Bringing a Character to Life

When I begin down the road to a new story, usually that trip starts with deciding who is going to be walking that road with me. I have to come up with characters to bring my story to life.

For my recent release, The Song of Sourwood Mountain, I started with a female character who was going to at some time in the story be a mission teacher in the mountains. The very first thing I do when I’m thinking up a new character is consider names, ages, occupations, dreams. Almira (Mira) Dean Covington became my teacher. Mira started out being Virginia (Ginny.) But a little way into the story, the name didn’t seem to be working. So I went name hunting again and came up with Mira. Not Myra, but M-ehr-a. Maybe I should have had her spell it with an ‘e,’ but I didn’t. A person, even a fictional character, has the right to pronounce her name as she wants, right?

Below are portions of what I wrote about Mira, her background, her looks, her personality and more as I tried to get to know her before writing my story. Some of the things I wrote didn’t turn out to be right for Mira, but most of what I share here did.

Mira is 25. She’s been teaching for five years in Louisville.

Anyway, Mira had hoped to marry her childhood sweetheart, Edward Hamilton, but he contracted tuberculosis. He went to a sanatorium when he was 19 and Mira was 18. For two years she prayed fervently for his healing, but it didn’t happen. He passed away at the age of 21. Mira felt as though her life was over. She and Edward had so many plans. Even at the young ages of 12 and 11, they were already sure they would marry and have many children.

Mira was the only child of three to live past the age of four. That made her mother consider Mira practically a miracle child. Edward came from a family of five children, but two of the children died at a young age and the other two were much older than Edward so that he often felt like an only child. He had always been slight of build and didn’t have the strength to continually fight off illnesses.

When he died, Mira was devastated. She had been sure her prayers would be answered. Edward had so many great ideas about what he could do. With her support. It wasn’t until much later that she realized that most of the dreams they had discussed or hoped for were his dreams. Her dreams too, she assured herself, but she had never contributed to the hopes. She had always just followed along, cheered him on.

Things are different with Gordon. Perhaps they would have eventually been different with Edward had he lived and they had actually married and set out on their dreamed about life of marriage with a houseful of children. Edward was a writer. That was something he could do even with his illness.

When Mira’s practical mother asked how they would survive, Mira brushed her off. Edward would sell his work. They would find a way with the Lord’s help. Edward had already had pieces published in a few magazines. They would buy a place out of town where they could have a little farm with a garden and a cow and chickens. Never mind that neither of them had any knowledge of farming or growing or preserving foods.

They were young and in love. Not only with each other but with their or at least Edward’s dream for their life. Mira said it was hers too. She wanted babies. She wanted to be a mother. She looked forward to nursing her own babies and watching them grow up. She was sure the Lord would honor the desires of their hearts.

But then, life took a hard turn. Edward grew ill, steadily declined and died. Mira had already been going to college. She gets a job teaching English, but the pay is poor. Mira thinks she’s facing a long life of spinsterhood. She has no dowry, no family wealth to entice suitors. She has never thought she was very attractive. She’s not ugly, but lacks the blush of beauty. Perhaps because of the sadness in her life.

What does Almira (Mira) Dean Covington look like?

Mira has light brown hair with a hint of red and hazel eyes that have greenish brown tones. Her hair is a little past shoulder length. She wears it in a tuck at the back of her neck most of the time. She’s a little shorter than average, about 5’2”. Gordon is a head taller than her. She has always admired taller women who seemed to show more power, more authority. She has nice eyes, alert and intelligent. She freckles in the sun so tries to wear a hat or bonnet when in the sun. That isn’t always possible once she goes to the mountains. Not sure why but there will be a reason. She’s small and slender but strong or at least thinks she is until she is around the mountain women who manage tasks she wouldn’t even think of attempting. Her mouth has a generous cut. Her face is round and she has dimples.

She wears long skirts and blouses. She likes the ornament of a brooch. She uses combs to fasten her hair up. She wears an apron while cooking but not while teaching.

She is even tempered but lacks confidence at times. She’s practical but doesn’t always see the easy way to do something. She admires the mountain women’s strength and how they just jump in to do what has to be done instead of wringing their hands and wondering how it might get done.

She sorrows with them when hard times come. She sorrows over her own sad times in life – the loss of Edward and the lack of a baby. She worries the Lord is withholding the blessing of a baby because of some fault of her own, something she has done or something that she hasn’t done. She loves children and teaching them.

She struggles with making decisions, fearing she will do the wrong thing, choose the wrong way. She likes to make people happy and hates if there is conflict, especially if she thinks it’s something she did or said that has upset another.

The picture up top helped me picture Mira even though this can’t be her, at least not in the mountains where she teaches in a one room schoolhouse made of log. No fancy blackboards or desks. But she would have worn a skirt and blouse like that. She might have fashioned her hair like that. She might have brought a dog in for a lesson, but maybe not, since she wouldn’t let Ada June’s dog come to school with her.

Mira came to life for me. Did she for you from reading this or from reading The Song of Sourwood Mountain?