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I’ve been working on my plot this week – which means I’ve been working on character. I’ve been struck again by how interwoven these two are. We artificially separate them out to talk about them, but in practice, you can’t work on plot without considering character. Conflict. For example, when I tried to decide on [...]
Shh! Don’t tell anyone else, but my character just told me a secret. Great Way to Find Unusual Secrets One common complaint about a first draft is that the characterization needs to be deeper. In Sol Stein’s book, Stein on Writing, Chapter 16 talks about the secret snapshot technique. Stein recommends that you think about [...]
When you write something as long as a novel, how do you make sure the character stays in character? When you revise, there are several ways to check. Creating Consistent Characters Create a Bible for your character. It doesn’t have to be complicated, but have one file, or a couple note cards that list characteristics. [...]
First person point of view stories are introspective, selfish, all about me, me, me. Before you write or revise a novel using this POV, you should ask youself a couple questions. It’s All About Me, Me, Me. Main Character or Observer. Is the POV character the main character or an observer? Often it’s assumed that [...]
When you write a novel, or revise a novel, the default point-of-view and the most common used is third person. (Though, first person point of view is giving it a run for its money these days. ) The Versatile Point of View Think about point of view as a camera. In the 3rd person POV, [...]
Once again, National Public Radio has changed my ideas of how to use a character quality. I used to think that beliefs had to fall into formal philosophical categories. Wrong. The History of This I Believe From their website: “At the dawn of the Cold War and the height of McCarthyism, Americans from all walks [...]
What is your character’s deepest, darkest secret? What is it that s/he doesn’t want anyone to know? When you write a novel or revise a novel, YOU must know these things. 5 Ways to Use Secrets to Develop Characters Using the Secret as a Plot Twist When we find out that Luke Skywalker’s father is [...]
Character’s strengths and weaknesses influence plot, character relationships and how well we like a character. Before you decide on these, think about how these characteristics will ripple through the story. Character Strengths and Weaknesses Inherited or Acquired?Are your character’s strengths and weaknesses inherited or acquired? If inherited, they may be accepted easily by the character, [...]
Characters Who Move According to Mehrabian, 55% of communication depends on body language, 38% on tone-of-voice, and 7% on the words used. That’s bad news for novelists because we don’t have direct access to the body language as we work with our fictional characters – they are just words on a page. Adding body language [...]
Character Profiles include Interior Traits Inside, I’m different than the person you see. Isn’t that true for all of us? We look in a mirror and are amazed at that person staring back. What is your character like on the inside? Interior character qualities may never make it into a description of a character, but [...]
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