The Me in My Characters
by Carolyn J. Rose Let’s admit it. When it comes to creating characters, most of us “borrow” from real life. And often we borrow from close at hand. We borrow from relatives, mixing Aunt Molly’s determination with Uncle Joe’s sense of humor and a young cousin’s ability to turn every recipe into a culinary disaster. And we steal from friends, putting Cynthia’s curls, Brenda’s expressive hands, and Joan’s eyes onto a character named Phyllis. We collect attributes from co-workers: the woman who pops her gum to punctuate each sentence, the man who cracks his knuckles after every phone call, the office manager who rules like a despot, the salesman who never turns off the smarmy charm. We pick and choose characteristics from strangers we encounter: the parents at the next table trying to find something on the menu their kids will eat, the bickering couple in line ahead of us at the grocery store, the angry man who can’t wedge his enormous carry-on case into the ov...
