Tag: book

Who Are You Talking About?

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[found on tylerlehmann.wordpress.com; by Tyler Lehmann]

“The test of any good fiction is that you should care something for the characters; the good to succeed, the bad to fail. The trouble with most fiction is that you want them all to land in hell, together, as quickly as possible.” — Mark Twain

“A good writer knows his characters better than he does his closest friends. Oh, that sounds nuts, you say? Yep, probably.

But the reality is, no one will give a rip about your characters if you don’t make them come alive, as good ol’ Twain points out above. Humans are infinitely complex, and if your characters don’t mimic that complexity, the illusion that is reading is lost.

    1. Gender
    2. Age
    3. Ethnicity
    4. Body type
    5. Hair color and style
    6. Eyewear
    7. Facial hair
    8. Clothing style
    9. Tattoos and piercings
    10. Scars and birthmarks…”

For more tips on writing, and the complete list of traits from Tyler Lehmann, click here.

[found on http://tylerlehmann.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/80-powerful-questions-you-need-to-make-a-character-traits-for-creative-writing]

Sight Is Not the Only Sense

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[found on thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com; by ]

“Remember to use more than SIGHT to describe.

Sight is only one way to get an image across. The other senses like smells, sounds or touching can also reveal a lot about a character and create intimacy ties between the character and the reader through recognition. Use them to characterize! Our pal Melvin would probably steer clear of heavy scents, careful to always consider both his guests sensitivity to strong colognes and to maintain his background role. Yet I could imagine standing next to him in the elevator and catching a whiff of clean soap, or perhaps a touch of aloe from his hair gel.”

For more writing tips from Angela Ackerman, click here.

[found on http://thebookshelfmuse.blogspot.com/2010/04/writers-bane-describing-characters.html]

Prevent the Hatred of the Main Character

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[found on jodyhedlund.blogspot.com; by Jody Hedlund]

“How can we know if we’re crossing the line and making our main characters too unlikable?

We hear this writing mantra over and over: Add tension to every page, increase the conflict, and get our main characters (MCs) into trouble. In humble obedience to the rules of fiction, we try to heap mountains of problems upon our MCs.

We do this externally in the form of villains, trauma, or drama. And we do it internally in the form of emotional struggles, character weaknesses, or relationship problems. A story wouldn’t be a page-turner without the conflict to move it forward.

However, at the beginning when we’re trying to establish the problems and the need for character growth, we may tip the scales too far. Yes, our MCs need flaws, things they have to work through as the story progresses (aka character arc). But in the process of making our MCs imperfect, we can’t turn them into bitter, whiny, selfish, angry, mean, cold-hearted jerks.

I’ve learned that in making my MCs have real, everyday, human problems, I have to be careful not to shape them into the kind of people no one wants to hang around for 300 plus pages.”

For more writing tips from Jody Hedlund, click here.

[found on http://jodyhedlund.blogspot.com/2011/05/how-to-avoid-trap-of-creating-unlikable.html]

See Your Scene

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[found on thewritepractice.com; by ]

“Visualize Your Scenes.

If you, the writer, cannot visualize the fight, expect the readers to have trouble as well. Visualize how each moment of the scenes will take place.

Try writing multiple ways of how the scene plays out. Ask other people to read them out. Did they like what they read? Were they able to picture out a clear image of the fight?

Remember: Action scenes don’t always involve fights. They can also be about your protagonist trying to race against time to stop a time bomb. But they always must be clearly written.”

For more great tips on writing from The Write Practice, click here.

[found on http://thewritepractice.com/pow-fight-scenes/]

Dialogue Your Characters

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[found on theguardian.com]

“It’s never too soon to start thinking about what your characters will say and how they’ll say it. Giving each of your characters a distinct voice is key to writing great fiction.

The goal of Worksheet 9 is to encourage you to think about your characters’ individual speech patterns and specific word choices. Your characters will probably reveal these distinctions as your story progresses, but thinking about it early will make you more receptive to such revelations.

For each of your major characters, record information about individual speech patterns and any catchphrases they may use.

With this information in place on a dialogue sheet, you’ll know exactly what a given character will say and how he/she will say it. You can also use this worksheet during the final edit and polish of the manuscript to double-check speech patterns.”

[found on http://www.theguardian.com/books/2012/oct/19/researching-your-novel]

Authors Oblivious

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“On the day the world is blown up, the playwright whose show opened the night before will be leafing past the news section of the Times to find his review—as he ascends through the stratosphere, oblivious.” 

― Arthur Miller, Salesman in Beijing