I was overhauling the second half of my script the other day,("TAKING THE RAP" which I have renamed "ANGEL'S ALLEY"--like my series) and I noticed something: every single one of my characters--ok, half of my characters--in each script has a strong resemblance to somebody I know. And the really scary part? Some of these half are related to me. For example:
NICK CALLAHAN-my cousin Collin. Now, while I don't think Collin would ever knock somebody's lights out any time he wanted to, I can see him saying quite a few of these things if he happened to be in the context of a play. Plus, it's kind of fun to make him hide under something so he doesn't get caught--because I could totally see him doing that.
ASH VALERIO-my brother Ian. Yes, this is the same Ash who was in Rap and Spider's Web, but I've fixed him a little bit. His name is now Alessandro Salvatori Horatio Valerio(oh, the things I do to characters I like!) and he changed it to Ash(A.S.H.). Ian never says anything unless it's worth saying, like Ash. When he does speak, it's in as few words as possible, like Ash. If anyone is doing something wrong, he doesn't exactly call them up to the carpet, but he does point it out--like Ash.
DUTCH KELLY-my brother Orihah. This is the most perfect parallel in the whole bunch. Dutch talks like Orihah, Dutch acts like Orihah, Dutch probably even thinks like Orihah. I was in the car with him the other day and the antics he was pulling were so reminiscent of Dutch I about died. Granted, Dutch would never be in a car with automated windows, because there were not automated windows in 1942, but still.
JULIA MORENO-my sister Alisse. This girl is the sweetest little woman I have ever known. She's got spunk, but she also has a strong moral compass, and if anybody she knows is in trouble she goes out of her way to help them. That's Julia. That's my sister.
There's more, but after those four it just gets complicated, because the rest of these characters turn into mishmashes of other peoples personalities and that's really too complicated to go into unless you've got about two hours, lots of paper and pens or fifteenish pages of screen room on the computer. Not of which I have.
Sometimes, I really love being a writer.
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