Also, if you haven't read my previous blog post about the ending of "Game of Thrones" episode 2, be sure to check it out after you finish Pepper's guest post.
And now, here's Pepper! :)
I make no secret about the fact I pull my characters from real life, using my friends and people I know to model them after. Writers are always telling me this is a no-no. They say you even if you do use real people, you should never admit it. To which I say, nonsense. I freely admit to my friends they’ll probably end up in one of my books sooner or later. After all, I’ve met some truly fascinating people in my life, and I seriously doubt I could come up with characters out of my imagination anywhere near as interesting as the real people I know.
Maybe I’m just fortunate in my friends, but so far none of them have ever complained about finding themselves in my books. Even when I cast them as villains, they still think it’s great. Of course, then they start demanding to star in the next book. The way it’s going, I won’t run out of stories to write for many, many years.
For me, pulling my characters from real life has several advantages, one of the best being that I have plenty of help with my work. I have lots of beta readers to check for believability and plot consistency, as well as to help smooth out the writing. And if I have trouble with a character and can’t figure out how he or she would react in a certain situation, I can go to the source and ask.
My friends know not to take my portrayal of them as a character personally. I always tell them I’m taking their core traits and embellishing them, so whatever they like about the character, I got from them, and whatever they don’t like, they can just assume is something I added for effect. They also know that, except for them, no one else will recognize their real life identity in my book. So if they don’t like their character, they don’t have to admit who they are.
I’m careful to respect my friends’ privacy and try not to make my characters physically identifiable to anyone who would know them in real life. Sometimes that isn’t as easy as it seems. Especially if physical appearance is one of the things about the person that fits the character in the book. For example, in my book, Blood Fest: Chasing Destiny, which comes out on April 30, 2011 from Black Opal Books, I’ve used a guy, I’ll call Darrel, who looks like Adonis in the flesh. In the book, he’s a side character named Drake. I combined Darrel with an Amur tiger to make Drake a weretiger. But since I was using Darrel’s physical description almost verbatim, I thought it only fair to ask him if he minded. And being Darrel, his only comment was, “No problem, but when do I get my own book?"
I can’t give you a real picture of Darrel, but I can show the picture I found to represent Drake. And yeah, he’s probably going to get his own book.
Visit my website: http://www.pepperoneal.com/
Learn more about Blood Fest: Chasing Destiny at: http:www. http://pepperoneal.com/blood-fest-series/
Read an excerpt of Blood Fest: Chasing Destiny at: http://pepperoneal.com/blood-fest-series/excerpt-chasing-destiny/
Thanks for stopping by, Pepper! Best of luck on your new release!
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