Writerly Wednesday: Character Hopping

When I read books by certain authors, it seems that all their characters are the same. Even if they have different names, they still feel like it's the same character over and over. But for my two different series, I tried not to do that.

Alex Bianchi and Libby Gentry are obviously two completely different characters. Alex is a fiesty teen with a penchant for alien beings who wear guy liner. Libby Gentry is a sorority princess turned princess of the swamp. So the big question...how do I keep these two characters apart?

IT'S HARD.

Okay...maybe that was dramatic, but very true. I wrote My Paper Heart when I was at a different point in my life and then for a year focused in Alex's head. By the time I got out of Alex's head and tried to get back in to Libby's I felt like I was still thinking in Alex's head. So how do I get out?

Well here is what I'm trying.

Re-read the previous book.

This seems to be the most simple. Get to know that character again. Maybe even write down their weird quirks that they have and keep that in mind.

Listen to the play list.

When I wrote MPH, I was listening to A LOT of country to put me in that southern mood. So now it's time to dust off the Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood and get my boots on. Note: Inbetween both novels I also ended up getting married and having a child. My feet grew another shoe size in that time. My boots no longer fit...so...

Go back through previous research

HTDA is science fiction and MPH is contemporary, but I actually did more research for MPH then I did for any of the alien novels. I have entire articles on the after effects of Katrina on St. Bernard Parrish, Creole dialect, recipes for prailines, and more about housing in the Chicago suburbs and New Orleans suburbs than anyone would ever need to know. Reading through those takes me back to Libby's world and hopefully will slowly add to the story.

Do you character hop? What do you do to get back in to your character's head?