By Jenny Bullough, Manager of Digital Content, avid reader and pop culture omnivore

When you read a book do you ever cast the characters in your mind’s eye? Maybe it’s because I love movies and TV almost as much as I love books, but when I read, I can’t help but imagine the hero and heroine as portrayed by celebrities and actors, casting the book as if it were a film, to enliven the scenes as they play out in my imagination. Maybe it’s my immersion in pop culture but I have trouble picturing generic people, even if they’re very vividly described, unless they’re depicted on the cover. So as a kind of shorthand I sometimes end up thinking of a certain actor as a character.

Funnily enough, it has as much to do with personality as looks. Recently while reading a steampunk Western I immediately thought of Jeremy Renner (The Hurt Locker) as the hero; not just because he has the tough yet vulnerable face the hero needed to become real in my imagination, but because his character in The Hurt Locker had a tough outer shell masking his inner loneliness, just as the hero was written in the book. The heroine I cast as Joan Holloway on Mad Men as portrayed by Christina Hendricks, because she has both the lush figure and, as Joan, the no-nonsense manner the heroine displayed on the page.

I once worked with an author who would actually send me magazine photos of the celebs she felt closely matched – or even inspired! – her main characters. We would end up having discussions related to character development that sounded more like a Hollywood producer and casting agent: “I see this heroine as more Kate Winslet than Kate Beckinsale, and the hero is totally Rupert Everett not Daniel Craig!”Oddly, it helped us both through the editing process.

So tell me, am I alone in this obsession? Do you ever mentally cast actors in the roles of characters as you read or write? Let us know in the comments!

My characters disrespect my authority.

(Please, please forgive the pun).

To start with a minor example, when I had initially plotted out In Darkness Bound (which tends to be a long, involved process for me), the main character Chris was a bit of a woobie. He, of course, took exception to being automatically cast as “The Damsel In Distress” and empowered himself to take charge of his own destiny. He stopped being reactionary, which was one of my initial problems with him, and took an active role in the book. Very cool, but not something I had originally expected when I was getting everything written down and organized.

But the extreme example is Matt.

Matt eyed the cup in her hand covetously. “I’m pretty sure that coffee is in direct violation of the treaty we ratified last year on caffeine privileges.”

Tate shrugged. “Maybe I want to re-initiate hostilities.”

“That would be inadvisable. For months now my knuckles have been itching to deliver a sonic noogie of epic proportions.”

Matt started as an anonymous, unnamed one-line cameo in the epilogue of In Darkness Bound. He was supposed to show up, add a single sentence of closure, and then depart. All very hush-hush and mysterious.

And then I made the mistake of giving him a name. The shift from anonymous, shadowy man of mystery suddenly opened up a door for me. And instead of waiting for me to come to terms with his existence, he very expressly went against my inclinations and shoe-horned himself into the book. This may seem like an exaggeration, but I’m serious: he had no respect for the way I saw the book going, and instead decided he, and his assistant Tate, would both be a good fit. So, fine, I figured I’d run with it a bit and see what happened.

About 10,000 words later, I realized that things had gotten out of hand.

Tate sighed from the passenger seat. “Why do I always have to wait in the car?”

“Because you can’t shoot a gun, don’t have any projective psychic abilities and can’t run in stilettos.”

“You can run in stilettos?”

“A man’s gotta do what a man’s gotta do.”

While Chris, Vance and Simon remain the main characters of In Darkness Bound (and let me tell you, of the three, Simon was pretty much the only one who behaved himself during the course of my writing), but Matt’s insistence on becoming an integral part of the book adds a lot to it. He made a convincing case as to why I needed him, and I think the entire book is better off for having him in it. It was a welcome surprise. And maybe as a writer, I shouldn’t have all that much authority over my characters anyway.

What do you think?

Writers – any characters who’ve gone out of their way to make your life difficult in favor of the book? (Cindy, I’m looking at you with deep suspicion).

Readers – should authors make the token attempt to exert control over their creations, or is it more interesting when they run wild?

If anyone has an answer, could you please let me know?

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Christine Price lives in Edmonton, AB, with her husband, two cats, a slightly idiotic Anatolian shepherd and a collective twenty pounds of pet hair. She never knows what to say in biography-type things, but she will say that she really enjoys drinking wine, watching movies and reading. A lot. In fact, her wonderful compatriots at Carina Ppess are probably the biggest enablers ever.

You can catch up with Christine on her website or follow her on Twitter. She’d like more followers. Really. She’s actually very interesting. Sometimes.

When I started plotting out In Darkness Bound, I had this vague idea of what I wanted out of the project. The characters, as always, took charge of their own development. My thoughts on setting weren’t entirely formed right away. More a stumbling ‘hmm… underground lab’ feeling. As for themes, I figured that ‘imprisonment’ would be fairly obvious. But what else? As the plot started developing for me, I realized how well it fit one of my favorite-ever poems; The Prisoner of Chillon by Lord Byron. Trust me, I know how pretentious it can seem when writers credit their work to poetry, especially Lord Byron’s poetry. And yet, it really resonated with me. The ideas of slowly escalating madness and claustrophobia. The inability to cope with eventual freedom. The entire thing fit in perfectly with what I wanted.

But then as I started developing my antagonist–a particularly nasty lady named Dr. Donna Dalhousie–I realized there was something else that worked with what I wanted.

I’ll say right now: I am a huge film buff. I love the movies. Everything from the smell of popcorn to cuddling on the couch. And as I was watching one of my old-school favorites, I realized what else worked perfectly for In Darkness Bound.

Ladies and gentleman:  The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari.

Yeah. That’s right. Old school. Black and white. Dr. Caligari.

So how do you mix Dr. Caligari with The Prisoner of Chillon? Well…they share many of the same elements. Insanity. Growing rage. Isolation. Science vs. morality. And that’s what I tried to convey. The antagonist, Dr. Dalhousie, became far more real to me than a silhouetted face behind a pair of glasses. My protagonists Vance, Chris and Simon were easier to understand when I applied the concepts I’d so lovingly dissected in these two great mediums. As I really dove into my project, I kept the feelings that these two sources invoked at the forefront of my mind, and I think that the book is much better off for it.

One of the hardest questions to answer as a writer is ‘where do you get your ideas?’ And while my ideas for In Darkness Bound formed early, they were fleshed out by these two concepts that I loved. While I don’t claim to have the genius of Byron or the sinister directorial abilities of Robert Wiene, I feel that without these two influences, In Darkness Bound wouldn’t have been as successful.

It should be said that after IDB was finished, I re-watched Marlon Brando in the 1996 Island of Dr. Moreau. And, well… let’s just say it’s probably a good thing that I waited until after IDB was completed, or we all would’ve been in for a very different experience.

What do you feel are your greatest inspirations? Any bizarre movies that have inspired you or wish would inspire your favorite authors? Drop a comment and let us know.

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Christine Price lives in Edmonton, AB, with her husband, two cats and a slightly idiotic Anatolian shepherd. Though she probably wouldn’t consider herself a “girly girl,” Christine is in love with cooking and baking, and she has recently tried her hand at cake decorating. As a public service, she’d like to warn people about the potential threat posed by twenty pounds of rolled fondant and a slightly inebriated best friend. In her free time, Christine enjoys mediocre wine, good movies and even better books.

You can catch up with Christine on her website or follow her on Twitter. She’d like more followers. Really. She’s actually very interesting. Sometimes.