So where do your characters come from?

[John Dean]

According to the great American writer F Scott Fitzgerald, ‘Character is plot, plot is character’. He was right. It is through the interaction of characters with a variety of needs, situations and personalities that stories emerge and develop. But how do you create them? You have three choices.

Autobiographical method - While you are always likely to inject something of yourself into your characters without trying, many convincing characters can be created deliberately by basing them on yourself or particular aspects of your personality.

Biographical method - In the same way that you can base characters upon yourself, you can use your observations of others as starting points for your creations. Perhaps as little as a snippet of overheard conversation, or bits of several people mixed together; a look from one, an obsession from another, a personality trait from another.

Inventing characters from scratch - It is difficult to create a convincing character from nothing but it can be done. Just seek the triggers you will need, maybe an item of clothing, an object, a setting. You’ll be amazed at what your mind can conjure up!

As far as my two main characters go, DCI John Blizzard is partly autobiographical and partly characteristics borrowed from people I know, whereas the inspiration for DCI Jack Harris was a real police officer with aspects of other officers rolled in to create someone truly unique.