A Guest Post by Nicola Warner
Obviously, I’m joking about the stalking. Well, sort of, but they do tend to plaster a lot of their lives voluntarily over social media, ripe for the picking. So, the next time you are struggling with a new character in your writing projects, log on to social media and search for your favourite celebrity (or least favourite, if you are in need of a villain).
In 2022, the world was invited to live stream the 7-week defamation trial between Johnny Depp and Amber Heard. There was a lot of dirty laundry aired, and it hasn’t surprise me to see a number of publications that have been inspired by it. Not necessarily the content, well maybe some of the content, but it has definitely inspired some strong new characters.
Even if celebrities are not airing out their dirty laundry, watch their live streams if they do any. How do they present themselves? Do they talk to their followers? Are they genuine? Authentic? Triggered by negative comments?
Borrow some of their characteristics and gift them to your own character creations. Has your celebrity been in the media for something lately? Have they been exposed for something? How do you think they would have reacted? Or read any already made public statements to find out!
Put your new character into similar situations to think how they would cope.
Creative writing is a lot of trial and error. Pardon the court pun Johnny! If you don’t like what you have written, you can change it, add to it, or delete it completely. You have that power at your fingertips. You also have a world of real-life characters at your disposal.
Take advantage and get stalking! Just don’t do anything illegal. 😉
Nicola Warner’s latest book, The Ego Effect, is available on Amazon from Sunday, 12th Feb
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