Where Do Character Ideas Come From?
Fans of the Loving Husband Series are familiar with Elizabeth Jones, the greatest love of James Wentworth’s life. She is the woman he sees across the dining room table in Salem Village in 1691, and her beauty and warmth capture his heart forever. But where did the idea for Elizabeth come from? And who came first, Elizabeth or James’ future love, Sarah Alexander?
Trying to figure out who came first, Elizabeth or Sarah, is like a chicken and egg question. On the one hand, you think the chicken had to come first because how can you have an egg without a chicken to lay it, but then you think it had to be the egg because where would a chicken come from if there wasn’t an egg to hatch from? You can’t have Sarah without Elizabeth. They’re too intertwined. Chronologically, Elizabeth was first since she married James in 1691, and James and Sarah married in 2011.
Writing the novel was more complex than following the chronology, though. My initial concept was for Her Dear & Loving Husband to be a completely modern novel. In my mind, Sarah came first because she was the character I saw inhabiting the world of Her Dear & Loving Husband. The larger background story that includes the Salem Witch Trials didn’t come to me until I decided where to set the novel. After I decided to set the story in Salem, Massachusetts and include the witch trials, suddenly Elizabeth Jones appeared.
A Frequent Question I’ve Had From Loving Husband Trilogy Fans
This is one of the most common questions I get from Loving Husband Trilogy fans: Are Sarah and Elizabeth the same person? Yes. And no. How’s that for an answer?
Obviously, the two women share similarities, but Elizabeth lives in the late 17th century; Sarah lives during our era. The differences between them are the differences you might expect from two women who live in two different centuries. Sarah was easier to conceptualize since she’s a modern woman.
I can’t say that there was one major inspiration for Sarah. For most of the characters I write, I imagine a favorite actor in the “role” of the character, which gives me a sense of mannerisms and speech cadence while I’m writing. I didn’t have a particular actress in mind for either Sarah or Elizabeth. They were complete figments of my imagination, which can work well since I can allow my imagination to run wild. In fact, I didn’t have a specific actor in mind for James, either. Every other character in the Loving Huband Series had a well-known actor in the “role.” Call it my Loving Husband dream team. But the leads—James and Sarah/Elizabeth—were completely from my own imaginings.
Elizabeth is more of a mystery in Her Dear & Loving Husband. We see her in snippets throughout the novel, and we have some sense of her personality, and we understand why James was so devastated by her loss during the witch hunts. But we don’t learn much more about her. She’s there in the background, a shadow that haunts both James and Sarah, but by the end, she’s relegated to her role as a memory.
The Inspiration Behind Down Salem Way
My inspiration for writing Down Salem Way came from the fact that I felt like there was more to explore about James and Elizabeth’s experiences in Salem in 1692. I wanted to know Elizabeth better. I wanted to see more of James and Elizabeth together, happy, content in their lives together, and I wanted to examine how it all fell apart, through no fault of their own.
Character inspiration can come from anywhere. It can come from books, movies, TV shows, music, people you know, favorite actors, or your imagination. My imagination was my main tool for creating both Elizabeth and Sarah. What I’ve learned from writing both Down Salem Way and And Shadows Will Fall is that you can go home again—at least when you’re writing fiction. I wanted to explore Elizabeth’s character a little more, and I have been able to do that by writing more in the Loving Husband world.
That’s why I love writing fiction.