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The age old
question. Is it the chicken or the egg, or the other way round?
But my query
is, what comes first, the characters or the story? This is a question as a
writer I am often asked. I always thought it was my characters as I believe my
stories are character driven, but looking back I realize this isn’t wholly
true.
Taking my
books one by one. Let’s start with Remnants of Dreams.
This one was
easy as the original idea was to tell my mother’s story. I was last to arrive
into our large clan so my early years were filled with stories, related mostly
by my eldest sister, of life through the difficult years before and during
WW11. Alicia, the main character of course is based loosely on our mum. The
last time I can recall her actually cuddling me was when I was really young,
perhaps 4 of 5, so this tells you a lot about her character. Cherished by all
her 5 boys and 5 girls, she was nonetheless not a woman to shower us with
affection. But, she was always there for us and I cannot remember a time when
there was not a meal waiting for me when I came home, when the fire was not already
blazing in the fireplace when I rose on winter mornings when there was ice on
the outside of the windows. Never was a woman so liked by her neighbors and
those who knew her. My one regret is that she never talked about her early life
or days before she met and fell in love with our father. There was a period
when my sister and I even surmised that perhaps they never even got married as
we had no tangible proof of a wedding. But we have this picture, which we
presumed could have been taken on their wedding day in 1914.
Now Mystic
Mountains was definitely story first characters second. I attended a creative
writing class years ago when I had barely written one or two full length novels
that had probably reached draft number two stage and the tutor at this class
gave us a task to create an opening scene that featured a character arriving in
Australia in the 1800s after being transported from Merrie England. That one
scene turned into one of my most popular books. Bella was the girl transported
for a misdemeanor against a man of the aristocracy, so it followed that Tiger
would be the arrogant Englishman she detested at first sight who would become
her allocated Master.
Distant
Mountains was a follow on. It was supposed to be the story of Bella and Tiger’s
eldest son, but somehow Bella’s newly transported brother took over and so it became
his story. It follows that his love interest just had to be a woman of quality
whose father was a bigot who would never agree to his only daughter marrying,
or even socializing with a convict.
I’ve always
loved Time-Travels so thought it about time I attempted to write one. Mine was
destined to have a twist as I sent a couple, Andrew and Liz, who had totally
opposing personalities back in time to meet The Laird. This Laird bore a
striking resemblance to Andrew and so Liz half fell in love with him. Now in
this book the story most definitely came first and the characters formed in my
mind once the story line was set in motion.
Travis, the
Laird’s story, followed. It just had to as I was also half in love with the
Laird, and could not just leave him there in the past without finding out how
things panned out for him. But when Liz’s friend Beth ended up back in his time
Travis was a changed man from the rogue Andrew and Liz left behind. So, story
came first as I had to get Beth back there somehow.
Now, Leah in
Love (and trouble) still has me puzzled. I can’t for the life of me remember
where this idea sprung from and can only attribute it to my Muse, who does tend
at times to go her own way. Leah’s story is the only one I’ve told in first
person, but once Leah had established herself in my psyche, what else was there
to do but let her have her own way and tell us about herself and the trouble
she gets in. Her real name is Violet and as that is a flower what was her
occupation to be but a gardener, hence her eccentric aunt, who taught her all
there was to know about flora, was born. Sean, her love interest just had to be
a PI or how else would she have been involved in so much mayhem simply by
working on his garden.
A Dream for
Lani was characters first. This was another one my Muse took control of. I knew
I wanted a shy, introverted woman who has lots of money but not much love in
her life. Ryan and his children provide her with all the love she requires—after
a shaky start of course.
Lonely Pride
is set in Tasmania. I often holidayed in this magnificent state in my early
days in Australia with my Tasmanian friend whose mother was one of those
characters that once met you never forget. But, I digress. A few incidents that
happened on one of my trips there formed the nucleus of this story. I guess I can
say that story came before characters in this one.
Maddie and the
Norseman is another of my Time-Travels. I was going through a Viking phase and
absolutely knew I had to set my story back in Viking times, and specifically in
the period after they had finished invading, ravaging and ransacking in Britain
and were in the process of becoming honest tradesmen and traders. York was the
obvious setting as it was one of the first towns settled by them. So, Maddie
and her Viking Erik came after the plot line had been established. I do have
another Viking story on its way some time soon.
So, there we
are, I really haven’t proved anything. Sometimes it is simply an idea that
appears in the first light of dawn and the characters have to then decide how
they wish to fit into this plot we’ve decided on, and other times the
characters rule and insist on going their own way. Whatever, you can bet we
authors love letting our characters show us the way.
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