Creating Characters

The writing process fascinates me. I’ve just finished writing my sixth mystery novel and I’m still in awe of how bits and pieces from my life and lots of other sources come together to form a book. Sometimes, it’s easy to figure out where ideas come from; other times it’s not. When an idea comes to me seemingly from “out of the blue,” I look up and say, “Thank You,” because I believe in giving credit where credit is due.

My favorite part of writing is creating characters. People and psychology have always fascinated me. My Malone mysteries have been described as “character driven” and my new cozy mystery, Secrets in Storyville, which is separate from my series, is also character driven. A house may have been the inspiration for the book but the characters quickly became the most important element to me.

So, how did I come up with the characters for my new book? Like all of writing, it was a process. 

Kate, my main character, is based on someone I once knew who was the single mother of a young daughter. But that’s where the similarity ends. The two women are nothing alike in appearance or personality and they “live” totally different lives. 

The other characters in the book were each created to fulfill a need in the plot. Kate’s parents and grandmother who are hiding a secret, her daughter, Mandy, the people Kate works with, several of the town’s residents and the man Kate meets and falls in love with all play a part in the mystery.

I hope you enjoy getting to know the characters in Secrets in Storyville as much as I enjoyed creating and writing about them.

Real versus Fictional settings

Writers are advised to “write about what you know.” I was born on the west side of Cincinnati where I’ve lived for most of my life. I love my city, especially the west side, which is why I decided years ago to make it the setting for my Malone mysteries. The first three books take place in upper Westwood and Cheviot, not far from where I grew up. As I wrote, I could picture the places so vividly in my mind and I wanted my readers to be able to do that too.

In the last two books, I chose to change the setting to South Carolina. I had vacationed there numerous times and fell in love with Charleston, Beaufort, Mt. Pleasant and Fripp Island. Those were other places I felt comfortable writing about because I was familiar with them. Not to mention all the printed material I’d gathered on my trips and all the photos I’d taken, never dreaming those places would later be used in my books.

There are many positives to writing about “real” places. For me, one of them has been the wonderful response I’ve gotten from local readers who have told me they love reading about places close to where they live. But there are also negatives to setting a book in a real place. When I wrote my Malone mysteries, I wanted to be geographically and historically accurate but I occasionally needed to exercise poetic license for the sake of the story. I had to explain that to a few readers who were as familiar with the area as I was.

When I finished my five-book series, I honestly didn’t know what I would write next. Nor did I know where the story would take place. I’ve traveled to many fantastic places and I briefly considered using one of those. And then it hit me! Why not create a town? A place where the geography and the history could be whatever I wanted them to be?

As it happened, one Sunday, my mother, my friend, Mary, and I took a day trip to visit The Story Inn, a restaurant/historic site in a remote part of Indiana. The name of my fictional town jumped out at me and, little by little, the plot and the characters came to life. I hope, as you read the book, they’ll come to life for you too.

New Release!

Kate Morgan, a single mother, lives in the small town of Storyville, Ohio where she grew up. A want-to-be author, she works as a sales clerk in the town’s only department store doing what she describes as “a job a monkey could do.” Although she’s bored with her job, she’s reluctant to consider making any major changes in her life. However, she’s about to find out that change is inevitable.

When Kate’s ten-year-old daughter, Mandy, tells the family she plans to do a family tree for a school project, the negative reaction of Kate’s parents and grandmother shocks her but also arouses her curiosity. Why are they so against Mandy’s project? Surely her family is too “normal” to have any skeletons in their closet.

Kate decides to support her daughter even if that means defying her parents. As she searches for the truth, she discovers some long buried secrets that, if she chooses to reveal them, will change her life and the lives of the people she loves – forever.

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