The Characters We Build...

One of the best parts about writing is getting to create new worlds, new people, new adventures. Sometimes it’s wrapping the best qualities of people you’ve loved into a character who will live on forever inside a book. And yes… sometimes it’s taking those not-so-pleasant traits and turning them into a villain. (What? It’s therapeutic. Lol.)

I’ve always been a daydreamer. Probably to the mild aggravation of others. But it’s never been about escaping reality. It’s about expanding it.

Movies and books have always felt like adventures to me. Some people chase adrenaline by hiking mountains or skydiving. Others book cruises or climb cliffs.

My thrill comes from romance stories - reading or writing.

There’s nothing better than getting lost in a good story - at least not for me. And writing? Writing is an entirely different kind of adventure. Instead of stepping into someone else’s world, I get to build one. I get to create a place where someone else can disappear for a few hours and feel something deeply.

But my favorite part - the part that means the most - is this:

I get to preserve people.

When I take the kindness of one person, the humor of another, the resilience of someone who shaped me, and weave those traits into a character, they become something permanent. They live beyond a single moment in time. They live on in dialogue, in choices, in love stories.

Writing, for me, is a way of honoring the people who have mattered.

It’s how I say, You changed me. You shaped me. You were here.

And maybe that’s the real magic of storytelling.

We don’t just create fictional worlds.

We immortalize the pieces of real ones that meant the most.