One way I get to know my characters as a writer
With The Myth Maker up for pre-order there’s been plenty of questions like “What’s your book about?” but today I’m going to answer a different question, who is your book about?
Detective Cassidy Cantwell is my main character (MC) and someone I’ve spent a lot of time getting to know over the years. You could say she and I have been through quite a lot together. She started with a different name and a different history, but like me, she’s evolved over time into the character she is now. We’ve grown up together, I guess you could say. I started writing her world when we were both in our twenties and I really came to understand her in my forties, while she’s just entering her thirties now. One thing that hasn’t changed is that she is not me. Sure, we both drive Mini Coopers, and we both love coffee, but she drives a Justa, I drive a Clubbie. She only functions with coffee, I mostly drink tea now. Cassidy never has to worry if her feet will touch the ground when she picks a seat, while I’ve watched an entire movie as an adult without my feet touching the ground. We’re different!
I know readers often assume that writers inject themselves into their stories, most logically by creating an MC in their own likeness, and I can admit this with other work, but not with Cas. I won’t deny similarities exist, but they are more by chance than design. I wanted to not just write a female character that readers would connect to, but also someone I could connect to. We laugh when we say it, but writing fiction is like spending a lot of time with imaginary friends, and that is what Cassidy is for me. A friend I want to share with the rest of the world. There’s other work for her after The Myth Maker that I’m excited to write and will be excited to share, and none of it could happen if I didn’t know her like I do as a complete person.
Besides driving different Minis and one of us being taller, the biggest difference between myself and Cassidy is our experiences. Being a mom was the biggest part of my twenties, while Cassidy’s twenties were all about starting her law enforcement career. I’ve been with my husband for twenty years, while Cassidy’s longest relationship so far is a rocky two years. These differences contribute to how the two of us would respond to different challenges and conflicts in life, and knowing how Cassidy will respond is critical to writing a character that lives beyond the pages. It’s impossible to write a character people will believe if I don’t know her and one of the ways I get to know my characters is through a game of Twenty Questions.
When I first started “interviewing” my characters I pulled questions from old celebrity interviews in magazines like Cosmo and Marie Claire. I especially loved the random life questions like what’s always in your purse or what was your prized possession in childhood. Over time, I developed a standard list and I’ve filled this out for main characters and side characters in The Myth Maker as well as other projects. The questions are not necessarily related to anything that might happen on the pages, but knowing these answers helps me understand them as people. Understanding them in this way helps me know how they would respond to everything from running out of coffee to wrecking their car, to hunting a serial killer, and knowing that helps me write them right.
I won’t share the whole list here, but I’m including a few of the questions as Cassidy answered them a few years ago. These were not the original answers – they came about after a history change that required a name change for me to pull off. When I changed a significant piece of her background, some of her answers changed as well, and this new character directed her story. There’s no spoilers to The Myth Maker here but it will hopefully give you a tiny bit of insight into who Detective Cassidy Cantwell is. And if I do it right, it will give you an idea of why she does what she does when July 8th comes and you can finally get to know her.
How do you feel about your looks? Describe yourself. Describe myself? Weird ask to start off with. I’m average, I guess. I’m average height and people would say I’m in shape. I work out to keep up with my twin. My hair is straight and brown. Nothing fancy, just flat brown, and it’s past my shoulders but I should cut it because it’s always in my way unless I pull it back and I pull it back so much I should just cut it off, but I’ve never worn it short. Maybe one day it will feel like the right time to just hack it off. My eyes are hazel and are the feature most similar to my twin brother. We look related, for sure, but our eyes are identical. I wish I had better cheek bones. My mom has great cheek bones that I did not inherit.
What three adjectives best describe you? Determined. Dedicated. Stubborn. I don’t need to expand, right?
How do you feel about money? Another weird question. How does anyone feel about money? We need it. I try to be smart with it because I didn’t go into a career that is going to make me a lot of money but I’m good with that. I let Jamie be the fancy twin.
What are your parents like and do you see them regularly? My parents are good people, but they can be a lot. Mostly my mom, my dad is more reserved. She means well, but she can be overbearing for all of us and that requires strategic planning amongst the siblings. We have an unwritten rule that no one has to deal with her alone, but I enforce it more than the others. Jamie, my twin brother, knows that if I have to show up for a family event, he has to be there as well. It limits how much I have to justify my career choice or answer questions about weddings.
Do you have siblings and are you close? Five! I have five siblings, including a twin brother who is 13 minutes older than me and counts himself as my older brother first. We’re all pretty close in age – two years or so between one to the next except for our youngest, Meghan, who came along way later than the rest of us. I mean, Jamie and I were two when Drew was born and ten when Meghan came along. I’m closest with Jamie – being twins will do that – but I probably spend most time with Meghan because she always seems to need a place to land, and I seem to always be the one expected to catch her.
What scientific invention really rocks your world? I should say something globally impactful like vaccines or antibiotics, but with my career choices I’m going to say the entire world of forensic sciences. Fingerprints, DNA, Luminal. All of it is absolutely amazing to me, and I get excited over every new tool in helping people get justice, even the ones that sometimes go over my head with the science. I might not always understand that part, but knowing how to use them to solve crimes is what I’m best at.
What’s your worst pet peeve? People who assume certain things about me because I’m a cop. I’m not a bitch and I don’t hate men. Also, tied with that, people who don’t use their turn signal. Why?
What’s your favorite food? Coffee doesn’t count as food, so ice cream. I’m not fussy about food. I’m dating a chef so I’ve had amazing meals, but I’m just as happy with a bowl of cereal after a day at work. If it’s been a shitty day or if I want to celebrate then my go-to is ice cream. Preferably chocolate ice cream with a bunch of chocolate things in it.
What’s something you hate doing? Let’s stick with the above and say cooking. Not an exaggeration. I really don’t like the whole process of planning and cooking a meal – all the prep and mess and clean up. I’m also not very good at it. I did once set my kitchen on fire and now it’s pretty much heat and serve meals, cereal, or take out. Although, I am pretty good at fried eggs. Not sure how that became my specialty, but I can do eggs and toast all day. With coffee.
What was you most traumatic moment in life? To date, the murder of my best friend when we were sixteen. I live with the guilt of not being where I was supposed to be to stop it from happening. I have to keep my focus on work when I’m at work, and I try not to let it become a dangerous obsession, but it’s never far from my mind. It’s a balancing act for sure, but I think I’m pulling it off. Solving her case is something I’m determined to see through but that’s all I want to say about that.