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The creation of a character is one of the more personal things that a writer ever does.

It cuts across all genres. Who is this person? How do they drive the plot? What’s the storyline that drapes around them?

Why do they matter?

Character Studies and Reviews

Any writer who tells you that they put nothing of themselves into their characters is either lying or not really making characters. They may be making mouthpieces to further an agenda.

Or they may be creating stick figures to hang a plot on. They might be impatient and looking to cut to the chase without all of the preliminary bullshit.

But there is always going to be something or other there. If you are writing people with depth and imagination, and you want them to be real, then your own experiences are going to inform them.

And, in a way, that’s why sensitivity readers matter. I am a middle-aged Jewish woman from the northeastern United States. And so, by definition, I cannot possibly be in the head of a slave from the 1770s.

Now, I do, honestly, feel that we writers can craft a character who does not have our shared experience. But we need to approach it well.

Talk to people. Is this believable? Does this person resonate with you? Are they respectful to your heritage, culture, and background?

Shakespeare wrote Lady MacBeth. Agatha Christie wrote Hercule Poirot. And so on, and so forth.

A character should be partly like you, because you inform and shape them. But you don’t have to be exactly like a character in order to be able to write one effectively.

Character Review — Elise Jeffries, MDCraig Firenze, Noah Braverman, Minka Lopez, Dez Hunter, Eleanor Braverman, Olga Nicolaev, Kitty Kowalski, Mei-Lin Quan, Nell Murphy, Elise Jeffries,

Character Review — Elise Jeffries, MD

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on February 24, 2022

Consider Elise Jeffries, One of My Original Characters

Who is Elise Jeffries?

She sprang, semi-formed, when I was first starting to put together Mettle. I needed for Noah to have a bounce-off person. I also needed to have at least one medical character.

Elise became a runner while I was writing Mettle. That was not my initial idea for her. And so, since I didn’t have a surname for her then, I gave her the last name of a friend who is a marathon runner.

Where Did Elise Jeffries Come From?

By the time I started to put together Mettle, I had already written snarky characters like Peri Martin, Greg Shapiro, and Trixie LaRue.

I had also written LGBTQ+ characters, most notably Ixalla and Tathrelle, in Untrustworthy. So, Elise wasn’t a wholly unfamiliar idea. But her execution was different. In particular, I saw her as being mixed-race but essentially identifying as Black.

The Past is Prologue — Backstory for Elise Jeffries

In Chapter 11 – Sb, Elise reveals that she and Noah have known each other for almost twenty years. That book was written before the pandemic, and originally took place in 2020. Hence they would have met in about 2000 or 2001.

Apart from her divorce from her wife, there’s virtually nothing on Elise’s history. Although I don’t see her as a native New Englander. So, she came from somewhere or other.

Descriptions

My first description of Elise is from Chapter 2 – Ti:
… a dark-skinned woman in her early fifties already seated at the table. Her curly hair sprang in all directions, barely contained by a red bandanna which accessorized a lab coat that had Suffolk County Morgue, E. Jeffries embroidered on the breast pocket.

So, she didn’t have a lot of description, and I don’t believe I ever really rectified that in the book.

For an actress who I would use as inspiration, I originally thought of Angela Bassett. But after seeing Star Trek: Picard, it was Michele Hurd all the way.

Michele Hurd in PicardShe has a good mix of snark and smarts, and feels like she could play a character who swears pretty much nonstop, but is also, most of the time, the smartest person in the room.

Quotes

“But what? Craig, in case you hadn’t noticed, the world is ending or just about there and we are totally isolated and that’s about the best way to describe our situation. We don’t even know if there’s anyone else out there at all when you really think about it. We’ve seen no one else in months, and we sure as hell haven’t heard anyone. So maybe wrap your head around the concept that you should cut one of the last women on Earth a little slack, particularly seeing as you’re not Prince Charming yourself. Go and grab the little gusto you can because God only knows how long we’re gonna be able to sustain this.” (Mettle, Chapter 21 — Nb)
Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

Relationships

Offscreen, Elise is a divorcée, already estranged from her ex-wife, Tony, for a few years when Mettle starts. She and Noah Braverman are extremely good friends. Noah has an idea that he would like more. But Elise is unsure. She doesn’t want to mess up an excellent friendship.

By the time Mettle ends, she still isn’t in a romantic relationship.

Conflict and Turning Point

Much like for the rest of the cast of Mettle, the conflict is a slow burn of how the world is ending as the metals of the period table start to disappear or undergo a transformation.

And, for the rest of the cast, the turning point is the same: the chapter where a vital metallic element starts to transform into … something.

Continuity/Easter Eggs

Much of the book takes place on the real street I live on (the street names have been changed). Elise’s home is an illegal apartment inside an old Victorian which was probably a boarding house at one time. The exterior is a house around the corner which is up an enormous, steep hill.

And the interior ground floor matches the ground floor of a house my husband and I looked at before we bought our home. That building is around the other corner from our home. As for the inside of Elise’s apartment, it’s fairly generic.

Finally, because Elise is a snarky professional woman, I can trace some of her origins back to Marnie Shapiro and even Peri Martin. All three of them could easily spout sarcasm 24/7.

Future Plans

Unfortunately, I don’t have any future plans for her because there are no future plans for any of the characters in Mettle, a one-off. But I like the character, so maybe I’ll give her a backstory one of these days.

Elise Jeffries: Takeaways

This smart, sarcastic character also loves fiercely. She was a lot of fun to bring to life.

