Tip of the Day
Always carry an idea book with you wherever you go. Cut out clippings from articles and magazines that you enjoy, or have words that you don't know. Use it to create lists, or even write down snipets of conversations you over hear and then turn that into a story later on.
Be sure to include images and anything that inspires you within the idea book.
Contact Us
Have comments? Got Questions? Just want to know more about us? Or tell us more about you? We wanna know and we love to tell you about ourselves.
Feel free to contact us Here
Sponsors
Character Development
Mauren Evans | Editor in Chief
When you sit down to read a book, in the back of your head you are asking yourself, "Why do I care?" and the answer is because you care about the character. If you don't have a connection with the main character or even the sub characters, then you won't care what happens to them and eventually put the book down.
Characters, are what draw the readers in, what keeps them reading. The connection they have, and they could have nothing in common with the actual character but it has to seem that they do.
You must round out your characters. The best way, is always structure. You have to write down everything you know about them. Every single little detail. Draw a picture of them, sketch it out on some paper, color it in, make it look as real as possible. Take a picture of someone that you wan't your character to resemble.
The next step is to take each piece, of their apperance and use the most descriptive words you can image. Use the brain mapping tool discussed in the WritersBlock section. Start with one word in the middle and branch out using other words and then from those other words branch out again. This will help with the use of cliche meanings and words. Don't actually use colors to describe things. Think of something else that is the same color for instance instead of brown say chocolate, or bark. Some other word rather than brown.
Once you have the appearances down, make sure to label each one, come up with the full name of the character. List it at the top, each character should have its own sheet of paper, with either a sketch or picture and then listing of words you want to use when desicribing the character. Now you need to list what this character is going to be doing in the story. List any relationships it has with any other character in the story. Write down what you want out of this character, create a blue sky list. This is a list of if this character could do any and everything this is what they would do with in the limits of the story.
After you have completed your character profile, you are set to write, well using the characters you created. Essentially you are creating your own world when writing a novel. Your own set of problems your own town, and the people that live within that town. Its good to be as thorough as possible when describing this town. But show the reader this, don't just create this long laundry list of descriptive words, that is the fastest way to turn off a reader just listing of things. That list is for you as a reference, not to just plop into your story.