Ric—my husband
I SEARCHED FOR THE RIGHT GUYS!
I needed men I could fall in love with. Before you think I’m trying to make my husband jealous, I’m talking about creating the main male characters for Man in the Mist.
Before I began writing, I needed profiles for these men—appearance, personality, and backstory.
I started by creating their appearances.
I fell in love with them from photos.
I balk when people say appearance doesn’t matter when falling in love with a guy. Let me explain.
These two men looked physically close to what I had imagined for my main male characters. I snipped and pasted them to my desktop as a reference to get to know my new men better. Each time I viewed the photos, I carved a better picture of how I would paint with words the characters they would become.
While these photos on my desktop of are of real men (you may know them from their acting careers), they may look nothing like what you, the reader, pictured in your head as you read Man in the Mist. Isn’t that the beauty of a novel? The author gives enough details to formulate a picture of a character, but leaves the rest to the readers’ imagination.
From the start, I created their names and nicknames, ones that fit them. I cozy up next to each of these guys every day, so I want to like them.
I quickly created their age, ethnicity, build (height, weight, fitness level), hair (color, style, length, thickness), eyes (color and shape), voice, facial hair…
With their appearance settled, I still frequently perused these photos to better understand their inner character. As the writer, I’ll always know them better than the reader because to relate them to you, I had to know their story, motivations, secrets, fears, personality, strengths, weaknesses, struggles, body language, facial expressions….
Questioning my Characters!
With each scene I wrote, I asked an abundance of questions of these photos. Here are just a few examples from my inner workings:
Is this character normally clean shaven?
- Josh is clean shaven only because work expects it. He prefers facial hair, so he wears a slight shadow.
- Nic is typically clean shaven. He’s not confidant his facial hair looks great.
How would they smile for a picture?
- Josh has a full mouth smile. He stands tall with his arm firm around Raey.
- Nic has a soft, closed lip smile. He stands behind others and lightly settles his hands on their shoulders, holding them together.
What is their typical clothing outside of work?
- Josh typically dresses in business casual or athletic wear on his off days. He is engaging and energetic.
- Nic would wear a Henley or sweater with jeans and hiking boots. He is an engaged watcher but not socially awkward.
Do they cook?
- Josh would ask how he can help to prepare dinner. He will BBQ and prepares a few meals.
- Nic has an entire repertoire of meals he’d suggest and is confidant in the kitchen.
What do they do with conflict?
- Josh is direct and meets problems head-on.
- Nic is an assessor. He’s reflective and clarifies. He’s patient with the conflict process. (Note: there’s also a different man in my life—and no it’s not my husband—that helped shape Nic’s response to conflict. Ask me and I’ll tell you!)
Raey and I love both characters, Josh and Nic.
P.S. Send me a note if you are wondering about who helped shape any of the other characters.
