Creating and Connecting with Characters

In case you missed it, the last couple weeks I've been taking a look behind the scenes of my first novel, Waiting at Jimmy's. I've shared about where the inspiration for the story came from and about the thought I put into the setting.This week, I want to talk a little about characters. One of my favorite authors, Erynn Mangum, has a line as part of her bio on her first book a line that says, "While [this book] is not strictly autobiographical, let's just say that Erynn can relate."I'm going to second that statement. I am not Clara Evans. Clara Evans is not me.However, I can relate to a lot of the things that Clara does and experiences, but she also has traits and characteristics that are very different from my own. Which is what makes writing her fun. She thinks differently than me at times, so I get to stretch my imagination to try to figure out what her opinion or reaction would be. That's the truly fun part of writing-getting to experience and explore the way other people think.That's true when I'm writing Clara Evans, but it's even more so when I'm writing her friends and family. I get to imagine what life is like as all these different people that I've created.And I have created them. The other characters in Waiting at Jimmy's are my creations. The individual characters are not based on a single person, but I see traits of all my favorite people coming out in my unique cast of characters.More than anything though, I wanted Clara and her friends to be characters other people could relate to as they read. Which character did you relate to the most in this book? What characters do you relate to the most in other books?