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My Made-Up Characters Have Untold Secrets
…Because secrets are how I make them seem real
Early on in my new novel, Fierce Little Thing, the book’s middle-aged protagonist, Saskia, reunites with Issy, one of her childhood best friends. That’s a nice way of putting it; Issy actually kicks down Saskia’s door. When you’ve been friends as long as they have — since you were twelve — you know when that level of drama is called for. But there’s another, more specific reason Issy is motivated to get to Saskia as quickly as she can — beyond wanting to make sure Saskia, who’s a shut-in, is okay. It’s a reason I thought long and hard about, wrote notes to myself about, and even researched — and I’m here to tell you right now that when you read the book, you won’t find anything about it written on the page (but you will at the end of this article!). No, Issy’s motivation for kicking down Saskia’s door is a hidden secret in a book chock full of ones that will be exposed, and there’s a reason for that. Issy’s is a shadow secret that keeps the plot pumping, like a blood cell shooting through the very heart of the book.
Fierce Little Thing is about five childhood friends — including Saskia and Issy — who are raised together on a commune. There are two strands to the novel: the past, which spans the years from when the kids are twelve until they’re fifteen; and the present…
