Do Writers "Become" the Fictional Character They've Created as Their Protaginst in Novels

When I gave in to those who were urging me to write a mystery, which would be set in my hometown, there was only one thing I knew with what I thought was an absolute certainty. It would, in no way be autobiographical. Beyond that, I knew enough to know there were many things I didn’t know.

Included among what I didn’t know was that there is such a vast plethora of books written by “experts” on how to do it. That is why⎯until way too late in the game⎯I was ignorant of what one “expert” had written. “Developing a despicable villain is the key to writing an excellent novel.”

I’d always heard that one should write about what one enjoyed reading. That made sense to my naive mind. Since I get no enjoyment from reading about despicable villains, I started thinking about the main character. If I were lucky enough to beat the insurance company’s mortality tables⎯live to write enough books to call them a series⎯this would mean I’d be living with the character for several years. I’m too old and set in my ways to live with someone I don’t like, even if they are fictional.

It was easy to decide what type of person the protagonist would NOT be. He would not be a cartoon character, driven by an overdose of testosterone and ego. He would not be a person who believed he knew all the answers, was invincible, and on a mission from god to right all he perceived as wrongs in the world.

I turned to novels I’d read, ones with main characters about which I enjoyed reading. From this exercise came a list of traits pulled from characters created by at least a dozen different authors. The next step was to create a physical picture. Again, there was an effort to not create a self-portrait.

To use a clique if I may, the effort became⎯using physical features and personas from people I had known over the years⎯the creation of a character with enough intelligence to talk the talk, and with the physical ability to walk the walk, doing both without being arrogant.

The name: Joe McKibben. How did I come up with that? I’d like to say I did extensive research, collected a list of surnames, all filled with hidden meaning. But that didn’t happen. The name must have been observed on a bottle label after a long night at Sarah’s Irish Pub. The only research came late in the game, a determination that there was not a person with that name living in Hampton.

So what should Joe to earn a living? Many of my working years were spent in the company of members of the law enforcement community, local, state, or federal. From observations, and relationships developed over the years, it was felt that some of these men were a reflection of the persona I wanted the main character to be.

But I didn’t want a working cop. The day-to-day routine would be too restrictive. It would not allow the freedom to write Joe into scenarios where he had the freedom to pursue the mysteries he was driven to solve. But he had to be more than a retired cop who had moved to Florida, and chased retired schoolteachers. That’s why Joe is in the historical research business, the one exception I made of a personal nature.

I had a main character. It was time to start writing a story. But at that time, one of the most drastic things that can happen in a person’s life occurred. It became a constant battle as I began to write to keep personal conflicts, feelings and fears out of Joe’s story, to keep it from becoming autobiographical.

Fortunately, the late William Tapply had agreed to become my mentor. His guidance, his advice on to how to deal with these personal issues became invaluable. He encouraged their inclusion, but showed how to keep them within the context of the story as it was written, rewritten, rewritten, and rewritten, until he said, “Okay, you got a publishable story.”

With the first book published, a second being rewritten, and a third one underway, a question has arisen. Can an author write fiction without at least some visceral part of self find its way into the story? A friend, after our discussion about this question, gave me a coffee cup with the following inscription. “Life isn’t about finding yourself. Life is about creating yourself.” Is that a way of saying fiction writers become the characters they create?