Larger Than Life in Chapter 1

Give Readers a Larger Than Life Protagonist
In my new novel, I’ve written about a dozen different openings, looking for a voice that works. I’m settling in on one, but the first chapter is still unsteady.
One thing I’m looking at today is how to make the main character, the protagonist, larger-than-life.

Describing Characters? Be Subtle

When should your characters notice and comment on something and when should it be just subtly included?
Subtext is when something is going on in the story, but it’s only mentioned in passing, slantwise, or it’s just understood. Often, subtext comes out in dialogue, the unspoken things that the audience understands from knowing the characters and [...]

8 Ways to Enrich Your Character

Character Revision: 8 Ways to Jumpstart a Make Over
You have a first draft, but you realize that your character needs work. How do you retrofit a character when you revise?
I don’t think of a personality transplant. Instead, I try to add to and enrich a character. Here are 8 suggestions on how to revise your [...]

Eavesdropping: Real Dialogue

Notes from the Field
If you’re revising a novel or picture book, one step is to look at the dialogue of your characters and sharpen it. Tom Chiarella, in his book,Writing Dialogue suggests recording dialogue — yes, you get to EavesDrop! — around you for a day. At least for a couple hours. [...]

3 Ways to Show, Don’t Tell

Classic advice to beginning fiction writers: Show, Don’t Tell. I taught several sessions to teachers last week and they all nodded. Great advice. But how do you DO that in practical terms? How do you teach students to Show, Don’t Tell?
Show, Don’t Tell: Why?
In the old days of storytelling, it was fine to just say [...]

Success: What Price Does Your Character Pay?

I’m getting much closer to actually starting my new novel, but I’m still asking myself a crucial question.
What is the cost of success for the main character?
Loss of innocence. If you write a bildungsroman novel, that genre which take a main character from

Establish the Emotional Arc

As I’m working on the plan for this new novel, creating characters and trying out voices, I’m trying to strengthen my weakest areas.
My Weakness is Character
My weakness is character. I can plot fine, but creating characters with plausible character growth is hard for me. I think I’ve got it and my friends tell me that [...]

Crowded with Characters? Create Mini-Conflicts

Mini-Conflicts Help Characters Stand Out
For my WIP, I’m spending the week fleshing out characters.
I”ve written about characters many times.
Here’s a Character Checklist, and 15 Days to a Stronger Character, and many other posts on character.
At this stage in character development, I’m mostly concerned with creating an interesting mix. For this story, there’s a [...]

Midpoint Crisis: Plotting

Starting a new novel, I always try to look at the structure of the plot, but this time, I’m especially looking at character issues, since that’s my weakness.
A Story of XXX becomes a Story of ZZZ
It’s always that tricky second act that’s hard. The actions for the beginning and ending are easy, especially for [...]

Test Your Skill at Characterization

Ever wonder if you’re good at characterization in your novel or story? A good way to evaluate your skill in characterization is the Page 5 Test.
Page 5 Test: Are you Good at Characterization?

Read the first five pages of your manuscript.
Turn over page 5 and on the back,