Some Thoughts on Writing Kye’s Sibling Dynamics
Let me preface this post with a little something about me: I love writing sibling stories, but most of the time, the main character is the oldest (like Andrew) or a twin (like Chandra.) It’s pretty rare that I write a younger sibling as a main character, and I think this is because I am an older sibling. It’s not a mindset I automatically gravitate towards.
Kye Verex isn’t the first younger sibling main character in my published books, but he is the first with a story written in 1st person, which required some adjustments on my part as the writer. I had to take a step back and consider how my brother would have reacted to certain situations.
The way I approached Kye’s relationship with his older sister was based on a lifetime of observing my brother. He had a tendency to follow my path—similar interests, similar college degrees, similar careers—so I kind of went that route with Kye. I say kind of, because Kye has his own unique challenges in the story, challenges that his sister (Kelsey) never had to deal with, and he has to work out how to overcome them on his own…eventually.
But initially, Kye isn’t great at making decisions. He’s used to Kelsey guiding him and offering advice from a distance, but he’s not used to choosing for himself. He relies on her and his best friend, Pablo, for that.
Until he’s faced with a decision that no one can make for him.
And that was the point in the book that Kye started to finally grow up a bit and take charge of his life. He was still mostly a follower for a while after that, but later, there are a couple scenes where he finally starts to decide what he wants to do on his own. I think those scenes were some of his best. To finally get him to the point of taking control in a way that made sense for his character and the story was a great feeling for me as the writer, because I could finally show how far he’d come while simultaneously hinting at what he might do in the future.
During those later scenes, he finally broke away from Kelsey to follow his own path. I experienced the same sort of pride with Kye as I did with my brother when he also began to forge his own future.
It was good to see them both start to spread their wings. For my brother, that happened a number of years ago (he’s in his late 30s now and is doing well.) For Kye, well… You’ll have to read the book to find out more.
Wraith and the Revolution will be available June 17, 2025. You can learn more about the book here.