characteristics.  Unless I am writing a biography, then it is analogous to baking a cake - I need to use certain ingredients in combination to produce the end product that will present my narrative effectively.  A souffle will only rise in an oven with the right combination. 

One more exception is that story every writer needs to write early in their career to get pieces of themselves out of their system.  For me, that story was Transition Girl.  To be clear, the main character was NOT me but some version of me IF I had made alternative life choices.  The character in that story was in a much darker place than I will ever be. The walking dead versus the eternal optimist.  But things could have been very different - it was an interesting thought experiment writing that book.

There have been characters that have been constructs I've used to help me process unresolved emotional matters in my life.  For example, the character Gabriel in the Panopticon series bore a striking physical resemblance to a former love in my life (who broke my heart) and there were times during the drafting of that series when that character's interaction with another character, Nemesis, often had me crying as I was writing their scenes because the emotions mirrored some things I was processing in life.  Coincidental but therapeutic.

Unrelated, I am on the home stretch now of the poetry contributions to an e-publication with two more months to go.

Of the poems submitted this month of April, this one is my favourite - called Identity.

Near death experiences can change you, sort of.

Resuming transmission after being
in that place
of sleep without dreams,
the peaceful sleep of a thousand sleeps,
surrounded by black.
Nothingness.

Revived after a heart stopped beating,
with only the ghost of a dead friend
standing at the foot of the bed,
smiling as if he was there to reassure
that everything would be alright.
The mind can play serious tricks with
too many tubes to count, piercing skin,
and intensive care machines chirping
far more steady than that muscle
losing count inside my chest.

A joyful event marking passing and rebirth.
A second chance at near-life.
Do these scrapes fuel
that out-of-sorts feeling?
Or is treating life as a vacation
gift-wrapping these moments?
Skeleton dancing apparition
animated stardust
unburdened by an uncheckered past
untroubled by an uncertain future.

Contemplate changing something, anything,
sweep away the tangible refuse
of that history strewn throughout the home.
Purging and purifying my psyche
without throwing out pieces of my identity.
Such decluttering does not
really alter who I am.
Impossible to clear the head of trash.
Best to ride out the uneasiness
wait for this disquiet to come and go.