Linda Bilodeau | OH Those Intriguing Characters

I'm often asked about the characters who live in my stories. Are they based on
someone I know? Is there a little of myself in these characters?

The answer to both questions is yes, and I believe the talent to create
characters comes partly from creativity and partly from understanding human
nature.

When I construct a story line, I think of who is going to live in that world and
what their motives are or should be. Depending on plot, I decide if the women
need to be tough, weak, courageous, deceitful or honest to a fault. What makes
up their basic personality? In other words, stick that tea bag in a pot of
boiling water and see how it holds up.

In some situations it's best to make the tea bag fall apart, not all characters
can be successful. What a dull story that would make. In other plot lines,
characters triumph over their diversity but at what cost? Keep your characters
extraordinary by having them experience loss, death, hate, poverty or whatever
works. Characters and people learn from a crisis and what good little page
turning books are you aware of that doesn't future a good crisis?

And yes, I don't know any living breathing author who doesn't put a little of
their own personality in their characters. I have characters solve difficulties
in a way I never would have thought of doing or I have characters live out a
fantasy I never dared to experience.

Making characters believable takes time, talent and a lot of hard work. The joy
in writing comes when a reader tells you how much they identified with one of
your characters and that's what we as authors hope to hear.