Sam's Writing Spot

I am a Character

As a writer my favorite part of the process is creating my characters. I can usually envision them before I give them names and personalities. My head is usually a busy place with all of them in there waiting to come out! I put a piece of me in each one, a little quirk or habit. It's like my personal trademark so to speak. I try to make my characters unique and throw things at them that you would not expect.

My latest character is a Shaolin Monk who is going to become very conflicted when he meets a certain British woman and develops strong feelings for her. As a monk he is not to crave physical or emotional attachment, in order to achieve enlightenment one must let go of all attachment. For my monk he has to battle with his growing attraction to a pretty female and try to keep his sanity intact. Throw in a really evil opium smuggler posing as a diplomat, a ruler who doesn't trust your monastery, and a country on the verge of war with the British Empire and you can see the poor guy has a lot on his plate! Will he come out okay and with his pretty female? Time will tell, he will be tested like he never has before and he will change as the story progresses. He has to be my favorite character to date that I have written.

And he came about from a picture that I got off of Google images. I saw in this monk's face hundreds of years of pride and work. He is carrying on a tradition that at one time was revered by the dynasties in China only to be burned out at one point and these fighting monks killed. He was not smiling in the picture, but there was some thing about his face that drew me in. I knew I had to create his story and give him his own persona. My monk is noble and compassionate but very much human in that he has feelings for a woman. He understands that his choices will affect him in ways that could change his life forever. So the question is, what will he do?

That is the question his story will answer in time. My answer: to find his one true happiness with the person who makes him feel alive. I think he is off to a good start, don't you?