Contemporary Author Suzie Carr on Creating Memorable Characters

I first learned that my character Hope from my novel, Inner Secrets, was gay when she took over the driver’s seat on Day One of writing. When I sat down to write the first scene, her pivotal words took over when she wrote: Dear Journal, It’s me Hope. I’ve got something to confess.

That sentence paved the way for a revealing one thousand word writing day that not only allowed me to get into the mind of Hope Steele, but also to carve out an entirely different novel than I set out to write.

Something really magical occurs when you sit down, put pen to paper, and allow your character to write whatever is on her mind. By the time I finished writing that journal entry, I knew Hope’s fears, insecurities, flaws, and saving graces. Through that experience, the novel flowed. Not once during its creation did I suffer the dreaded blank screen.

Her voice permeated my mind in such a clear and vocal manner. Her witty remarks and inner turmoil stirred in my brain at a constant tempo that urged me to pull off the sides of many roadways and jot them down on a direct mail envelope haphazardly thrown on my front seat, to stick my head out of the shower and fight the sting of soap as I struggled to get a pen and a dry notepad, and to battle against my Rhode Island accent and my iPhone mic to record as I walked my two energetic boxers at four in the morning.

Hope Steele had so much to say and reveal to me that I felt I had known her my whole life by the time I completed writing the first draft. How? By journaling in her character.

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Stay tuned for the full article later today on The Official Prose. Blog at: blog.theprose.com/blog.