Naomi Jenkins, the heroine of my second psychological thriller Hurting Distance, is one of my favourite inventions. She tells a terrible lie for honourable reasons, and she doesn't care whether people approve of her or not. She knows that the trauma she has experienced in her past has turned her into someone very different from everyone else she knows, and she is both wiser and more ruthless than 'normal' people.
What kind(s) of character do you consider this character primarily to be, or how would you describe this character?
Independent-minded: that's Naomi's main (or most important) characteristic. She forms her own original opinion about everything, and is not influenced by what others think. This is very unusual - hardly anyone is truly independent-minded and proud of it, proud to be a leader/rebel rather than a team-player or a follower.
What is a character from a published fiction story by another author you would compare this character to and why are they similar?
Maybe Scarlett O'Hara from Gone With the Wind? She's the first person who sprang to mind! Naomi can be as devious and as strong-willed as Scarlett, certainly. And...well, I don't want to give anything away about the plot of Hurting Distance, but there are other similarities too.
To what extent did you use any pre-exisiting character formula, template, paradigm, character design, archetype, or theory or principles of making or analysing character in planning, writing, and refining this character?
I used myself! Naomi is how I might be, if I'd been through what she'd been through.
How would you describe the first chapter, scene or section of this story in one paragraph?
When Naomi's married lover, Robert, goes missing, Naomi tries and fails to persuade the police that something terrible must have happened to him. They say they'll look for him, but they clearly aren't treating it as urgent. So, in desperation, Naomi tells a dreadful lie: she accuses Robert of having committed a horrific, sadistic crime against her. She thinks that if the police can't be persuaded to look for him as a missing person in danger, she will simply have to convince them that he's a danger to others - then, when they find him, she plans to admit she was lying simply to spur them into action. The police have no choice but to take action, and they start to investigate. Pretty soon, they find several pieces of evidence that corroborate Naomi's lie - but how can that be? She knows she made it up, that Robert didn't do what she accused him of - so why are the police finding evidence that he did? How is it possible for a lie to be proved to be the truth?
Pick one of your published stories. How would you describe the introduction of the main character, or one of the main characters, in this story?
In my third crime novel, The Point of Rescue, the reader meets the heroine Sally at the beginning of chapter 1, while Sally is in mid-argument with another character. Straight away, through Sally's first-person narration, the reader is right there with Sally in her head, and (hopefully, if I've written the scene well enough!) taking Sally's side against the woman she's arguing with.
What makes this an effective character introduction for this story?
The reader perceives Sally, immediately, as being under attack and (again, hopefully!) feels defensive on her behalf. I wanted readers to be right inside Sally's mind, where she's thinking, 'No, wait, I don't deserve to be yelled at like this - you've misunderstood me.' Because we've all felt like that at times, I was hoping readers would leap psychologically to Sally's defence and root for her throughout the novel.
What major changes does this character go through, or what major challenges does the character encounter and how does the character respond to them?
Sally finds herself in a scary and mysterious situation: she is certain that a man she had a fling with the previous year is trying to kill her. She can't ask for anyone's help because, if she did so, she would have to reveal that she cheated on her husband, and risk the break-up of her family. So she has to investigate alone, and try to protect her life at the same time. Throughout the course of the book, Sally faces the challenge of trying to continue to live as part of the family unit, and feel connected, loving and loved, while at the same time understanding fully that, ultimately, we are each of us alone and we have to face our own demons with only our own inner resources for help.
How would you describe the most important minor characters in this story and the changes in their character, or the challenges they encounter and how the respond them?
Important minor characters in The Point of Rescue include Esther, Sally's best friend, who Sally does confide in about her fears and her affair, though Esther's character doesn't change much throughout the book because she's the sort of person who believes she has no need to change - the world should change to suit her.
What does the story gain from the minor characters?
Esther represents the unhelpful 'moral majority' position - she is no help to Sally, and just says things like, 'You shouldn't have been unfaithful'. She morally condemns Sally without trying to understand. Because my heroines usually defy conventional morality in some way, it's useful to have minor characters in the novels who represent the more standard (dull/judgemental) mindset - to provide a contrast.
To what extent would you describe the characters in this story as typical or atypical of characters in your fiction stories?
[See answer to the question above.]
Author website: http://www.sophiehannah.com/
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