It’s almost a cliché to say that fiction starts with character, but just like many other things, it’s so often repeated because it’s largely true. The characters in your work have to feel real, they have to live on the page.
When developing characters for a work of fiction, a really useful exercise can be to answer questions from their point of view. There’s a really useful link to an article all about that here.
Compendia has picked up a fair few subscribers recently, and it occurs to me that not everyone may know who I am. So, for today, I thought it might be a fun exercise to answer a set of character questions, but about myself.
Here goes!
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What did your character do during lockdown?
I was incredibly lucky, in that I still had my work, and at the time was living in a house with a nice garden. So in many ways it was life as normal for me, other than the fact that like many people I was living alone and isolated from family and friends. That said, I wrote a book, which I later scrapped. Mostly because it really suffered from the isolation I was experiencing.
When I wasn’t writing, I was doing the same as everyone else I suspect. Baking (which I hadn’t really done before and haven’t done since), watching TV, reading, catching up with people via Zoom and FaceTime and trying to make sense of it all whilst being aghast at the stupidity and callousness of those supposedly in charge.
What is the thing in their life they most regret?
I don’t have that many regrets. I sort of regret doing a physics degree (I hated it, and understood very little of the course material. I scraped a lower second class honours because I was very good at question-spotting). But that’s the route I took, and via audiology and a career in the NHS, it led me to where I am now. So, there’s not a lot of point in regretting it.
If I had to choose one thing though, it would be leaving it so late to come out as gay. I suffered a lot of shame, which I now see was a waste of time. I wish I’d had more courage to live my truth.
What was the last thing they purchased?
I’ve recently started collecting vinyl again (music has been a constant love, throughout my life). So, these, from an independent record shop here in Brighton
Last message they received?
“I’m good for the 5th and all the festival planning sounds great”
Received as part of a group chat. Some writer friends and I are planning a literary festival.
The last thing that made them truly angry?
I try not to get angry, any more. It’s a wasted emotion. I don’t live in some zen-like state of bliss by any means, but I do my best not to dwell.
That said, someone shared a campaign video of Donald Trump’s, in which he’s basically saying, ‘Vote for me and I’ll usher in a new age of fascism.’ That scares me, more than makes me angry.
If they could live in any other time period, which would they choose? Why? Do they feel at home in the time they live in?
I’m kind of happy with now. The fifties and sixties sound cool, but could we promise that I’d be in Soho, hanging out with Francis Bacon at The Colony Room, rather than stuck in Brierley Hill?
If they had to describe their current state of mind in a single word, what would it be? How about three words? Five?
Fine.
Mostly fine, thanks.
Mostly fine, thanks, I guess.
(I’m working, what do you expect?)
What was the first thing they thought when they woke up this morning?
What day is it? What am I doing later? Shall I go back to sleep?
What’s the last thing they do before they go to bed?
Make a cup of tea. Usually chamomile or peppermint.
What is the biggest mistake they’ve ever made? And what about their best decision?
To go part time at work so that I could start devoting some serious time and energy to my writing. This was both the biggest and best.
How about you? Anyone keen to share their own answers?
Thinks, 'Before I even get up, shall I go back to sleep?'
Reader thinks, 'Is this signalling a sequel?'
A really engaging read, quite a character this fellow Watson, just wonder whether, of a dawning day, he wakes as 'S J' or 'Steve'?
And that novel that was written in Covid time and rejected: did this interesting character consider inviting a second opinion before consigning it to be spiked on the Mount of Rejections?
Thanks for the post and for the invitation to follow suit but I'll decline, even 'take a rain check', for now as life's fine but something of 'a curate's egg' with me just at the moment. Definitely something to come back to.
I just realised I misread my own post and didn’t answer the ‘biggest mistake’ question. Oh well. One for a future post. Or maybe even a memoir...