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I'm not one of these 'the characters write themselves; the story just fell out of me' kind of writers. Wish it was like that.

I've written original material before, where I've come up with the idea and the characters myself, and that's definitely very different to working with someone else's characters and stories.

Characters have changed my mind about some very fundamental moral issues, and that's the real satisfaction in the way I write - the ultimate learning experience.

The goal is to have every character take on a life of his or her own. Sometimes characters will come into the story that I haven't planned.

The first thing, when I read the script, is that I need to care about what happens and feel compelled by the story and engaged by the characters. It needs to resonate with me, even if what the characters are going through is not something that I have experienced in my life. I have to feel like it has some sort of meaning to me.

As an author you hope your characters have sparks but truly in the end they have minds of their own!

I don't think of the characters as being good or bad because that doesn't help me as a writer.

I like to be surprised. Fresh implications and plot twists erupt as a story unfolds. Characters develop backgrounds, adding depth and feeling. Writing feels like exploring.