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The Real People Who Have Inspired Some of My Characters
I was reading a fellow writer’s blog today, and he wrote a post about people who have inspired him along the way: both those who have encouraged him to write and those who have inspired the characters he has written. It was enlightening to read his thoughts, so I decided to share what has inspired some of my own characters in my novels. We’ll start with three today, one from each book. VIVI IN BENEATH THE MIMOSA TREE Some of you may know that the character of Vivi in Beneath the Mimosa Tree was inspired by my own grandmother, Eleanor, who passed away when I was in my twenties. I…
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Rubbish Relationships: Why Adele’s Grammy Acceptance Speech Rings True for Writers
The other day I was talking to my friend Jenny about a few pieces of poetry I’d been working on. I read her one I’d written over the phone because I yearned for some feedback. “That’s really beautiful,” she said to me. “It’s so raw and full of emotion.” When we write a poem or a story, we want to hear someone say something along these lines. It helps validate our writing, as it should reflect the depth and breadth of emotion we attempt to convey through the words we put on the page. Expressing the emotions we felt for someone in our past or recounting that feeling of letting…
