A Cast Of Characters: The Women

Perhaps one of the bigger challenges for a writer is developing characters of the opposite sex and making them convincing.

In the first book, this wasn’t too difficult because many of the secondary characters, both male and female, are kinda one-dimensional. They serve more in a supportive role. One exception would be Ruby Fisher, who I needed to make the reader love her as much as possible so that what happened to her had more impact. And just in case you’re wondering, her fate as the catalyst for the big fight at the end was sealed from the very beginning. Other characters in the first book, like Mike’s wife, the town council members, etc., simply helped move the story along. Even Audrey, who later became a more central character, was meant to be in the background at first. But then as I wrote the part where Jim goes to talk to Pastor Barnes, the idea of Jim winning her over just sort of happened on its own. So I went with it and she factored into the story more.

Amanda, Jim’s ex-girlfriend, kind of turned into a surprise as well. She started out as someone who left him for more of a party life, and later security, which turned into more of a Faustian bargain than she could have imagined. Writing her story, particularly her descent into a drug-addled shell of her former self, wasn’t what I set out to do. But like so many other aspects of the story, it just sort of happened and I went along with it if only to see where it took me. Despite the many options for Amanda, including an interaction with Jen, I didn’t feel that kind of drama did the story any good or moved it along. So instead went with having her become more and more strung out until that one lucid moment when she tells her neighbors what the Kings have planned. That set things in motion and then Amanda became sort of the catalyst, the last straw if you will, for the big fight at the end.

The poor thing.

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Two other female characters that stand out, that were a lot of fun for me to write, were Sophia Diaz and Dr. Elizabeth Richards, aka “Beth.”

Diaz could have been an “anybody” character, someone whose job it was to be the driver for Carter, and nothing more. But I started seeing potential in that person. The fact that the character would become a woman was as random as a coin toss to be honest.

But once that decision was made, Diaz came alive for me in ways I hadn’t anticipated. Now she’s not just a driver, she’s spent countless hours in the cab of a Humvee with Carter, becoming his best friend and confidant. There’s a closeness between them that, at first glance, could cause one to guess a romance when in fact it’s more like the love between siblings. But as Carter is her superior officer, they have to play dual roles depending on who is around. When it’s just the two of them, she’ll bust his balls, tell him when she thinks he’s wrong. In front of the troops, it’s more professional.

Writing the scene in Newtown, where Diaz gets shot but keeps on fighting, fiercely I might add, is where she really “clicked” in my head. From there I knew she was going to be a major player in the story, even if I wasn’t sure just how. I could go on and on about Diaz, but suffice it to say I really enjoyed writing her, which I think comes through when you read the story.

Beth Richards was another character who took me by surprise. I needed someone to help Jen through a difficult birth and having Jim or Audrey doing the job didn’t seem realistic. I considered having a side story where Jim and a couple of others go looking for her parents, one of whom is a doctor and again, it seemed too easy to be realistic. So I decided that things would play out in Newtown, where they would find their doctor.

Initially Dr. Richards was going to be an older, nearly retired male doctor. However I remembered some feedback I got on Aftermath from my friend Peggy after she read the beta version of the story. She noted that the women in the story seemed to take a back seat when it came to important things like the town’s defense. She told me this wasn’t realistic; real country women know how to use a gun. I knew immediately that, while it wasn’t intentional on my part, she was spot on. This proved to be an easy fix, and a couple of minor characters got a quick sex change as a result. Likewise, Dr. Richards would come into this fictional world differently than intended.

The idea came to me that Beth’s personality would be loosely based, in part, on a doctor I’d known when I worked in medicine. Very strong, assertive and competent when fixing broken bodies with a rapier wit and sharp tongue when needed. Aside from that, Beth developed into her own self.

The part about her living in the old morgue of the hospital was one that at first troubled me. It seemed a little too far fetched. But I think it’s plausible and shows an ingenuity on Beth’s part. As that part of the story developed, it also became something that, at first, I started to explore – the psychological impact living in such conditions, alone, would have on a person. In the end I decided it was too deep and didn’t move the story along any. However I hinted at it when she’s standing off to the side, seemingly and suddenly insecure, afraid that she’s going to be left alone once again. Of course Jim isn’t going to leave behind someone with her expertise, but in the moment, she doesn’t know that.

Beth goes on to play an important role in the story, including in Eric’s life which, again, I hadn’t intended at first. She also acts as a foil for Jim, putting him in his place once or twice when needed. This contibuted to Jim’s evolution as a leader, which I may write about at another time.

Like Diaz, Beth was a fun character to write and her development really surprised me in the end.

One of the great lessons I learned during the course of writing these books was, more often than not, how to let the character tell me how they’ll react or what they’ll do in a situation. But I also like to think that my ability to write more well rounded characters, particularly women. Which I think is important in any genre, but perhaps sometimes missing in the post-apocalyptic fiction world.