When I write, I don't sit in front of a piece of paper thinking only about words. I sit in front of a universe under construction. One that breathes, beats, moves, and somehow decides for itself which path to take.
That's why I always say that my characters are not just made of ink, but of something much deeper: emotion, curiosity, and wonder.
The emotion that brings the pages to life
Ink is just the tool.
What really matters is what happens before the hand touches the paper.
Each character is born from a feeling: nostalgia, joy, mystery, tenderness, or that intense need to remember who I was as a child. Emotion is the secret driving force that defines how they speak, how they move, what they fear, and what they desire.
Readers notice that emotional truth. It's what makes a character “breathe,” not just a drawing or a random idea, but someone they can connect with.
Curiosity as a compass
My stories are born from questions:
What could be beyond the forest?
Who is that being who appears in dreams?
Why do certain places seem to hold secrets?
Curiosity is what drives my characters to move.
And that's also what drives me to keep writing.
Without curiosity, there is no adventure.
Without adventure, there is no story.
Without history, there is no magic.
That same childlike curiosity—which never completely disappeared—is what guides protagonists like Tika today, who looks at the world with a hunger to understand, discover, and experience it.
Awe: the spark that changes everything
Awe is the purest emotion that exists.
It's that moment when your eyes open a little wider and your heart beats faster because you've just seen something you didn't expect.
Amazement is not exclusive to children... although they experience it more intensely. And perhaps that is why I write children's literature: because I want my readers—young and old—to regain that wonderful ability to be surprised.
Every time I create a character, I try to give them a spark of that wonder. I want them to be able to look at the world as if for the first time. To take nothing for granted. To pause and notice the small things, the invisible things, the things that adults no longer see.
This is how I build my characters: from the inside out.
I don't start with the style of their hair or the clothes they wear.
I begin with your heartbeat.
- What excites you?
- What motivates you?
- What piques your curiosity?
- What amazes you?
Then, once that inner heart is defined, the ink does its job.
But he no longer writes an empty character: he writes a life that has been quietly taking shape beforehand.
That's why some readers say that my characters “feel close” or that “they could exist.” And I always smile, because in a way... they do exist. They exist in my memory, in my experiences, in my dreams, and in my childhood questions.
Stories that seek to awaken something in you
Every story I publish has a purpose:
ignite something within the reader.
An emotion.
One question.
A memory.
A wish.
Because characters aren't just there to entertain. They're there to accompany, inspire, open doors, and remind us that life—real life—is also made up of emotion, curiosity, and wonder.