Characters with a job to do

[John Dean]

In a recent blog, I wrote about how I am always interested in what triggers a new character for a writer. When and how do they burst into life?

I am thinking of this once again because I have been working on the latest DCI John Blizzard novel for the Book Folks and, although some of my regulars appear, I needed some new characters as well, preferably trailing behind them a new plotline!

For me, characters often start out with the jobs I need them to do within the story. They are not there to fill space, they’re there to agitate, to keep secrets, to antagonise the police, to terrorise the community, to make the reader think etc etc. Once their job is identified, they can grow.

In this case, I wanted to create a pensioner in order to explore how the police and the wider community differ in their approach to elderly people. It’s a theme I have explored before and I was keen to do so again. For that, I required a character which allows the reader to experience empathy.

Once I knew the job the character was to do, he came to life – I can see him and his wife clearly now - and they will undoubtedly evolve further through the storytelling as they do their job and helps the story take its own direction.