Posted on 24/02/2023 in Dorothy Says

Let’s Talk Character

6-minute read

Hello you.

It’s Word Count Wednesday and today, we’re talking character traits. I’ll be coming back to character building more than once, because I think when you’re writing fiction, character and plot are the two most important cornerstones to sucking readers in and then keeping them reading.

For what it’s worth, I think character is just as important in non-fiction, too. Getting readers to care about the people in the book is what makes one non-fiction book stand out from another.

In one of my earlier emails (the one about Saturdays in Sydney) I mentioned how I often weave experiences from my own life into my stories as a way of giving characters depth and the whole story more authenticity.

How I do it is, I think about who my character is, where they live, what they do, what their role is in the story. Then I think about something that has happened to me that could be relevant to that story either as an integral part of the character is or as a backdrop/context for the story.

Some of the things from my life I have woven into the personality of my characters:

• I was bullied in sixth form and this helped shape Kamryn being extremely cautious of people in My Best Friend’s Girl and showed why Adele’s betrayal hit her so hard.
• Elements of my obsessive nature when it comes to television shows helped spark Ceri’s story in The Cupid Effect. She’s obsessed with Angel and Oprah – as was I at the time – and makes some unwise decisions based on her love of those shows.
• My hormone-aggravated asthma is translated into Amber not being able to take The Pill in The Chocolate Run, which in turn causes complications in her relationship with Greg.
• Before having to go gluten-free, my favourite chocolates were Maltesers. This becomes a bit of a theme in My Other Husband with main character Cleo and her need to dunk them in coffee.

And examples of how I’ve used elements from my life as a backdrop to my stories.

• In Tell Me Your Secret, Pieta is reintroduced to Ned who bullied her at school. Her experiences of surviving being bullied are, we find out, what help her to survive what happens to her with The Blindfolder.
• I moved to Brighton many years ago and knew about three people, same when I moved to Australia years ago, too. This backdrop of feeling lost and alone comes through in a few books but most acutely in The Friend where Cece is desperately trying to find her feet.
• My experiences in the worlds of magazine and book publishing are used as huge backdrops for Cleo’s writing journey in My Other Husband. Some of the passages remind me very much of how I have felt at various points in my life.

I could go on, but you get the idea.

Just to be clear, I am NOT – let me say that again – NOT writing about me in my novels. These aren’t my life stories, or a sneaky way to write my memoirs. All my characters are fictional (even the ones based on people who’ve done me wrong that I make horrible things happen to). All my characters start as two-dimensional beings that have a role and purpose in the book I’m writing. I add to their personalities and situation by plucking certain things from my life and lending it to them. They then go on to become their own separate entities with shades of a shared experience.

What experience could you weave into your story?

Were you bullied? Did you overpluck one eyebrow just before an important event? Do you have asthma, anxiety or another health condition you can explore through your character in a secondary way? Have you developed a crush on someone completely unsuitable? Is there a word you just can’t say or makes you cringe every time you hear it?

Today’s writing prompt: Think of at least 3 quirks, traits or experiences that you personally have. Write these down in your note-taking medium of choice (Notes app on your phone, notebook, Word document on your computer, etc) and when you’re next writing, add this trait/experience to your character.

That’s it for this time, lovelies.

Talk to you soon.

Dorothy x

PS Don’t forget: you can pre-order a signed copy of My Other Husband here and unsigned copies here and here to make sure it arrives in your life as soon as possible after it’s released.