By age, who is your youngest character? Oldest?

Youngest character is baby Matthew. He’s the half-brother of a main character, and he cries a lot. He’s only a few weeks old. Oldest character? That would be Mama Lee. She’s been recycled through a few WIPs, but she’s an old Southern black woman whose voice sounds like music when she talks.

How about “youngest” and “oldest” in terms of when you created them?

Now we’re digging. Going WAY back! The first book I tried to write without using “real” people (meaning–someone I knew, or a celebrity) had a character named Sydney. She was a pretty mixed girl with long curly hair and light skin and green eyes. She didn’t think she was pretty. I created her back in about 1995 or 1996 and I only used her in one WIP. The youngest character I created in terms of when I created her… I can’t even remember her name right now. Let’s call her “Jade.” Seeing as she’s very new, I don’t know a whole lot about her, except that she HATES cooking. Hates. It. She’s also the first fully black main character I’ve created. I’m looking forward to getting to know her. And I’m really digging the name Jade, so that may stick. 🙂

I’ve really dropped the ball on this, haven’t I? Well, I’m back in the saddle for now. So for all three of you who’s reading this, here goes!

Tell us about one of your first stories/characters!

Most of my very first stories and characters were based on real people. OK, they WERE real people–namely, my friends, or people I wanted to be my friends. The first story I wrote was in a Michael Jackson notebook. I was in sixth grade, and it was a story about myself and a bunch of classmates getting stuck in a haunted house. I sat at the table and wrote it in such a short amount of time.

In eighth grade, I wrote stories about my friends and our crushes and called it As The Bell Rings (which I think is the name of a real show now). These stories were written in play form, not prose, and were simple sheets of notebook paper stapled together. Most of the writing I did after that was in play form, especially if I’d somehow inserted myself in the story. And I almost always did.

During high school, most of my writing was an early form of fan-fic, only starring my friends and me along with New Kids on the Block and the Mousketeers from the 1990s MMC. I was always with Joe, Jon, or Ricky Luna. Some of them, my friends and I told verbally over super long phone conversations. Others, I wrote on my own. I wrote all those stories in these 100 page notebooks I got from the school store for 50¢ each. The only non-play one I remember writing was one called The Paperboy.

I wish I still had them.

I didn’t start writing stories with people I actually made up until I got to college. I’d stay up all hours, just writing. Longhand! I have an unfinished novel in the biggest binder ever. There’s even a paper on the front that says “Ronni’s Big Ass Notebook.”

I have loads of stories now. MANY false starts. A couple of finished ones that will never see the light of day (again). But that first one, that haunted house one, is what seems to have started it all.

How do you come up with names for characters (and for places if you’re writing about fictional places)?

Character names. This one is a major one for me. If I don’t have the right name for my main characters, I can’t write the book. I spend a lot of time trying to get the right name for the main character. Everyone else is pretty easy.

Years ago, I worked at a financial services company, and I used to enter lots of data. Applications. I saw loads of names that way–street names, people names, city names. It was a great resource for information. Now, I use baby name books, I listen to songs, I get inspiration from other books, or people. I keep a list of Possible Character Names every time I hear something I like.

Names of fictional places comes a LOT easier. Every once in a while I have to ask people for help or ideas, but for the most part, I can make up a town/street/school name with no problem. I have a lot of fun doing that, actually. 🙂