As a writer there are many things you must do right to have a sucessful story.  I'm not even talking about being published or famous. I  don't mean that type of sucessful, although we all kind of hope one day we'll see our book sitting on a library shelf, but any writer would agree that to have a successful story, you need good quality characters. 

   I got thinking today about what a character really says about me.  In the story, they have to be engaging.  It doesn't matter if you love them or hate them or wish they had a labadomy.  You just have to write them well.   Now, we've heard it a million times: WRITE WHAT YOU KNOW... and that leads me to my experiement.  I wondered how well I really knew my characters.

 I've written three big pieces with very detailed characters and I pulled out all the main characters in those three pieces and that left me with a total of 19 main characters.  Sounds like a lot for three stories, but not really.  Not for an old pro like me. 

  Then I started my poll.  I wanted to see how my characters were alike and so on...  but what I found out was what they actually had to say about me.  It was kind of fun.  I recommend doing so, besides if you think you don't have time.  Do it during writers block it might get you back on track. 

Out of 19 Characters: 

15 have lost their virginity

10 are male

9 are female

9 hate their parents

6 were raped by evil creatures (scifi story)

6 were sent away to a special help school

6 are hiding in an abandoned building

4 were raped by someone they knew

3 were raped by complete strangers

4 suffer from depression and hurt themselves by form of cutting or bulimia

2 are prostitutes

2 are above the age of 20

1 is a movie star

fun times!!!  What do you think?