Patricia Sargeant

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?

21 thoughts on “Character Lessons”

  1. I love all those objects you have around your office! I’ve definitely learned a lot from characters, including tenacity and justice from amateur sleuths. My latest read? It was a mystery-themed rom-com, and I think I learned about admiring strong women and believing in yourself.

    P.S. I’m gonna search up”assassination fiction” and see what I find!

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    1. LOL! Please do and report back. Ha! I love the traits you mentioned, tenacity and self-confidence. Those are great ones. They’re so important. I love mystery-themed rom-coms. LOL! Did you by chance see the Jennifer Aniston, Adam Sandler movies Murder Mystery and Murder Mystery 2? I may have been the only one who liked those movies. LOL!

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  2. Well, I do in fact silently correct others’ grammar…and often have a hard time with the “silently” part.

    As for lessons I’ve learned from fictional characters, I think that is one of the prime reasons for reading (and writing) fiction: because it’s the perfect way to distill life’s lessons into a a compact yet emotionally-engaging framework. Which is to say, if a novel is well-written, I’m likely learning lessons from it and its characters.

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  3. Oh, my gosh, Leslie! That is so perfectly put. (Or “…put so perfectly.”?) It all comes back to The Super Power of Books. They have the ability to educate, inspire and motivate. We have got to get together for that beer and chat more about this.

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  4. Patricia, I adore those little tchotchkes in your office! I could stare at them all day. And I suspect that the fiction category you mentioned (that you don’t write) is very popular, which possibly led to the publisher’s confusion. One thing I’ve learned is to highlight upfront the more positive qualities of a few of my characters who make questionable decisions. Of course, those characters have a lot of “me” in them, lol, so…

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    1. Lisa, you make an excellent point about the popularity of that other fiction category. That’s something I should keep in mind. My only hesitation with invoking it is that I don’t think people looking for romantic suspense would type in that keyword. I also don’t believe people looking for that other fiction category would take my cover seriously. Tragic.

      I seriously didn’t realize how many tchotchkes I had until I took these pictures. I have others as well. They were all gifts. The Never, Never Quit stone is one of my very favorites. My friend didn’t need to give me that gift for me to know she believed in me. To this day, her belief in me means the world to me.

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  5. I think we can all learn lessons from Samwise Gamgee in The Lord of the Rings about the importance of being in the service of others for the greater good. Sam didn’t have to go on the journey to Mount Doom, but he did to help Frodo. He never gave up, even during the darkest of moments. Lessons like that matter.

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    1. Hi, J.C.! I agree with you. Lessons like that are so important and inspirational especially when you consider how far Samwise grew over the course of the trilogy. I believe he was the real Hero of that series. I understand people will disagree, but his character had the deepest arc. When we meet him, he’s far from brave. It’s his devotion to Frodo that gives him courage. “I may not be able to carry (the ring), but I can carry you.” He’s amazing.

      Seque: I had a coworker who’s name was Sam Wise. I don’t think I was the first person to call him “Samwise Gamgee” to his face.

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  8. Those sound like some good lessons to learn. I wish I could absorb some of the better traits from characters I read about. Maybe I’d think before I spoke a little more often.

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  9. I love the idea of cosplaying our characters. I might try writing someone who always arrives fifteen minutes early just to see what it’s like! 😂

    One lesson my main character and I have both had to learn is “think before you speak.” When you’re talking to a client, you can’t just blurt out “That’s a TERRIBLE idea!” So I’d like to think Kelsey and I help each other learn to take feedback, keep our reactions inside our heads, and then say something diplomatic before finding a compromise.

    Thanks for the fun post! Great food for thought.

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