How to build people and places

In this lesson, we'll explore how to craft compelling characters and settings by drawing inspiration from your own experiences. By the end of this module, you'll have the tools to infuse your fiction with the authenticity that comes from real-life connections. Something AI will never have!

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Building believable characters

• Drawing inspiration from real people: Consider your characters as reflections of the people you know or have encountered in your life. Borrow physical features, quirks, or habits to create unique and relatable characters. For instance, a friend's goofy laugh or a family member's infuriating habit!

• Personality and speech: Extend this authenticity to personalities and speech patterns. Emulate the kindness of someone you admire. Or, incorporate the speech cadence of a friend with a memorable accent or tone. Real people make your characters more convincing and multi-dimensional.

• Writing loved ones: Writing characters based on those close to you, like family members, friends, or mentors, can add depth and conviction to your storytelling that's hard to attain with purely fictional character builds. You already understand these individuals, so your portrayal is likely to be accurate, heartfelt, and all the more relatable.

• Using real names: During the first draft, consider using the real names of the people who inspired your characters. This helps you write them authentically. Later, you can replace the names as needed to fit your story and spare your loved ones the exposure!

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Examples of writing real people from Golden Boy

In Golden Boy, some characters are inspired by real people in my life:

• Barbara: Modeled after many of my mother's physical features
• Fiona: A blend of my mother's sisters (in character and voice)
• Fiona's husband: Based on my ex-partner (take that!)
• Nathan: Modeled after my friend's brother—I even kept his name!
• Rachel from the office: Inspired by a friend I traveled with in my youth, I kept her name too!

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Character-driven storytelling

Writing characters based on real people can also help guide your plot development. Imagine how the person you're drawing inspiration from would react in certain situations, this lets your story flow naturally. There were many moments writing Golden Boy when the plot would play out in front of me as I typed, my characters led the way, not me.

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Creating authentic settings

• Write what you know: Believable settings come from your personal experiences and places you hold dear. Draw inspiration from locations you're intimately familiar with or can revisit frequently.
• Engage the five senses in these places: When describing a place, consider what can be seen, touched, tasted, smelled, and heard. This sensory detail enriches your settings, makes them more vivid, and enables you to write them more convincingly.

Examples of writing real settings from Golden Boy

• I recreated a hospital room from my childhood battle with pneumonia for Barbara's opening scene.
• Other locations in the novel are drawn from my memories of Hainault town in London (where I grew up) and my university town: Falmouth, in Cornwall. Street names and descriptions are a blend of the two.

Crafting characters and settings become a blend of your cherished experiences, merging the nuances of different individuals and locations. This approach ensures that your characters are believable—avoiding caricatures—and your settings are immersive and authentic.

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Best practices to remember

Avoid over-description: While basing your settings on real places is helpful, remember that your fictional world doesn't need to mirror reality in every detail. Use the elements you love and remember, then infuse them with your narrative style and inspiration from other sources. You don't need to get too caught up in creating the place you know and love. Allow the reader some imaginative freedom.

Blend your muses: Try experimenting with building a character or place based on two people or locations close to your heart. Watch how this process enriches your storytelling and evolves your writing, while helping to eradicate bias toward championing a person or place too much.

That wraps up our lesson. You are now equipped to craft richer characters and settings inspired by your own experiences. Let's see it!

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Reading Material:

• Golden Boy: Ray Slater Berry