One of the questions
authors get asked all the time is, “Where does the inspiration for your
characters come from?”
This is actually a two
part question because they could be referring to either the character’s
personality type/character traits or the actual appearance/physical look of a
character.
In my case, the
inspiration for both personality and appearance a lot of times comes from—believe
it or not—reality TV.
The main show I watch
that produces the inspiration is of course The Bachelor/The Bachelorette. I
write romance so what better source, right? Some people may say, Why do you
even watch such an awful show? It’s all fake, you know.
I’m not naïve. I know
reality TV isn’t really reality. But I don’t believe it is all fake. Do the
producers hand pick contestants that they know will cause the most drama?
Absolutely. Do they create situations to intentionally cause drama? Absolutely.
Do they look for contestants with clashing personalities in order to stir up
drama? Absolutely. And you know why?
Because no one would
watch the show if it wasn’t orchestrated that way! Reality is boring (at
times). So in order to keep the viewers hooked they have to amp up the drama.
But this is precisely why
this show gives me so many ideas for characters. These people have big personalities,
glaring faults, clash with other contestants who have different personalities, worldviews,
backgrounds, and character traits and this is precisely what I need to develop
interesting, relatable characters.
Not all of my characters
are based off reality stars, however. As far as just the physical appearance,
sometimes—like many other authors—I picture my characters to look like a famous person, movie star, athlete, etc. But it just so happens that the book I’m plotting for now, the physical
inspiration for my two main characters has come from the TV show The Bachelor.
TV isn’t the only place I
glean inspiration from for characters though. Another favorite place is, of
course, my real life! The people I know!
For example, one of my
upcoming book ideas has a character who is inspired by a past coworker.
So be very careful…or you
might just end up in one of my novels.
And you won’t necessarily
be the good guy either J
