Who Have You Written Into a Book?

This Week's Topic:

Who have you written into a book? Be honest.

It could be someone that just inspired one specific trait in a character. Maybe your MC's ex has a weird obsession with anime, kind of like a certain ex of yours. Or maybe the evil witch wreaking havoc on your other characters is straight-up Mrs. Hawkins, your 3rd grade math teacher. Confession time – who's in your book?

This is YA Highway's excellent question of the week. Can't lie, I'm really looking forward to reading the responses on this one!

While I've never straight-out tried to recreate a person I know in a book, I have definitely had character traits inspired by people I know. The best example of this I can think of is a girl in my current WIP named Brianna. Brianna is a girl who has the ability to make people listen to her, and make people want her to like them.

This is the kind of girl that usually gets villainized in YA books. But while Brianna definitely does some things she shouldn't, she is a real person and her actions have actual motivations inspired by her own dreams, hopes, fears, and insecurities. And that's definitely because of being close to someone in real life who has the same sort of personality. My real life friend is a force to be reckoned with, but she's certainly not the devil.

I think that this character would be boring and one-dimensional if it wasn't for the real life insight of my friend. So, while I will NEVER EVER EVER tell my friend Brianna was based on her, here's a secret thank-you!