When Life Imitates Art: Creating Characters
Have you ever "met" a character you created?
This phenomenon has occurred twice so far in my writing career. In my debut contemporary novel, Miss Match, a romantic comedy, I created the character of a self-important actor, Rick Byron, whose career was built on the shaky foundation of a megawatt smile rather than any discernable theatrical talent. In my mind, he physically resembled a hybrid of two "himbo" actors who began their careers in the '80s and who have had remarkable staying power, not just on the screen, but because of their respective tabloid-fodder marriages. The sandy hair, that killer grin ... and then, one night I caught an episode of one of America's most popular reality shows ... you know the one--where young people of limited vocal skills bend notes into pretzels in the hopes of winning a recording contract. And there on the television screen, hosting the show, was the character I had written.
The eeriest thing about seeing a very credible version of the character I'd invented was that I'd had so much fun writing Rick Byron that he made a second appearance as the fatuous host of the reality dating show that is at the center of my second novel, Reality Check -- written when reality TV was in its infancy and no one knew that it would take over the boob tube, thereby sending scads of professional actors and writers to the bread lines.
Although this exceptionally popular musical reality show might have been running at the time my novel hit the bookstores, it didn't yet exist when I created my character in both incarnations (as movie star and as reality show host); and, not being a viewer, I didn't see the real-life host until years after it was up and running. It was disconcerting, to say the least, to see a product of my imagination made manifest.
The second time I "met" a very reasonable facsimile of one of my characters was a couple of years later. A secondary character in Herself is Kelly Adonis, a tall, bald, gay, former Olympian diver and ex-commercial spokesman, now an aqua fitness instructor. While the novel was in the publishing pipeline, well past the copyediting stage, a substitute teacher filled in for one of the water aerobics classes at my gym -- and, good grief (!) there he was!
I'm wondering if there's a word for this phenomenon; why do I think it's the sort of thing Pam would know?
While we often draw our literary characters, and in particular the historical figures in our novels, partially from life models, what are the odds of it happening the other way? Have you ever had the same or a similar experience to mine? What was your reaction when you "met" your character?"
This phenomenon has occurred twice so far in my writing career. In my debut contemporary novel, Miss Match, a romantic comedy, I created the character of a self-important actor, Rick Byron, whose career was built on the shaky foundation of a megawatt smile rather than any discernable theatrical talent. In my mind, he physically resembled a hybrid of two "himbo" actors who began their careers in the '80s and who have had remarkable staying power, not just on the screen, but because of their respective tabloid-fodder marriages. The sandy hair, that killer grin ... and then, one night I caught an episode of one of America's most popular reality shows ... you know the one--where young people of limited vocal skills bend notes into pretzels in the hopes of winning a recording contract. And there on the television screen, hosting the show, was the character I had written.
The eeriest thing about seeing a very credible version of the character I'd invented was that I'd had so much fun writing Rick Byron that he made a second appearance as the fatuous host of the reality dating show that is at the center of my second novel, Reality Check -- written when reality TV was in its infancy and no one knew that it would take over the boob tube, thereby sending scads of professional actors and writers to the bread lines.
Although this exceptionally popular musical reality show might have been running at the time my novel hit the bookstores, it didn't yet exist when I created my character in both incarnations (as movie star and as reality show host); and, not being a viewer, I didn't see the real-life host until years after it was up and running. It was disconcerting, to say the least, to see a product of my imagination made manifest.
The second time I "met" a very reasonable facsimile of one of my characters was a couple of years later. A secondary character in Herself is Kelly Adonis, a tall, bald, gay, former Olympian diver and ex-commercial spokesman, now an aqua fitness instructor. While the novel was in the publishing pipeline, well past the copyediting stage, a substitute teacher filled in for one of the water aerobics classes at my gym -- and, good grief (!) there he was!
I'm wondering if there's a word for this phenomenon; why do I think it's the sort of thing Pam would know?
While we often draw our literary characters, and in particular the historical figures in our novels, partially from life models, what are the odds of it happening the other way? Have you ever had the same or a similar experience to mine? What was your reaction when you "met" your character?"
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