Elise Jeffries — because doesn’t your story need a smartass?

Want More of Elise and the Rest of Mettle?

If Mettle resonates with you, then check out my other blog posts about how changes in the periodic table nearly kill us all.

Character Reviews: Mettle

† Eleanor Braverman
• Noah Braverman
† Craig Firenze
• Dez Hunter
† Dr. Elise Jeffries
• Minka Lopez
† Nell Murphy
• Olga Nicolaev
† Dr. Mei-Lin Quan

The Mettle Universe
Self Review: Mettle

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Character Review — IxallaNew Cover of Untrustworthy by JR Gershen-Siegel, New Cover of Untrustworthy, Tathrelle, Ixalla, Adger, Velexio, Untrustworthy universe

Character Review — Ixalla

Published by Janet Gershen-Siegel on February 8, 2022

Consider Ixalla, One of My Original Characters

Who is Ixalla?

When I first started to write the novel Untrustworthy, the idea what that Tathrelle was going to be the main character. But I fell in love with Ixalla. Now, Tathrelle is still the protagonist. But her wife became something more while I was writing her.

Where Did Ixalla Come From?

The circumstances under which I wrote Untrustworthy are maybe a little odd. The main idea for the book came to me in a dream, as some of my book ideas have. But initially, the only ‘face’ I saw was Tathrelle’s.

In fact, there originally wasn’t a lesbian relationship. But as I got to know the characters and the plot (and keep in mind, I was writing this during 2013 NaNoWriMo, so everything happened a lot faster than it usually would), Ixalla started to take on more importance.

The Past is Prologue — Backstory for Ixalla

The truth is, there isn’t much of one. Unlike Tathrelle, Ixalla just kind of appears fully formed, as if she was the armored Athena springing from the head of Zeus.

When the story starts, all we really know about her, apart from her being pregnant, is that she’s a schoolteacher. She teaches the Tenth Form which is meant to be the high school level.

Description

Without giving away too much of the plot of Untrustworthy, Ixalla’s appearance does change within the context of the story. When we first see her, she has blonde hair and blue eyes. But later, she has brown hair, and reddish eyes.

Oh, did I mention that she’s an alien?

Yep, Ixalla is a Cabossian. There are no humans in that book. None!

So, there’s really no actress who I can point to and say, “That’s Ixalla.”

As for how she sounds, the aliens in this book have very stilted speech—and that’s the idea. They’re aliens. They shouldn’t be talking, acting, or looking like us.

Quotes

“Student Number Five!” Ixalla exclaimed, “I will remind you of the rules. You are referred to by a youthful number and not by name, and there is a very good reason for this. It is because students have varying degrees of wealth and status. By using your youthful number designations – and those are your classroom designations, and not your actual numbers, which will come when you are of age – we can educate everyone, regardless of whether their parents are in the government or drive a transportation sleigh. As a result, you cannot speak about what either of your parents does, or even if both of your parents are male, or they are both female, or if they are mixed. I trust I make myself clear? Or would you prefer having the Lead Educator explain it to you again?”

Relationships

Ixalla’s main relationship is with Tathrelle. But as the book goes on, Tathrelle is essentially taken away from her. When Ixalla leaves, an authority officer flirts with her. But it’s nothing serious.

And even later, she essentially adopts two lost children. One is just called Student Number Seventeen, whereas the other has even less of a designation. I just called her the Unknown Girl.

Conflict and Turning Point

Even though she’s technically not the main character, Ixalla essentially picks up the main thread of the narrative. She acts as the main character whenever Tathrelle is off-screen.

Hence the conflict for her is virtually the same as Tathrelle’s—something is changing their world, and those changes are not for the better.

For Ixalla, the turning point comes when she arrives at the school drunk and yells at the Tenth Form. She starts off as an outsider and spectator and the kind of person who doesn’t get involved.

And then she becomes a revolutionary.

Continuity/Easter Eggs

This work has the least amount of continuity with my other works, as it kind of can’t. The characters are far too different and the scenario is way too dissimilar. Hence there’s little to no continuity with her, or cross-referencing.

One of the closest characters to her in another universe is possibly Elise Jeffries in the novel Mettle. Elise is just as intelligent and is also a not-so-main character who gets a lot of airtime anyway. But that’s about where any similarities end.

Future Plans

Again, without getting into spoiler territory too much, I can’t have future plans for this character because the book is, at heart, a tragedy.

But I love her spirit, how she goes from being domestic and intellectual to a street smart, resourceful, scrounging survivor.

Ixalla and Future Inspiration

For this character, I think the main form of inspiration I can get from her is the idea that a character can even surprise the writer. You may have certain plans, but it’s the character’s voice and the character’s desires that will win out in the end.

Ixalla showed me that she was more than just a place to bounce Tathrelle’s thoughts off. And once she had showed me that, she became three-dimensional.

Ixalla: Takeaways

For this character, perhaps my favorite bit about her is that she was never intended to be this big and this vital. But after a few days of writing her and Untrustworthy, the genie was out of the bottle, and she became more.

Ixalla—for when you need a revolutionary in your prose.Click to buy Untrustworthy on Amazon

Want More of Ixalla and the Rest of Untrustworthy?

If Untrustworthy resonates with you, then please be sure to check out my other blog posts about how an alien society all-too easily devolves into fascism.

Character Reviews: Untrustworthy

• Character Review—Adger
† Character Review—Tathrelle
• Character Review—Velexio
† Character Review—Student #17

Untrustworthy Universe
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