Katy McDermott

Creating believable characters is hard enough without something on which to base those characters. Often, for me, it’s names. Names can come from anywhere – the phone directory, old yearbooks, novels I’ve read, former acquaintances or current co-workers (but I do try to change the names enough so that I don’t get sued!) 

Most times, though, they just pop into my head. I may have a vague – very vague – idea of who a character will “be” in a book, but picking a name helps me crystallize that character. Sometimes, admittedly, I think of cliches – this one’s a grande dame, this one’s a crusty local – what would they be called? Often the name changes after I develop a character profile (one suspect in Meeting Murder went through 3 name changes before I was satisfied!) – but that first name I think of lets me get to know him or her.

A character’s ethnicity sometimes helps, too. For example, I knew I wanted my main character, Laurie Kilcannon, to have an Irish-American background, but I also wanted to avoid the “Bridget O’Leary” stereotype. “Laurie” came from a passage about an old song in a book I read long ago; “Kilcannon” came from “Irish-izing” the last name of a high school classmate… A Japanese-American character’s name, on the other hand, presented itself to me fully formed – and with an appropriate nickname to boot.

At the moment, I’m working on character profiles for my second book. For one fellow, I have a name and nothing else. I look at the blank space beneath the name I’ve invented for him and think “Who are you?” I know he’ll tell me, in time. Maybe his name will change, maybe it won’t – but the name’s a pretty good place to start…

For good or ill, I got to see pharmaceutical launch meetings from both sides. As a meeting planner, I learned what goes on behind the scenes; as a drug rep during the 1990s heyday of Big Pharma, I saw up close both the decadence and the drudgery that characterized your average product launch.

It was a perfect perspective for writing Meeting Murder. My original inspiration (which takes such a deadly turn!) came from a pharma exec who showed up (having slept through both his alarm clock and the hotel wake-up call) literally minutes before a speech.

Added to that, I was able to draw on my experiences of overcrowded district breakout meetings, yawn-inducing workshops, and the dreaded role plays (drug reps out there will know what I’m talking about!) that make events like the theme dinner featured in Meeting Murder such a relief.

I’m grateful to have had both worlds to inform my writing – and to all the drug reps out there who’ve had deep sea fishing excursions cancelled on launch meetings, my apologies! (Read the book and you’ll see what I mean… believe me, you’ll understand…)

Okay, I admit it – I’m not high-tech. I don’t own a Blackberry. I don’t take my laptop to the beach. Heck, I don’t even write on my laptop. I write – dare I say it? – in longhand. Old-school – that’s me. A notebook and a blue-ink, medium point PaperMate are the tools of my trade…

Recently, however, I realized that I was having trouble (well, more trouble than usual) figuring out “what happens when” in my new book. (I’m doing the character profiles and the plot outline simultaneously.) My husband Jack, knowing what a confirmed Luddite I am, suggested I try a nice, low-tech whiteboard and some dry erase markers. I agreed, but I wasn’t quite sure how they would help me…

After spending an enjoyable half-hour or so at my local office supply superstore (feeling a bit like Goldilocks: “this one’s too big, this one’s too small…”), I found the perfect whiteboard for me. And now that I have every chapter heading of the new book listed there, with the high points of the story in their appropriate places, I can say without reservation: Jack, you were right. (You still have to take out the trash, though.)

So now I go back and forth between my whiteboard and notebook, and I find it much easier to manage the story’s pacing. At the moment, my trusty board still has far too much white space for my liking. But that’ll change…

One thing I learned in the course of writing Meeting Murder was the importance of creating detailed character profiles. Not just what they look like – what they are like. Each character’s emotional history. There was one character I didn’t do that with in Meeting Murder, and his words and actions just didn’t ring true until I did.

The bonus for me as a mystery writer is that as I develop these character profiles, I discover new paths to go down, new plot twists, new suspects, new motives. Readers will never see these profiles – but they’re invaluable to me.

I was comforted and reassured when I read a novel recently (a best seller!) by a writer whose early work, while good, lacked a certain confidence, a willingness to tackle a different world from the one she knew so intimately. My first book focuses on meeting planning and pharmaceuticals – worlds I know. My second will concern itself with many things and many types of people that I don’t know. Yet. Only the two main characters from Meeting Murder will move on to the next book…

I already know who gets murdered in the next novel, and I know who the killer is. I know the motive, and even some of the clues and red herrings. But it’s the character profiles that will help me tell a cohesive – and hopefully compelling – story. It’s the character profiles that will tell me who these people truly are, and where the story needs to go.

After many years, lots of rewrites, and a great deal of frustration, Meeting Murder is now available for ordering (just click on the cover art at right if you’re interested – and I hope you are!) Published at last…

It’s an odd feeling. I know this story so well. These characters are so real to me, but they’ve lived until now only in my head and on my messy notebook pages. As of today, anyone who wants can get to know them too. I don’t have kids, but I imagine it’s a little like sending your child off to school for the first time – relief and trepidation in equal parts!

I wonder what will happen now? Fingers crossed…