When Songs Inspire Characters, Where do Characters Come From and other Musings

I guess we’ll call this blog post Monday Musings cuz it’s late and it’s possible I could be rambling here.  I’m still thinking about inspiration (my post on Friday) and story development and how characters form in the writer’s head.

I know many authors create playlists for when they write.  Or playlists after they’ve written a book that are evocative of the story. Stephenie Meyer, of Twilight fame, went on her book tour and brought along a musician who inspired her.  I’ve talked to other authors who were inspired to write a book from hearing a particular song. Conversely, I read somewhere that Kenny Chesney wrote a song, I think it’s called You Had Me from Hello, after seeing the movie, Jerry Maguire.

There are times when certain songs really resonate with me. It’s almost like there’s a familiarity the first time I hear them, as if I already know the song, even when I haven’t heard it before. And I play them over and over and over until I drive everyone around me completely mad.

Anyway, where this is all leading is that a song that I love recently inspired a new character. I’ve been working on THE TARA STONE, which is the third book in my series THE FAERIE RING. The story deals with the ancient Irish Faerie Court and a character named Finn MacLochlan. Well, The Script’s song, I’m Yours, (YouTube video of the song at the bottom of this post) seems to perfectly describe this character in my head.  One stanza in particular actually inspired the addition of another character:

                      The day news came my best friend died

                      My knees grew weak, you saw me cry

                      Say I’m still the soldier in your eyes

So, from this bit of inspiration, the character of Fraoch O’Donoghue developed.  Of course, the writer of this song is The Script’s Danny O’Donoghue, so Fraoch’s last name is a little nod to the songwriter’s talent, who very conveniently, happens to be Irish.

I don’t know if this book will sell, but if it does - and if you read it – now you know a little secret about where Fraoch came from.

So you tell me: Where do ideas for your characters come from?  There is a post over on the Elevensies today asking about where character names come from  -pop over and see what responses they got.