Let's talk about characters, shall we? Characters. Those people running around inside my head when I'm trying to write one thing and NOPE ... they ain't havin' it. They've already decided that they're doing something else. TOTALLY. Oh, I can assure you ... this happens.
For Blackridge, I mostly had it all planned out. Mostly. For the Double Club? Well, that was a bit different because I started writing one thing, then switched it up and went to another story but kept the first one and continued it in another book, which became Sitting in Sunlight, the origin story of soldier Dale Everett.
Still with me? :)
That's why in the Double Club series, it has its own title. It's like a spin-off novel, but still part of the series because the characters carry over into The Double Club III. Sitting in Sunlight happened because another character was created within me ... and that was Jagger Hollis. Jagger is one of my favorite characters so far in anything that I've written. (He's right up there with Morgan.) I love him because I stepped WAY outside of my comfort zone when I created him and made him entirely the opposite of myself. He's a beautiful character and is one of those characters who wrote himself into creation.
I won't give any spoilers away, but the real character I'm talking about that prompted this post is also in the Double Club. I created him to be nobody ... just a preppy, blond, throwaway jock character who didn't even turn out to be a jock. In fact, he became a MAJOR character in the Double Club series. I honestly couldn't believe it. He was intended to be nobody. Just a hot, good-looking athletic type. That's all.
He came alive. It was so vivid, I had to change his name to something better because I gave him a simple throwaway name. Not only that, he became central to the entire Double Club series plot. I didn't intend this and I didn't plan it at all. That never happened before. I think it's because the Double Club is newer for me. I've had Blackridge since I was 18. Those characters have always been a part of my life. I know them back and forth, in and out, up and down. I know what they like, how they dress, how they talk, how they act. Everything about them is a part of me.
This new thing happened with the Double Club because I had never written gay fiction before. Not even fan fiction. I'm not a fan fiction writer. I don't write stuff like that. I like to create my own characters and settings. I've read some fan fiction that's out there just to get an idea of what people like to write about and MAN let me tell you. Some of that stuff has a LOT of heart. People love their fan fiction. It's great! I support any type of writing if that's what their heart desires. Ya never know! It may lead them into different things!
Characters come alive and they do their own thing when you are a writer. I'll never forget something I read from J. Michael Straczynski, the creator of Babylon 5 when he wrote about the Vorlon, Ambassador Kosh. He said, when Kosh died in the show, it was time for him to die because he was ready (the character) for it. He decided it was time. I, personally, was devastated because I loved Kosh. He was a beautiful character, but when JMS wrote that, I understood what he meant.
Honestly, that's when I felt I had gotten it right. JMS is one of my favorite television writers. I loved his stuff when he was writing episodes of He-Man and She-Ra! When he said that Kosh told him it was time, I knew and understood.
I understood because ... they come alive.