Characters

I got a comment recently on a story that I posted late last year. I was genuinely pleased and surprised to get a comment on the story - especially a positive one - given that it deals with dark themes like homophobia and workplace violence. Also, posting a furry story on AO3 is like posting into a void - it has a very minor presence there. Finally, the story drifts between drama and comedy, so I imagine it would be a tough read if one favoured one over the other.

One of the things that this person mentioned was that they felt like the characters in the story felt very real (I mean, within the realm of them being anthropomorphic animals).

I admitted to them that part of the reason for that is because most of the characters in the story are based on real people. I have found that the easiest way to bring a person to life in a story is to base them on a real, living person. I change the names and situations, but the voice and personalities are plagiarized from real, living beings.

I remember hearing a radio interview with an author many years ago who, when she was praised for the same thing (having believable characters), admitted to the same thing. She said that the characters in her stories - good and bad - were based on real people. She warned, "meeting me in person is tacit permission to appear as a character in one of my stories. The more of an impression you leave on me, the more likely you are to show up."

(For the record, it's this story. It's probably the most ambitious piece I've written to date, so I've always considered it more of a passion project than a story that's likely to garner broad appeal.)

Lyrically challenged

I was listening to Spotify while I was making brownies this afternoon, and one of the songs that came up also happens to be one of those songs whose lyrics I misheard for years.

For years, I heard the lyrics of a song by The Clash as "Rockin' the cash bar." I never really paid much attention to the rest of the lyrics and assumed it was a drinking song.

It was a long time before I learned that the lyrics of that song by Wild Cherry did not go: "... somebody turned around and shouted 'play that fucking music right, boy. Play that fucking music right..."