All the Little People

One of the things that I love about writing is being able to look at and listen to family and friends, and incorporate some of their personalities into the characters that I create. Working in an established universe (such as fan fiction does) limits this to some degree, since the writer usually tries to adhere pretty closely to a character's original personality. There is some leeway here, of course, because every writer wants to make characters his or her own...and because many times the characters aren't quite as fleshed-out as writers would like them to be, which is the main spurring reason for many a fan fiction story. (This is relatively arguable depending on the fandom, but even some exhaustively-written universes, such as the Tolkien Lord of the Rings universe, can be open to some interpretation. I personally don't believe in radical changes to an established universe or character personalities - and I hope that shows through in my stories - but the very nature of fan fiction is to take the parts you like and leave off the parts you don't like and create your own story from there.)

Since writing original fiction for the last several years, I've taken to populating the edges of even my fan fiction environments with original characters. For the most part these are pretty minor characters, but I always find it fun and interesting to look at the people who surround me and build a new character from that. Usually, I take basic inspirations from names of family or friends, then build off of a very broad personality trait (demure, sassy, spoiled, reserved), and then branch off with that character's personality and motivations something that is - hopefully - believable.

There are so many minor characters in "1 More Chance!" that draw inspiration from the people I know in real life. Many of them really did start out as just names on a piece of paper, but over the course of the story have become their own individual entities. Here's a list of some of them:

Satonaka Kazunori and Ryoko (Chie's grandfather and deceased grandmother): Married couple and friends in Japan, who were very hospitable and welcoming the last time I was there.
Satonaka Hitoshi and Hiroko (Chie's father and mother): Named for my uncle and aunt, who still live in Japan. Not at all like Chie's parents, really, but I liked the alliteration of their names.
Satonaka Shoji (Chie's uncle): Named for my own uncle.
Hanamura Misato (Yousuke's next-eldest sister): A transfer student from Japan who lived with us when I was a teenager. I remember her as quiet and polite, much like Misato in the story.
The Taniguchis (flower stall owners): Friends of the family, who live in Kobe (which is one of the reasons why I chose that city for Kou's placement).
The Shimazawas (kissa-ten/coffee shoppe owners): Friends of the family, who live and run a music store(!) in Kyoto, my second hometown.
Ogiso Primary School and Izutsu Middle School (where Nanako and Kimiyo go to school; Chie works at both Izutsu and Yasogami High School): Two of our family names.
Minamiguchi-no-Futago (kids' line of clothes): The name means "The Minamiguchi Twins", and is so named in honor of my cousin, who just had twins this past summer!
Isa-san (Hanamuras' driver): Friend of the family, who for some reason always seems to get stuck driving us to the airport for our return flights to the States!
Ito Tomohiro (Chie's old sparring buddy): Named for another friend of the family, a contemporary of mine, with whom I sometimes got the feeling my parents were trying to set me up. :D

Still more names are derived from fictional sources, or from real people whom I don't necessarily know, but whose work I respect and enjoy:
Hanamura Hitomi (Yousuke's middle sister): One of the many online alter-egos, this one for the rhythm games Guitar Hero and Rock Band. Cowboy-hat-wearing guitarist, which is her main reason for being the way she is.
Hanamura Ryuhei (Yousuke's father): Named for director Kitamura Ryuhei, whose stylish action flicks have been a great source of inspiration for some of my crazier Mayonaka fight scenes.
Officer Kibuishi (Chie's coworker): Named for Kazu Kibuishi, comics artist and creator, whose books line many a shelf in my library.

The main characters draw inspiration from friends and family, too, though it tends to be more subtle, as they are largely amalgamations of many different people as well as facets of myself (which is why, I suppose, I take such joy in writing them).

A writer is not just writing words on a piece of paper, sentences that come out of a character's mouth. My characters feel like real people to me, because I see in them parts of people I know, and parts of myself. Hopefully, you see them as real people, too.