But do you like them?

Sara, from Taos, NM asks, “When you write a book, do you have a favorite character?” 

My own way of writ­ing a book is by end­less (or so it feels) rewrites. When I begin one of my books I real­ly don’t have a sense of the char­ac­ters. It’s in the process that char­ac­ters become more and more defined in my mind. They emerge. In that sense too, I come to know them and like them. The more you know your characters—ALL of them—and can put that know­ing into a text, the bet­ter the book will be. It is impor­tant, I think, to like even the unlik­able characters—your scoundrels, if you will—because that will add much to your books. Gives them real depth. That said, there are char­ac­ters I come to care about a great deal. I can think of many. Here’s one example. 

When I wrote The True Con­fes­sions of Char­lotte Doyle, I thought I had fin­ished my work, when my edi­tor (Richard Jack­son) called. “We left out a scene,” he announced.

“Did we?”

“When Char­lotte leaves the Sea­hawk, she does­n’t know she will be com­ing back. She needs to say good­bye to the crew.”

“You’re absolute­ly right.” 

Thus, the very last part of the book I wrote were the few para­graphs in which Char­lotte makes her farewells to the crew. But—as she was mak­ing her goodbyes—I too was say­ing goodbye—to her. As I wrote that brief scene, I shed real tears. 

Moral: The more you love your char­ac­ters, the more your read­ers will love them.