WRITING CHARACTERS AND FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS
Stepping back in time as I did when I wrote My Little Brother, I discovered a whole head full of memories of my own childhood. Events that happened which I’d tucked into the recesses of my mind.
When I was a
little girl, an event happened which I have magnified for the sake of My
Sister’s Secret and made so much more of it than it was at the time. It was a
fleeting brush with something that could have turned out so much worse than it
did.
I was never
traumatised then. Years later when I was writing about children, this memory
emerged to nag at me. Did I do the right thing? Should I have done more? What
if my silence had cost someone else?
If you’ve
read any of my books already, you’ll realise that I write character based
largely. Yes, the plots are thick with twists and turns, but the characters
create them.
My Sister’s
Secret is heavy on people because I wanted that complex relationship of a large
family, with different personalities kicking in. The ebb and flow of emotions
as feelings are hurt, or revelations come to light. They love each other, but
they don’t necessarily understand the reasoning behind every decision each of
them make. Their love for each member of their family can never be the same,
but it can be equal. We are human with opinions and idiosyncrasies, but no
matter how close, there is always something left unsaid.
I have a
brother fourteen years older than me, and two older sisters and the revelation
that I didn’t know every single thing about them, even though we are all so
close came about when my dad died. Events that happened before I was born. Why
would they be spoken about? They weren’t necessarily secrets, but events that
had nothing to do with me. Conversations my brother had with our dad, places my
older siblings lived before I was born, attached to memories I can’t share.
The shock of
finding something out that the others all casually nod and say, ‘yeah, of
course we knew.’
This is the
familial atmosphere I wanted to create in My Sister’s Secret.
A close
family isn’t necessarily pulled apart by secrets. Sometimes they’re held
together.
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