Where Normal Need Not Apply
How were your holidays? Was Santa good to you? I got a Kindle and quality time with my family, so short of getting an agent and book contract, my Christmas couldn’t have been any better. As I mentioned last time, whether or not we’re disappointed often depends on what we’re […]
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Okay, what have we learned from the big series on creating strong characters? To feel realistic, characters need to have goals, a delusional self-image, multiple personalities, flaws, and a reason for their actions. Hmm… All that makes them sound a touch crazy, doesn’t it? (Not as crazy as I am, […]
Congratulations! We made it to the end of the checklist for creating strong characters. We’ve given our characters goals, delusions, lies, and flaws. Only one thing left could go wrong… Do They Die Before the End of the Story? The flowchart specified that a character had to survive to the […]
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We’re almost through with the list of how to create strong characters. So far, we’ve ensured they had goals and contrasted their self-image and persona. Next up… Do They Have Flaws? To feel lifelike, our characters must have flaws like real people. Without flaws, our characters risk making our whole […]
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We’re working our way through the list of how to create strong characters. So far, we’ve ensured they had goals and analyzed how their self-image differs from reality. And related to that contrast we talked about last time… Do They Merely Represent an Idea? Characters are often most cardboard-like when […]
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We’re going to continue talking about how to implement the list to make sure we’re creating strong characters. Last time, we made sure that our characters had goals. Next up… Are They Three-Dimensional? There are plenty of ideas out there about how to make your characters seem real, but I’m […]
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Last time, we looked at a simple list for What Makes a Female Character Strong based on The Female Character Flowchart. But if that list is so simple, why does it seem so difficult to create a strong character? Why do so many fail and fall into stereotypes? Maybe because […]
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Most of my past year has been spent editing and revising, but for the past two days, I’ve been able to write fresh stuff for a shiny new project. Oh, drafting, how I love thee. Really, is there anything more freeing than starting with a newborn idea and exploring? Every […]
This post was inspired by a funky sort of cosmic pile-up in which I had several experiences over the past couple days all involving Muses visiting people in the shower. Yes, writers are insane—more on that later. First, Christine Bell and I were discussing on Twitter how we get ideas […]
Last time, I mentioned how stories—the good ones anyway—avoid the boring parts of the journey by jumping into the action. Today’s post continues that “skip to the good parts” theme to talk about settings. Setting is the sense of time, place, and mood within a story. Descriptions create a world […]
