When I opted to do the Kickstarter to raise funds for the cover of Wherever Would I Be, I was able to include some add ons to the project. This is a way for the project to earn extra money. I spent a lot of time checking out other projects to see what was common – but a lot of them had things I couldn’t pull off in time (like character art and fancy printed versions of the book). I did include a few common ones – such as book marks and journals with the book cover art. And then, I don’t remember if I came up with the idea or if someone suggested it, I included an opportunity to have a character named after them in my next book – a murder mystery.
Now, I didn’t think many people would take me up on this – maybe a couple. Maybe. But certainly not EIGHT people. I mean…that’s a lot of people to kill off on paper. 😂
I did talk to a couple of folks about putting them into other books (you’ll see Jake in Goode versus Melville and Ashley in my Anne of Green Gable’s world story). And two others I asked to be on the detective team. Then – I had to write my childhood librarian and admit that I couldn’t bring myself to kill her off even on paper – so would she like to oversee the records department? ¯\(o_o)/¯ She said sure.
That left me with three friends to…well, off.
Throughout this entire process, I never once considered the fact that characters I completely make up become real to me – as if they were living, breathing people walking around. My writing bestie and I talk about characters like they are real. So what happens when such a character shares the name and features of someone who really is walking around in my life?
Cut to writing my first body drop with the name of a dear friend. This went, oddly, ok. It was easy to distance myself from that, I think – because clearly my friend is not dead. But when I got to the scene where my main character has to go tell this person’s mother? Yeah. Bring on the tissues.
If you do ever consider following suit on an endeavor such as this, there are a couple things I would recommend. First, put a cap on it. Decide how many characters you can actually do this with. Next, because this is a murder mystery, I did double check with the folks I planned to kill off that they were ok with this – especially with how they were going to die. I also ran their backstory by them. I wasn’t, after all, writing about them as they are – the character just happened to have the same name. Which, I also gave them choice over – how they wanted the character named. For example, if they are Samantha but prefer Sam – that sort of thing. One friend came up with a variation of their name so that it would only be obvious to those that know them that the character is named after them. (I did include a caveat on the Kickstarter add on that it had to be an appropriate name – I didn’t want a Boaty McBoatface situation on my hands.)
This entire thing has been such an unexpected experience – but it’s also been a really great one. The support feels great. And the excitement of seeing their names in print is something I can understand. I still remember the first time I saw my name in print, as well as the first time I saw my name as a byline. I can’t wait for them to get to experience this. (❁´◡`❁)
Ami Maxine 