Monday, May 5, 2008

Where do our characters spring from?

All cats are not created equal. While Cyrus was a quiet cat, the dignified, strong and silent type, Musetta is a little loudmouth. In fact, since we were just away for a week, she's been quite chatty. Some would say demanding. And last night, I realized something. More than the barristas at the local 1369 and Peet's coffeehouses, Musetta is the model for my spunky punk rocker Violet. ("Thank God she can't dye her hair purple," says my husband.) After all, my heroine, Theda, is often prompted into action by those early morning calls... sound familiar?

Speaking of cats; this is just too weird. The following, however, makes sense.

2 comments:

Caroline said...

I love it that the cat is the basis of one of your characters! We writers write about what moves us--and a lot of the time it's our animal companions. (Pets seems too slight a word, doesn't it?)

Caroline

Clea Simon said...

Yes it does! Animal companions is much more accurate, and Musetta is a little muse. I think what clued me in was I kept thinking of Violet as tiny but forceful. Does Minnie show up in any of your human characters, do you think?