Writing Characters Who Suck
It’s the birthday of Bram Stoker, born in Dublin, Ireland (1847). He was working as a clerk for the civil service when he saw an unknown actor named Henry Irving in a play that changed his life. He became obsessed with Irving’s acting career, and began writing freelance reviews of every play in which Irving appeared. Eventually, Irving became one of the most famous Shakespearian actors of the era, and he invited Bram Stoker to be his manager at the Lyceum Theater in London.
…This man belongs to me…
One night, in 1890, Stoker dreamt that a woman was trying to kiss him on the throat, and an elderly Count interrupted her shouting, “This man belongs to me!” Stoker woke up and immediately wrote about the dream in his diary. He couldn’t get it out of his mind for weeks, and kept wondering who the Count might be. And that was the beginning of his novel Dracula (1897).
Dracula only became a minor best-seller in Stoker’s lifetime. When he died in 1912, the obituaries about Stoker focused on his career in theater, and not a single one mentioned his authorship of Dracula. It wasn’t until 1922, when Dracula movies started to appear, that people realized Bram Stoker had created one of the most enduring fictional characters of all time. Since then, some version of Dracula has appeared in more than 250 movies.
From the Writer’s Almanac by Garrison Keillor
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