Family, Friends, Fiction

This week we were asked if we wrote any characters based on real people.

I know we have touched on this at one time in the past, but as I was running through my head about characters that I had brought up, it hit me that in many of my works characters are based on people that I have known.

The reason for some of this is that many of my completed writings are based on things that happened to, near, or around me, although others have not. Those that have not have characters whom I do not know.

Or should I say, “did not know”.

People think that the couple in my biggest work of fiction is based on my husband, me, and our relationship, but that is not so. I only borrowed a few situations from our lives because it was low-hanging fruit and I could easily write them in quickly to fit the story so that I could concentrate on the tension, the mystery, and the characters. However, one character who is never seen,( but spoken of often), is based on someone I know.

Everyone else comes from my imagination, and they were great fun to ‘meet’.

This was the first complete hitherto unthought-of story that lept to mind that I felt I had to write and the characters came and went on their own. For instance, the couple fought; I had not seen it coming and I could hardly type fast enough to keep up with their barbs.

There are several relationships and situations going in that story, one of which involved four younger people. However, like many of that generation, I could not get them to cooperate with me, so they were only used as walk-on characters,

(I showed them!)

On the other hand, two other characters invited themselves to join the couple at lunch, and I had not planned that. Fortunately, I found that they provided the answer as to how another situation was going to present itself, (how the husband would be away from the wife for a while). It also led me to have the wife do something that was certainly not planned, and I think that it really helped with the story.

(Thanks, Guys!)

On the other hand, being of a generally literal mind and having written and published more non-fiction,(and poetry based on what I felt was truth), I found that writing about things that happened to me and or family members has been easy, (more low-hanging fruit?). I have changed some things, particularly the end of one that was based on an evening of odd occurrences I experienced with my niece. Everything except the ending was what actually happened and what was said that evening, with a little editing to make the ending plausible.

While speculating on this post, I felt a fear that I have been lazy in creativity, but reflecting on what I have finished, I find that I have used my imagination quite a bit. The song lyrics that I used to write were a surprise to everyone, including myself, and I believe that only one line in one song was inspired by my life. I only used my first initial when copyrighting the songs and the award for one, from a man’s POV, came addressed to “Mr. T. Joyce”, so I guess my creativity was in full swing, since no one ever confused me for being a man before, or since, which is fine, since I haven’t tried to pass as one in any way, except with those songs.

It is amazing how the mind works while writing, isn’t it?

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