'Wild for Love.' www.astraeapress.com. Her blog is carolmacleanblogspot.co.uk
'Wild for Love' is available at Amazon as well.
Something that fascinates me is how an author finds their characters so I asked Carol to tell me how she does this
.
Do
you start with you characters or your plot?
It
depends. Each story is different - sometimes a character will come to me fully
formed and I then weave a story round them. However for 'Wild For Love' I had
the plot in mind and then came up with the characters - they had to have
opposing viewpoints so they could clash over the environmental issues raised in
the story. So Polly (an Ecologist) and Jake (a property developer) were born.
Do
you write a biography of all your character/main only/none?
I
write a brief biography of all the characters. I find if I make it too detailed
I get bored with them and don't want to write their story. As I write, I find
things out about them and they develop and change in ways that at the start, I
might not have imagined!
Do
you base your characters on a real person/film actor etc or are they entirely
imaginary?
They
are mostly conjured up from my imagination. I never use actors to base them
upon although I admit to a lot of people-watching on a daily basis and if
someone's interesting enough, then an attribute may be used in a character.
Do
you cut photos out of magazines to use as your main characters?
Never
- I can see my characters quite clearly in my mind. I don't need a photo.
Do
you see your characters or only hear them or both?
I see and hear them - when I'm working on a chapter it's like a film set - I can see the action and hear the dialogue.
I see and hear them - when I'm working on a chapter it's like a film set - I can see the action and hear the dialogue.
How
many characters do you think are too many for a book to work?
Probably
two main characters (heroine and hero) and three or four minor characters are
enough. In 'Wild For Love' Polly's sister Lou and her husband Ian are having
marital difficulties which are dealt with sensitively and resolved during the
book - they are there so that Polly can reflect on the nature of love and learn
for herself what real love means. Jake's mother is an important character too
for Jake to learn to grow up and move on to what he really wants out of life.
We've
all read stories where there are so many characters we have to flick back
through the book to remember who they are! I don't want that to happen in my
stories.
How
do you make your characters individual? Accent? Catch phrases? Mannerisms?
Other things?
I
use catch phrases and mannerisms to some extent but I do try to be careful not
to make the characters charicatures. I may use accents occasionally but I find
a bit of local dialect goes a long way! The best thing to do is read out
dialogue from the story and see if it works. Can I distinguish who is speaking
from cadence and choice of words? If not, I've failed and have to try harder to
individualise them.
Do
you write with multi-view point/deep third/first/omnipotent/narrator –or a
combination of these?
I
write in third person but swop POV (Point of View) between the heroine and hero
as the plot devlops.
How
often do your characters run away with your plot?
Quite
a lot. As the characters develop and mature the shape of the plot naturally
changes. That's fine, I don't have a problem with that. The end of a book is
always in the mist anyway when I start off.
Would
you ever kill a main character/child/animal/villain?
I
haven't yet but it's a possibility in the future....
In
your opinion which is more important –plot or character?
For
romance, most definitely character. The plot comes from the interaction between
the heroine and her hero.
That's great, Carol. Thanks for giving us an insight into the way you work.
Wild For Love:
Good interview with lots of interesting points. Hope the launch went well, Carol and that the book does well.
ReplyDeleteThanks Ruth and Mary for your support here and on facebook - very much appreciated!
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