Update:

The Extoria Re-Write reached its 75% mark! If you missed my social media posts, here’s where the re-write stands. I’ve completed 26 chapters, totaling 77,094 words. This puts me on track to finish around a refined 100,000 words. Over the next few weeks, I’ll re-read what I’ve written, checking for any continuity errors, before I continue on to finish the re-write. Thank you to everyone for the continued support in the Frozen in Line series.

What to Expect:

This month you’ll notice that Frozen in Line will reach its climax and work into the falling action. I’ve enjoyed this story, but I’m excited about the upcoming Halloween special. I’ll do a title and “cover” reveal in next month’s newsletter. The Writing tips posts will continue with further character development tips.

Basing Your Characters Off of Family and Friends

Since we’re addressing character creation/development/arcs over the next while, I thought it might be good to bring this up early. When you’re using the “write what you know,” concept, don’t limit yourself to creating characters of the people you know. There are many reasons to avoid a true transcription of your best friend as your protagonist’s best friend, but I’ll cover a few.

To copy your friend is to create impossible parameters.

Hear me out, I’ve done this, and early in my writing career I fell victim to this many times. You think you know this person well enough to write them as a character, and they may have asked you to write them into your story, but this will be more of a translation than a transcription. You won’t get everything right, even if you’re best friends. There are always factors of life you never see of that person. And we will always claim to be braver, smarter, more committed than we truly are, especially when someone’s putting it in writing.

Give yourself wiggle room. Use your friends’ attributes you need for your character, but don’t use their name. As claimed in the Kingkiller Chronicles by Patrick Rothfuss to know someone’s name is to have power over them. And you want to have power over your characters. Take what you want from everyone you know, but don’t copy them unless you’re writing a non-fiction or Historical Fiction. That will guide you down a different path.

Using real people in your stories can cause issues.

Beyond the initial reactions of someone seeing how you perceive them, the ramifications of using those close friends and family can lead to broken relationships on either side of the line. People always hope you see them in their best light, and many times there are white lies while we ignore the bad and compliment the good in a person. The issue doesn’t come with being honest, but with the writing it down. Yes, most people talk smack behind other’s backs, but when you as an author write something that is then shared all over the internet, print, or audio, it becomes a public record of their failings. Family and friends can take sides. On rare occasions, the person who you used to write the story will never read those stories, but more than likely, someone who knows them will. Use caution in your character creation. But like I said, everything changes for non-fiction and historical fiction. I don’t know those areas as well, so use your own discretion.

Overall

Friends and family can be a substantial source of reference material, as their experiences in life most likely differ from yours, but they aren’t the material itself. Again Non-Fiction and Historical Fiction function differently here. My best advice is to use those you know as the ghost behind the character you’re creating, keep what you want, and get rid of the rest. Don’t restrict yourself to the person they are with your characters. Also, fiction reflects our self and everyone else who reads it. People will pull from characters what they identify with and think it’s based on them. Write true to your characters and to yourself, and you’ll be fine.

Thank you for reading, and as always, stay fresh, my nugs!