Inspiration Part 2

A girl.

Don’t get me wrong. I didn’t date her or ask her out and get turned down. And yes, this was before I knew Jackie existed.

She wasn’t drop dead gorgeous.

She wasn’t anything I knew in anyway shape or form.

But, she did grab my attention enough to build a character around what she looked like.

I honestly don’t think I even spoke to her. She just looked interesting.

So, I made Erin.

Erin looks very similar to this girl. And so I built my characters around this one.

I promise I am not being cryptic in anyway. I swear to the Great Old Ones, I have no clue who this girl was, and I will never.

But, she bred in me a character, an idea that gripped me and held on until I could birth her onto a page. I breathed some of me into her, making her a real person. I gave her friends. I gave her a family. I gave her a personality. I gave her ambitions, hopes, dreams, and goals.

Then I nuked her world, killed her family and had her kidnapped.

Later, I will get into characters of this series and who my favorite is, but seeing as how they have not matured fully and I don’t know where they will end up, I can’t do that in all fairness.

But to date, Santana is my favorite in The Time of Tears, and I kind of like Nicholas in the next installment more than the others. It’s a work in progress.

So, the plot and conflict was set, characters were catalyzed by Erin’s presence, and I set off in southern Arizona, killing, destroying and obliterating everyone.

It was quite a build, trying to set an end, or waypoint in the same ballpark of where I want things to end for these people, but I think if you have real characters that breath and think for themselves, as a writer, you create their world and their troubles. You step back. You watch how they react to the problems you have set up for them, and record all that you see.

Everything else that happened in The Time of Tears played out the way it should naturally, or at least as natural as I needed it to in a world that is resetting itself.

I hope you enjoy the book, and at the very least, attach yourself to a character that you can enjoy changing and shaping like the world they live in.