John Dean – Crime Writer

The origins of fictional characters has always fascinated me, particularly the extent to which many creators draw on real people as a starting point.

I talk to a lot of authors and many of them freely admit that some of their major characters are partly taken from real life.

I have no problem with that – I do it myself – but you have to be careful if you do it. You would be advised not to simply lift a real person lock, stock and barrel and drop them onto the page.

When I draw on a real person it tends to be just the start of the process and I will only use a small part of their make-up. Maybe it’s their physical appearance, big, small, athletic etc. or one or two elements of their personality, affable, irritable, nervous, irreverent.

From that starting point, creativity takes over as the building of the character begins. Ideally, the inspiration for the character should not be able to recognise themselves in the final version as the real person is subsumed into someone new and unique.

Can I give an example? Well, yes, I can – my detective chief inspector Jack Harris. He began life with a ‘lift’ from a real person, namely a police officer I interviewed several times, and very much admired, during my career as a crime reporter.

Harris is not him and he is not Harris, but my fictional character’s physical appearance is very much based on the real one – tall, muscular, strong-jawed, blue-eyed and with a fondness for hilly and mountainous landscapes.

After that, the character of Jack Harris became pure fiction but it helps me as a writer to have the real person in mind as I write.

Does the real police officer know he is the inspiration for Jack Harris? I would very much doubt it, I certainly never told him, and it is twenty five years since I last met him. I imagine he’s retired by now.

And what about the main character in my other long-running detective series, you may well ask? Well, DCI John Blizzard started with my inability to wear a tie properly (it quickly goes to half-mast) and was built up from there. However, the rest is fictional, based on how I would like a detective to be, operating without fear or favour in pursuit of justice.

The first nine DCI Jack Harris novels are available in a best-selling ebook format boxset for just 99p on Amazon. Key in Detective Jack Harris Books 1-9 at https://www.amazon.co.uk to purchase your copy.

The first seven John Blizzard novels are available in an ebook format boxset  for £6.99 on Amazon. Key in The DCI Blizzard Murder Mysteries 1-7 at https://www.amazon.co.uk to purchase your copy.