Character Lessons

One of the many things I love, love, love about storytelling is channeling the characters who inhabit the worlds I create. Becoming those characters during my writing sessions is like playing virtual dress-up. I can be clever, courageous and well-organized. And while I spend time in their world, my coffee mug is never empty—or at least not for long.

polished stone with the word create typeset into it. — This is one of the fun things that surrounds me as I create my characters. (See what I did there? Ha!) It was a gift from an author buddy.

Don’t get me wrong. I recognize there are some downsides to playing the part of my main characters. I write crime fiction after all. They’ve been chased by homicidal villains, knocked unconscious and shot at. But through the power of plotting and revisions, they’ve escaped relatively unscathed. They’ve been sucker punched by criminals. But they’ve recovered. They’ve been in head-on collisions. But they’ve survived. My point is I realize their (fictional) lives aren’t all fun and games. However, since I’m scripting it, I can make sure they walk away from these dangers. And with plenty of stories to share with their (fictional) grandchildren.

I hadn’t realized how many fun things I have in my office until I took photos for this post. This was a gift from a former colleague. I believe it tells us more about her than about me. I’m just saying. To be clear, I’m not silently correcting your grammar.

The opportunities to cosplay my characters sometimes results in my developing some of their personality traits I admire, if only for a little while. I’ve learned a few things from my characters like self-defense moves. For today, let’s focus on my Justice Hunters romantic suspense trilogy.

I find this reminder motivating and uplifting. I have a similar one that reads, “I see stupid people,” which is mean…but funny. I kept it on my desk at my day job, which may have contributed to my being “laid off.”

From Crys Rashaad, the main protagonist of BEHIND THE BADGE, I’m making the effort to confront the elephant in the room. Don’t form opinions based on assumptions. Asking uncomfortable questions may be…uncomfortable, but in the long run, it saves a lot of time and spares feelings.

From Amber Rashaad, the main protagonist of ABOVE THE LAW, I’m attempting to learn diplomacy. It’s kind of a heavy lift, but I think the effort will be worth it. And it’s a good combination with Crys’s confrontation trait.

For example, when my publisher assigned my romantic suspense ABOVE THE LAW the keyword search term “assassination fiction,” I channeled Crys’s confrontation to ask them, “What were you thinking?” and paired it with Amber’s diplomacy so I used only one question mark. For the win!

(I mean seriously. Log onto Barnes & Noble or Amazon and type in “assassination fiction.” You be the judge; do any of those books look like romantic suspense to you?)

This is one of my favorite fun things. It was a gift from another author buddy.

From Jade Rashaad, the main protagonist of OFF THE RECORD, I’m learning to be more observant of people’s body language, tone and word choices. I believe this will give me additional insights into people’s motivations and goals. It could help deepen conversations.

And, again, Jade’s powers of observation work well with Crys’s confrontation and Amber’s diplomacy. For example, if I observe that someone’s body language seems in conflict with what they’re saying, I can confront that discrepancy in a diplomatic way. For the win!

Question: My friends, what lessons have you learned either from characters you’ve written or characters you’ve read about?