#IWSG July–Personal Traits in My Characters

This post is for Alex Cavanaugh’s Insecure Writers Support Group (click the link for details on what that means and how to join. You will also find a list of bloggers signed up to the challenge that are worth checking out. The first Wednesday of every month, we all post our thoughts, fears or words of encouragement for fellow writers.

This month’s optional question – What personal traits have you written into your character(s)?

Like most writers, I do spice up my story with traits I’m familiar with because I have them. Here are a few:

• addiction to coffee
• love of dogs
• suffering from migraines
• Energizer Bunny attitude
• binary choices
• the 10-second rule (if you drop something and you’re older, you get more time)
• often have more enthusiasm than expertise (for minor characters)
• drinking Red Bull
• loving tech

But, I’ve learned stuff from my characters too, been inspired to try things I didn’t know about until my characters introduced them. Here are a few of those:

• drink coffee in the shower
• eat a spoon of instant coffee when I don’t have hot water
• read Peter O’Brien’s amazing nautical historical series, Aubrey-Maturin
• use a Mobius Strip to make decisions
• how life (sometimes) goes better with body armor

Here’s an article with more on what I learned from my characters.

Now, I’m off to check out what pieces of you-all have slipped into your books!

More IWSG articles:

Favorite Genre

The Power of Language

Am I creative?

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Jacqui Murray is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy, the Rowe-Delamagente thrillers, and the Man vs. Nature saga. She is also the author/editor of over a hundred books on integrating tech into education, adjunct professor of technology in education, blog webmaster, an Amazon Vine Voice,  a columnist for TeachHUB and NEA Today, and a freelance journalist on tech ed topics. Look for her next prehistoric fiction, The Quest for Home, Fall 2019. You can find her tech ed books at her publisher’s website, Structured Learning

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