Are You Brea? No ... Writers aren't Their Characters
I was watching that little promo clip you see On-Demand for other channels and programs. Writer and director Ed Burns was on promoting his new independent film Newlyweds . The host asked him if his hero was based on himself. He said (and I'm paraphrasing), he rarely writes about himself through his characters. He typically bases his characters on his friends or people he knows. Since I have been asked if I'm Brea, I thought this would make a good blog topic. What Burns said is most commonly the case. Good character development can and should be based on people you know or watch enough to know their gestures and habits. A model to base a character on helps define the character in the writer's mind. It also informs the character's behaviors and actions. I regularly base my characters on people I've met over the years or favorite actors or actresses (particularly if it's a screenplay) to use as a model to help me figure out how they would say something or how the...