Taking It From the Beginning – Part 4

The heroine – In the last blog, I talked about the hero. It’s time for the heroine to have her moment.Heroines are easier for me to write then heroes.Part of myself goes into each heroine I create.Some of my fears, insecurities and strengths are infused into each character.

As with the hero, I start writing and my heroine develops through my writing. After I’ve written a little, I give her a back story.Quinn Parker is an only child.She grew up with her mother spending much of her youngest years at her mother’s friends house, Bob (coincidently Kurt’s uncle).Her mother died when she was eighteen.She was devastated because they were close and her mother was her only family. When she was seventeen, she joined a band as a singer, and if it weren’t for her band mates, she wouldn’t have made it through. They became her family.Mitch, Teddy and Joe.She had a brief fling with Mitch, but that ended two years ago.

See how I leave a lot of room for enhancement or addition in her back story?  I don’t like to fill in too much or lock her down too much because that would leave me feeling inhibited in my writing.

There are many sites that have charts and backgrounds for characters. http://www.eclectics.com/articles/character.html or http://www.charlottedillon.com/CharacterChart.html are just examples. I don’t work this way. My characters show themselves to me as the story progresses.I do keep a piece of paper, sometimes a notebook, besides the computer where I write down ideas or descriptions or any other pertinent information about the story.

Are you with me so far?  I have a hero and a heroine. Next, I’ll talk about supporting characters, minor characters, like Mitch or Uncle Bob.See you next time and keep writing!