Anyone passing on the street could be the next outstanding character for your novel.

In the midst of editing the galleys for Grave Results Two--Blood Rites, due out next year, I wondered that one of my antagonists was so evil he still gave me chills, and I wrote the book. Then I recalled the day I was walking into a bank on Long Island in New York and noticed a man coming towards who was extremely disturing. He was dressed in a white shirt and dress pants that looked as though they belonged to a younger, smaller sibbling. The cuff of the shirt rose above his wrists; his pants were what they call 'high waters' since they rose above his ankles. He had real dark hair parted down the center; his mouth was a tightened wound--a description I often use to describe anger in my characters; rage almost. Just from the looks of him alone, I made a wide swath around him. His eyes were raging orbs of hatred. Everyone walked around him. After I got inside, I took some deposit slips from a table set out by the bank and wrote down the description, filing it away until I needed it. I've used him in this novel. Between his outer appearance, his expressions of rage and the dialogue I've lent, this is one of the scariest characters I've used, other than Micah Travis from Unholy Alliance, and he was fashioned after Jeffrey Daumer. Where do characters come from? Sometimes they're one person on the street who stands out. Other times they're a conglomeration of people I've known in the past. This makes them more realistic. A woman I met one time wanted to know if I'd ever met her ex-husband, who was a double in looks and personality to a main character in Sister Satan. She lived in Penn. I'd never been there. But it was eerie because someone like this actually existed, although I'd taken several characters I'd met in the past and molded them into one person. Now my friends want to know when they'll appear in one of my novels. Some suggest people they don't like for me to kill off in a novel. I laugh. That's not the point. Wonderful characters are all around us. You just have to choose one and build on it. Whether your writing is on the dark side like mine, or you write romance novels or children's books, don't sweat the characters. Just take a walk and let you imaginations soar in the people you meet. Take their outward appearance and then add personality according to their expressions. Give them life. It works. But, a warning. Don't use real names, or use anyone that can easily identify themselves or you could get sued. Change what you will and keep the rest that appeals to your writing instinct.