Origins of Fictional Characters: Creating Life on the Page

Abstract

ABSTRACT There are many perspectives from which the origins of fictional characters may be explored. In this essay the author draws from the voices of a selected group of creative writers who openly describe the manner in which their life experience and personal psychology play important roles in the creative process giving rise to their fictional characters. For some writers whose experience of loss or trauma informs this process, the ongoing act of writing is felt to be essential.