Do You Write About Your Past Characters?

It's not a matter of principle to me, but I generally don't re-use characters.

Settings are another matter! When I am talking about a home, it's usually my childhood home. When I describe a church or an elementary school, they are always the same places I grew up in.

I have one series I've returned to again and again; that is a couple who play outdoors. I wrote the series for one of the challenges while we were camping one autumn up in Pennsylvania . Since the stories were so well received, I decided to send them to exotic or historical places to play outdoors. All the while their relationship and their roles are subtly shifting . I could easily return to those characters. At this point they are getting pretty decadent with their outdoor play. I find though my readers lose interest if I continue too long with the same characters. Although in the fall, I might send them diving in Florida.
Islandcarol

One or two minor characters have recurred in unrelated stories of mine, though their roles were minimal.

I like to think that my Backfire and Paddling Team serials are both set on the same college campus, but I have yet to deliver on that idea. I'd really like to do more with some of those characters, so hopefully I'll some day come up with another story that bridges them.

I'm actually about to heavily rewrite Paddling Team for ebook publication, so maybe the new version can pave the way for a sequel?

On occasion I do reuse characters. One of them is me. You wouldn't know this unless you stumbled upon it but Certificate of Correction, Island Justice and Atonement make up a 1st person POV trilogy with some repeating characters. Kelly Northridge from Justice Delayed found herself in trouble again in It's All for Charity. There is a variation of this notion in which relatives of characters appear. A US Marshall named Virgil Cotton, a nephew of the sheriff, will appear in a sequel to Tumalo Bend 1895, and some of those characters will repeat. There will also be a sequel to Jacque and the Professor in which I bring those characters back.

So I do find it economical to reuse characters if I can devise a fresh story line for them.

I was privileged to write for a site that is no longer available, Our Castle. Many of the regular contributors there had a their own special "couple" that they used in some of their stories, though not all. Several of mine are included in my pages here,and I am currently trying to weave them all into a novel length book. These include my BOMC stories. After awhile, you became familiar with those characters, and recognized the authors by them. Some of those other author's stories are also here in the Library, stories by Eve, and Katy of Spankwish specifically.
Though my life is entirely different from my 're-used' characters, many parts of my own life are also incorporated into the stories, like the descriptions of parts of their home, and where they live, and other small insignificant details. It was when I was just beginning to write, and as they say, write what you know, hence the ease of writing their surroundings, but also the familiarity of the characters after awhile.

I've set quite a few of my stories in the fictional town of Midvale, where a lot of spanking goes on. It's fun to use characters from there again and again. My stock company includes the widow Martha Peavey, the spanko pastor Mark Jessup and his wife Angela, the bratty kid Seth Patton, etc. After a while they become like old friends.

Like opb I've enjoyed the idea of creating a fictional universe in which characters reappear in different stories. I learned this from favourite author Kurt Vonnegut who did the same thing (notably in his 50th birthday present to himself "Breakfast of Champions"). One character who crops up in different Vonnegut novels and stories is his science fiction writer Kilgore Trout (perhaps based on Theodore Sturgeon), author of the ingenious "2BR02B".

I wrote "Cropton Girls Play Spanking Cheat" partly out of a lack of inspiration for creating new characters, and partly because the idea of 4 women playing the card game "Cheat" with plenty of spanking sanctions was a fantasy that appealed.

I also have a Jessica who stars in "Seat-Warmers Unlimited", "She's for the Cane" and "Padded Seats in First Class" in her role as a spanko journalist, reappearances which happened mainly by accident.

I have yet to try writing non-spanking fiction, but when I do I can imagine borrowing characters from my existing fictional universe.

In a sense, every character we create is a part of ourselves; some demand more air time than others and are more of a pleasure and adventure to build fictions around. Using them to dissolve writer's block is a good idea.

I used to write at OurCastle too, but I never did a sequel there as such. I think this was mainly because the site was M/F focused and my series are generally F/F and/or F/M. I haven't specifically done this, but I have alluded that some of my stories are set in the same world, if not utilising the same characters. A lot of mainstream authors do this and it's particularly prevalent with fantasy authors who write more than one series at a time. TV shows like Eureka and Warehouse 13 existed in the same world with crossovers being done between the two shows.

My favorite character to write about is Shelby Strode. I've written three stories about her so far but I have plans for many more. She has really become three dimensional and I'm eager to get her into lots of new situations and see how she evolves over time.

I know the feeling of wanting to write about these characters even in non-corporal punishment scenarios. I even had an idea to write about Shelby when she was a little girl, just to develop her backstory a bit more to give readers an idea about her past family life. I also want to write about Shelby after she is grown and has a family of her own some day.

Funny thing is though, even in these little side stories I end up working a spanking or two into them! I can't help myself I guess!

I've written a few serials, usually with characters who I feel are flexible and would work receiving spankings in different scenarios. Generally I can get a good feel for which ones should be extended into a series when I find myself genuinely interested in the characters I've created and when users request for a part 2 or to bring back a certain character for another story.