Patti O'Shea

Originally, I had another post planned for today, but I read a post at another blog and it made me remember all the things my characters have influenced me on. Seriously.

I tweeted last week that it’s Kel’s fault (the hero from In the Darkest Night) that I listen to Seether. It’s his choice in music, but now I’m listening to them. I regularly pick up things my characters say. I seldom used the word crap until I wrote Cai in The Power of Two. That was her word of choice.

It happens with nearly every book, nearly every hero and heroine. I have two Polynesian characters, I’m now listening to Polynesian music and I was so tempted to buy a Tahitian drum even though I have no use for one and no need for it. The hero and his love of New Zealand’s All Blacks had me following rugby teams on Twitter. I don’t even understand rugby and I didn’t know any of the players they were tweeting about.

When I was writing Through a Crimson Veil, the characters made me nocturnal. Both the h/h were half demon/half human and demons are nocturnal. So I couldn’t write them in the afternoon. Seriously. I’d sit there spinning my wheels, but at about 8pm, they were firing on all cylinders even while I wanted to go to bed!

I’d like to blame my temporary interest on anthropology in Kendall from Eternal Nights, but I’m not 100% certain on that one since I did have an interest in archaeology when I was a kid. Still, I hadn’t given much thought to it until I was working on her book.

The Light Warrior series got me hooked on Scotland. Since I never had any particular interest that direction before (I was more interested in Ireland), I fully put the blame on In the Midnight Hour and In Twilight’s Shadow.

Then there was my fascination with glass art that lasted as long as I was working on Edge of Dawn. I guess I’m lucky that the stuff I liked was so expensive, otherwise I’d have things to dust and it’s my goal in life to make cleaning as easy as possible, hence I own no dust catchers (like art glass).

I’m no longer surprised when I pick up words, phrases, music, or interests from my characters anymore. What I’m working on now is to identify what’s a real interest and what’s something that’s going to fade when the book’s done and released. Buying an album off iTunes isn’t too expensive and I’m okay with that, but some of the more expensive things have to be squelched before I give in and buy. Seriously, what would I do with a Tahitian drum?

With a plethora of characters yakking in my head, it can be really hard to hear the characters I’m trying to write. I’ve been struggling with the heroine of the proposal in progress for a while. I haven’t actually sat down to do a character sketch, but it was a near thing because I didn’t feel as if I knew her.

This created a huge problem because the scene in her POV was flat, boring. She was like this mannequin moving through the scene, but not feeling anything. It was frustrating and not something I’m used to. Normally, my characters come in like gangbusters, grab me by the throat, and say, this is who I am. Not her and I didn’t understand why because if I could show you the picture I’m using for her, you can see she’s not a shrinking violet.

Nine scenes and nothing worked. They were all flat, boring, lifeless and I couldn’t fix them. Then I got this glimmer of an idea. I cut everything I had for her scene (AGAIN!) and started over. And she came to life. She hates where she is right now and she’s not hiding her displeasure. Her emotion is giving the scene the life it needed.

More importantly, though, Liza’s personality is coming through loud and clear. I finally feel as if I have a handle on her.

Of course, I’m not done writing this yet, but it feels better than any of the other attempts. Another few pages and the scene will be done and I’ll know if it held together to the end. Keep your fingers crossed for me.