Guest Post: Reyna Hawk on Character Creation

Characters are what take a book from "good" to "amazing". I always wonder how authors go about creating them. Do they take pieces of the people around them, or do they just come to be inside of their heads? I asked author Reyna Hawk to speak her mind on the matter. Make sure you also check out her website!

The Guest Post

Character Creation

When I’m in the beginning processes of writing a novel or book I tend to begin with a scenario or chain of events and build my characters around the particular events. I will decide in the early stages whether the main character will be male, female, or perhaps a couple of main characters. I will then build the characters from there. I will try to do a small outline for the character’s events as a guide; although I do not always adhere to the outline. From the start I have decided what the characters will look like and their personality types. I have to be able to visualize each character as a person, if I can’t then they usually either get axed from the script or meet an early demise.

Many times the characters will have attributes of people in real life that I know; whether this is physical or personality wise. I may place a family member, friend, or even my own personality or mannerism to the character. I have also put celebrity faces to the characters in order to be able to visualize them in my head as I am progressing through the storyline. I must feel some kind of connection or warmth to the character and have even gotten attached to some of the characters. This always makes it rather sad when the book ends.

Many characters have evolved into the storyline or into a completely different person. As I am writing I may become unhappy with where the story is going; so I stop and completely re-work it and possibly add additional characters to help the progression. I usually have a general idea on what will happen with each character. However, there have been events that came out of the blue, but fit the plot or direction of the storyline.

In my recent book, “Looking Through Blind Eyes”, there are several events that were re-worked numerous times. I don’t want to say too much as not to give any of the details away. I will just say some of the events I didn’t know would happen as they did until that precise moment.

Bio

Reyna Hawk is a 44 year old mother of one son and grandmother to one beautiful 3 year old little girl. Born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio Reyna has always loved writing and story-telling. From a very young age she was making up stories to tell her school friends. Reyna has an Associate of Arts in Psychology and a Bachelor of Arts in Cultural Anthropology.

Her newest book “Looking Through Blind Eyes” was released on May 17, 2012 and is book one in a series of three concerning the character Janie Valentine. This series follows the twists and turns of Janie’s life when she unknowingly becomes entangled with the Petrilo Crime Family.

Book two of the series is titled “The Reflection of Secrets”; book three is tentatively titled “Shattered Visions Haunted Memories” no release date has been set as of yet for either book. Other book projects Reyna is working on: Angels and Arrows and Family or Foe.