How Writers Create their Characters?
A common question for writers is where they get their ideas for their characters. Common answers are the characters are based on someone they knew or someone they saw in a café or a restaurant.
In the case of Gil Leduc, I got the idea for the character from a guy working at a video store. He was polite, intelligent, but I thought he could be contradictory at times. I looked in a guidebook on Paris and saw a guy who resembled the video store employee. Alas, I created the character, Gil Leduc. In 2007, after I wrote the two original versions of my first books, I returned to France. On the train headed from Paris to Niort, I saw a young man who resembled Gil.
Jan Barrio is based on a teenage girl I saw at the Fort Niagara swimming pool. A tall girl who tied her long dyed blond hair in a ponytail was with a group of teenagers. She had an olive complexion. She wasn’t overly bossy, but by her body language I could tell she was the one in charge of the group. She pointed to an area and placed her beach bag down. The other kids placed their stuff near there as well. When she went into the swimming pool, the other kids followed her. With her temperament I figured she could be origin of a Spanish speaking country.
Jan’s sister Tiffany and Cindy Manuel, who is featured in The Purity Ring Murders and Intercepted, come from a bicycle episode in Niagara Falls, New York. I rode down Lindbergh Avenue and two teenage girls were ahead of me. They looked at me and giggled. Tiffany, the dark-haired girl, pointed to Cindy, the brunette, and said, “Hey mister, she likes you.”
Later I saw an advertisement in a clothing magazine which showed two teenage girls who resembled those two.
Valerie Cartier who is featured in my novel Summer Danger is based on an elderly lady who I helped with a heavy suitcase on the train heading from Paris to Niort. She, like me, was going to Royan.
Other characters I created have been based on pictures in magazines or catalogs.