An on-line friend of mine has started up his own wordpress, where he has been posting about writing. I've thoroughly enjoyed reading it. He's a good writer and brings up some excellent points that have gotten me thinking more about writing. Enjoy!
http://4lackofbetterwords.wordpress.com/
Monday, June 27, 2011
Saturday, June 4, 2011
Meeting Your Characters
When I sit down to write a story, admittedly one of the hardest things I have to deal with is my characters. I personally find it difficult to give each character a voice or, in other words, to make them sound different from the others. Some are easier than others, like if I have a belligerent character or if I have one who is very sarcastic. Not only that, but it's difficult to make characters consistent, to make sure that they say and do things that aren't out of character for them; an example would be like making sure that a character who has a tendency to panic doesn't suddenly act calm when a situation goes bad or before a big event takes place.
This week, I went camping with my large, crazy family. When we weren't hiking, sitting around the campfire talking, or swimming in the lake, I began working on developing some important characters in my urban fantasy novel. I used the form on the following website:
http://www.elfwood.com/farp/thewriting/crissychar/crissychar.html
Even though the form seems more geared towards fantasy, it actually works for any genre. It asks pretty detailed questions about your characters, stuff like their relationship with their family, what their soft spots are, and how they perceive themselves.
I've found the form to be very helpful, as it as aided me in finding my characters' motives and what separates them from the others. In short, it helps me understand them better and give me a better picture of what they act and look like. If you're having trouble developing your characters, I suggest you give this form a shot.
This week, I went camping with my large, crazy family. When we weren't hiking, sitting around the campfire talking, or swimming in the lake, I began working on developing some important characters in my urban fantasy novel. I used the form on the following website:
http://www.elfwood.com/farp/thewriting/crissychar/crissychar.html
Even though the form seems more geared towards fantasy, it actually works for any genre. It asks pretty detailed questions about your characters, stuff like their relationship with their family, what their soft spots are, and how they perceive themselves.
I've found the form to be very helpful, as it as aided me in finding my characters' motives and what separates them from the others. In short, it helps me understand them better and give me a better picture of what they act and look like. If you're having trouble developing your characters, I suggest you give this form a shot.
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