The most interesting character for me to write in either of my first two books was a woman named Abby Quinn who appears in my second Michael McCabe thriller, The Chill of Night.
Abby is a twenty-five year old female schizophrenic who hears voices that aren’t there and suffers from visual hallucinations and delusions. It was a terrific challenge for me, a gray haired male writer considerably older than twenty-five and suffering from no discernible mental illness, to get inside Abby’s head and make the parts of the story told from her point of view sympathetic, believable, and compelling.
What kind(s) of character do you consider this character primarily to be, or how would you describe this character?
When we meet Abby she is valiantly trying to overcome her disease and make a life for herself by staying on her meds and working hard to overcome the weight gain that typically accompanies the use of many anti-psychotics.
However, she accidentally witnesses the brutal murder of a young woman and is chased by the killer. The trauma of what she has seen brings back the symptoms of her disease in spite of her medication. She manages to get away from the bad guy and tell the local police what she has seen. But, because they know her history of hallucination, the cops don’t believe her. However, the killer knows who she is and is determined to kill Abby as well to rid himself of a witness.
What is a character from a published fiction story by another author you would compare this character to and why are they similar?
I’ve read several novels with schizophrenic characters. Most recently, an excellent book titled Lowboy by a writer named John Wray who, according to a radio interview I heard him give, actually had himself committed as a patient in a mental hospital to gain first hand experience of how schizophrenics behave and are treated. I must admit I didn’t have the courage to do anything so bold.
To what extent did you use any pre-existing character formula, template, paradigm, character design, archetype, or theory or principles of making or analysing character in planning, writing, and refining this character?
I did considerable research on the experience of schizophrenia. Initially I talked to several psychiatrists who described the symptoms experienced by their schizophrenic patients. However, what was most helpful was reading very personal memoirs of real schizophrenics vividly describing their experiences with this dreadful disease. Among the most compelling were two books, The Quiet Room, A Journey Out of the Torment of Madness by Lori Schiller and Amanda Bennett and The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness by a remarkable woman named Elyn Saks.
How would you describe the first chapter, scene or section of this story in one paragraph?
The first chapter of The Chill of Night introduces readers to the primary setting, the city of Portland Maine, on a freezing cold night in December. We meet another of my favorite characters, a beautiful and ambitious young attorney named Lainie Goff. Lainie is staying late at the office on this last Friday before the long Christmas weekend hoping to find out whether her boss, who is also secretly her lover, has managed to convince the partnership committee to admit her as a partner in the firm. However, Lainie doesn’t become a partner. Instead she is abducted and slain by an unknown assailant.
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?
When we first meet Abby, she is hiding in a dark closet in an empty summer house on a small island in Portland harbor. It is through her though voice that we learn the details of her disease, the murder she has witnessed and her need to get away before the killer can find her.
What makes this an effective character introduction for this story?
It allows the reader to get to know Abby and her back story in a very personal and intimate way. As a writer I believe it is important for a reader to get to know any major character in their own voices and through their own perceptions of the story.
What major changes does this character go through, or what major challenges does the character encounter and how does the character respond to them?
Abby’s major challenge is to fight the onslaught of imaginary voices and and unreal hallucinations while trying desperately to escape from a very real killer. Often she can’t tell what is real and what isn’t and this puts her in grave danger. She manages to survive but just barely.
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?
The most important minor character in The Chill of Night is a creepy Peeping-Tom named Andy Barker. Andy is Lainie Goff’s landlord and he ultimately, though unwittingly, provides the key clue that finally unravels the mystery.
Another minor but important character is a lazy and only semi-competent cop named Scotty Bowman who sets much of the action in motion by not believing Abby when she tells him that she has seen a murder.
What does the story gain from the minor characters?
Well developed minor characters help a story come to life, make it feel real and fill out the setting and give us the feeling that we are part of something that really might have happened.
To what extent would you describe the characters in this story as typical or atypical of characters in your fiction stories?
The Chill of Night is part of a series featuring Portland Maine police detectives Michael McCabe and Maggie Savage. McCabe and Maggie appear in all the books. So do many of the other cops and the people like McCabe’s daughter, girlfriend and ex-wife. Characters who don’t reappear include the victim, the villain, and the key witness, Abby Quinn.
Author website: www.jameshaymanthrillers.com
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