Hello,

I’ve been reading a lot lately about character development and have decided I don’t much like that term—character development. To me, my characters are more than “developed” I feel they are born through blood, sweat and tears like any human though birthed out the mind of course and I know you feel that way too. We make our character’s hearts beat like our own, we add the joy of a good life or the pain of a bad one we may have known, they feel what we have felt, look like people we may have known or imagined knowing and we give them lives we wished we had or would never want and we do it all in minute detail. I believe a combination of those factors can make for unforgettable characters we love or hate: Captain Ahab, Holden Caulfield, Madame Bovary, the list is endless.

I’ve found the easiest and best way to breathe a life into my characters is to sketch out their life from beginning to end. The main character Owen Story of my novel, You Don’t Know Me, was born in Catchem Hospital on January 23, 1969 in Long Island, New York. He moved to the small town of Grange and lived in the working class neighborhood of Straw Martin with his parents who were careless people without meaning to be. He was an only child. He was quiet, tried not to be too noticed, but was noticed any way. Owen wasn’t an outstanding student though he finished high school and the local college. The two most notable occurrences in his young life was his father leaving him his mother for good never to return and his meeting his life long friend, Robert Giordano, the son of a low-key mafia don when Giordano helped him fight off a couple of bullies who were going to turn the thin but suicidally brave Owen to mush.

You get the idea. Owens’s life story builds until he becomes as real as a made up person can be; we create our characters with this goal in mind so they can become like those we love: Hamlet, Ebenezer Scrooge, Don Quixote, Huckleberry Finn, Cinderella; all unforgettable.

If you have any questions or comments feel free to contact me at:matwrite1@hotmail.com. I’ll love to hear from you.

Until next time God willing,

Lori