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.

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. [...]

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,

Animals Stand in for Kids

I’m currently revising a picture book and finding it to be a bit tricky because I created animal characters. Of course, in a fiction picture book, animal characters are often just stand-ins for kids.
Why Use an Animal Character in a Fictional Picture Book?
Get Rid of Adults. I wanted to have two characters playing on a [...]

Dialogue Talk

Doing the character checklist this week, I realized that I hadn’t written much about dialogue. Oh, I have a couple times.

Plot & Character

I’m starting a series of posts about plot this week – as requested. Thanks for popping in or sending me emails with your preference!
Plot and Character are Intertwined
Before I start talking about plot, I have to say something about characters, the people who will be DOING and REACTING to the plot. Obviously, they are intertwined. [...]

Top Posts of 2009

I’ve taken a look at my statistics and here’s the top posts on Fiction Notes for 2009, in order of popularity. Five of these are the first page of a series of posts on a certain topic. The other five are individual posts.

Novel Writing. 30 Days to a Stronger Novel. 30 one-minute creative writing tips [...]

Revise Second Draft

UnBlinded: Revising the Second Draft
419 Specific Comments
I’ve just gotten back two critiques on the second draft of my WIP novel. 419 specific comments. I’m excited.

Larger concerns. Each critique was accompanied by a letter with larger concerns. Both are still concerned that the characterization needs work. One would like a stronger opening and one thinks a [...]

Separate POV chapters

More Than One POV? Split to Revise
My current draft of my WIP novel has two point of view characters. I’ve just copied each POV into its own separate file to revise and edit.

Voice. The main reason for this is to work on getting a consistent voice for each point of view. When they are intertwined, [...]

character development

4 Stages of Character Development
When you write a first draft, there are really two novels at that point. There’s the one on the paper and there’s the one in your head and they are not the same.
I know this. But I’m experiencing it again as I’m working through this revision. In order to put on [...]