Ask Anything: Answers (2)
Jan. 7th, 2024 10:04 am #2 of responses to comments on this post!
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spiced_wine :
How did the (OC) characters in ‘Paradox’ come into your writing mind? Gradually, or did they just ‘appear’ on the scene acting in their roles and speaking their lines? (so to speak).
So I wanted to write Paradox almost ten years sooner than I actually did. I'm glad I waited because the concept needed a bit more weight than I'd have been able to give it when I first had the idea.
Claire was, for some reason, originally called Catriona and she was Irish. In the very early drafts I think she lived with other postgraduates, but they never really came to life as characters. I think in the earliest days she may even have been related to Tolkien, but I canned that fairly quickly; I'm not sure it even made it into a draft.
When I started writing it "properly", she began to speak and behave rather like one of my friends from secondary school, although I didn't deliberately set out to recreate that. There are bits of my own experience in the mix as well; that's hardly a secret. She also, on occasion, behaves a bit like my husband, which I didn't realise until quite recently. Anyway it was silly continuing to force her into a persona that made her feel like a made-up character, so I let her be who she was telling me she was. Once I had her voice and personality nailed, the rest of it was easy.
The first housemate on the scene was Theo. I knew a lot of Theo types at university and in my early years at work, many with a lot of wasted potential, one of whom is sadly now dead (he overdosed). I suppose Theo was a composite of all of them, and a fictional means of exorcising some ghosts.
I couldn't work out, though, why Claire would live with someone like that, unless there was some sort of pre-existing connection - hence, Harrison, who wasn't really meant to be much more than a side character and a sounding board for Claire. He developed XD
Rosie - I don't quite remember. I think I wanted another female character, and she seemed to "fit" with the group. People wonder how like Claire I am, sometimes, but the truth is at twenty I was far more like Rosie, despite studying a different discipline!
Luc turned up partway through the story, uninvited, and refused to leave.
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spiced_wine :How did the (OC) characters in ‘Paradox’ come into your writing mind? Gradually, or did they just ‘appear’ on the scene acting in their roles and speaking their lines? (so to speak).
So I wanted to write Paradox almost ten years sooner than I actually did. I'm glad I waited because the concept needed a bit more weight than I'd have been able to give it when I first had the idea.
Claire was, for some reason, originally called Catriona and she was Irish. In the very early drafts I think she lived with other postgraduates, but they never really came to life as characters. I think in the earliest days she may even have been related to Tolkien, but I canned that fairly quickly; I'm not sure it even made it into a draft.
When I started writing it "properly", she began to speak and behave rather like one of my friends from secondary school, although I didn't deliberately set out to recreate that. There are bits of my own experience in the mix as well; that's hardly a secret. She also, on occasion, behaves a bit like my husband, which I didn't realise until quite recently. Anyway it was silly continuing to force her into a persona that made her feel like a made-up character, so I let her be who she was telling me she was. Once I had her voice and personality nailed, the rest of it was easy.
The first housemate on the scene was Theo. I knew a lot of Theo types at university and in my early years at work, many with a lot of wasted potential, one of whom is sadly now dead (he overdosed). I suppose Theo was a composite of all of them, and a fictional means of exorcising some ghosts.
I couldn't work out, though, why Claire would live with someone like that, unless there was some sort of pre-existing connection - hence, Harrison, who wasn't really meant to be much more than a side character and a sounding board for Claire. He developed XD
Rosie - I don't quite remember. I think I wanted another female character, and she seemed to "fit" with the group. People wonder how like Claire I am, sometimes, but the truth is at twenty I was far more like Rosie, despite studying a different discipline!
Luc turned up partway through the story, uninvited, and refused to leave.
