3 of my Favorite Character Resources

 

It's the month of resolutions, and if yours is that you're going to finally get that novel written but your characters aren't quite popping off the page, then this is the post for you!

This isn't the basic list of getting to know you questions to ask your character (those are great too!). These are a little bit more off the beaten path and great to use after you've flushed out the major and minor chunks that will make up your fictional friend. 

The goal at the end of the day is to share that story floating around in your head, and the characters on the page are the vehicle to do just that. So, we might as well make those characters as visceral as we can. 

1) Writing a Good Gray Character: https://www.writingbeginner.com/how-to-write-morally-gray-characters/

Writing an all-the-way good or all-the-way bad character is pretty standard practice (and there's no shame in that game), but sometimes your story needs a character who is a bit more tricky to play both sides. Christopher does a really fabulous job of breaking down the basics of writing characters who dance the lines of morality, and he does so in an easy-to-understand way. 

2) Learning to Embarrass Your Character: https://www.bryndonovan.com/2017/02/21/cringe-25-creative-writing-prompts-to-help-you-embarrass-your-characters/

You've got the character motivation down, and you've flushed out the overall arc, but there's something that isn't quite working. You can see point B on the storyboard, but there's still a level of your character's inner workings that elude you. Try doing a quick writing session where you embarrass your main character. You might just learn something new!

3) The Lie Your Character Buys Into: https://www.helpingwritersbecomeauthors.com/character-arcs-2/

This one works really well if you're writing any kind of hero story but can definitely work in other types of stories as well. Either way, understanding what misconceptions your protagonist has about themselves or the world they live in can add a lovely dimension to your overall story because there is so much potential to challenge their misconceptions in meaningful ways all the way up to an ultimately super satisfying climax. 

As an editor and book coach, these are some of my all-time favorite resources to share with my clients whose characters need a little more zest. And, I'll give you the same advice I give them: take what you love and leave the rest because there are endless (good) craft sources. I hope you've found a thing or two to add to your character-building mix. 

Happy writing!

Character Motivation

Recently I've been working on two different novels. Partly because I do better when I can jump from one project to another when I get to a writing roadblock that requires some thinking through, and partially because figuring out a character's motivation can be tricky (which means if you've got a multiple POV story like me, there's a whole lot of motivations you've got to figure out). 

Everyone wants something, right? 

We want caffeine when we first wake up, so we crawl out of bed to go find it. Around lunchtime, we want to eat because we're hungry. At night, we're tired, so we make our way back to our cozy beds and go to sleep. 

Not all character motivations have to be super dramatic (even though those are fun too). 

These lesser exciting motivations can easily belong to the secondary characters that populate our books. Maybe you've got a thief who steals something precious for the sole purpose that they're trying to make money. It's easy to believe, and it makes sense. The trick is to have a good balance between the lesser motivations and the big ones. 

Your protagonist has to have something that they are willing to leave the comfort of their everyday life for, but they can't have everything figured out when they decide to make their move. What that means is that your protagonist has to know enough to go, but not so much that everything else in the story universe is predictable. This is why the lesser motivations can help us complicate the main character's overall goal. 

What that in mind, your job is to learn to layer these character motivations in a way that gives your reader (and protagonist) enough unknowns that drama ensues and fiction is born. So let's go back to our thief example. 

Maybe your protagonist has found a reason to go on a quest. They're looking for something that will save the world. After numerous dead ends and battles, they've finally located and retrieved it. All is seemly well, and they are on their way back to save the day. Until they meet a thief, who has been charged to steal this precious item by the ultimate villain. Now the protagonist, thief, and villain are linked together and the reader is left wondering how all of this is going to work out. 

Layering motivations will not only help you build tension in your stories, but it will also help you learn more about your main character's abilities to problem solve and ultimately give your reader a much better sense of what kind of person it is that they are rooting for. 

Happy writing!

Getting to Know Your Character From the Inside Out

Sometimes in the writing world, the lingo is the scariest part. Hearing words like indirect characterization causes you to flashback to 7th grade ELA class bringing with it all the sweaty nervousness that comes along with being a preteen. How-tos are packed with these terms, sometimes making them scary to pick up and read. After several searches on Google, you still don't feel any closer to breaking down these terms that should be your bread and butter. Luckily for you, I teach 7th grade ELA class, and I'm here to break it down in a much more approachable way. 

When you sit down to write your protagonist, antagonist, or supporting characters, you're faced with two options. Will we, the readers, get to know this character from the inside, the outside, or both? 

Indirect Characterization simply means that we're getting to know your character from the inside.  We get full access to their thoughts and motivations, as well as a peek into their flashbacks and internal struggles. You see this a lot with the first-person point of view and with third-person omniscient. Sounds great, right? It sure is, but this also means that you have to write a character that is loveable despite their flaws. Remember that what the character sees and thinks has to (unless you are purposefully making it not so) line up with their actions. Because as we all know, actions speak louder than words. 

Direct Characterization is when the reader gets to know the character from the outside. We can see how the act and what they say to those around them, but we have to make our opinions based only on what we can directly see. Welcome to the third-person point of view. A lot of times, this is how readers get to know the supporting staff of a novel. 

See, the lingo isn't too bad, right? 

Remember that the goal of getting to know the character is so that the reader gets emotionally attached. Once we're invested in their fictional lives, reading the book becomes a necessity and not an option. So when you're sitting down to write that next scene or chapter, take a moment to ask yourself: Will this scene work better from the inside out, or the outside in?

Happy writing!

Writing Strong Characters

Are you more of a plot-driven storyteller or a character-based one? For me, it's always about the characters. What motivates them? Are they believable? What are they up against? I want someone to cheer for, and someone to despise in the novel-verse. I pick up a book already wanting to care about what happens to our heroine. Why? Because it's fun to live in someone else's shoes for a bit. So what makes a strong character?

The Flaw: Internal and External

Every person I know has one, and so should your character. Why? Have you ever read a story/watched a movie where the characters were just plain flat? They didn't have any sense of depth to them. They smiled waaaaaaay too much and never seemed to lose their cool? People aren't perfect, and when characters are they come across as boring. So, really put some thought into your character's flaw. Keep in mind that you should have an internal flaw (or secret) and an external flaw preventing our protagonist from crossing the finish line. Make the flaws meaningful so that when your character figures out what they want, their flaw prevents them from getting it too easily. 

The Quirk:

Just like the flaw, people are full of quirky things that make them interesting. Your characters should have them too. What do they do when no one is looking? What do they do that embarrasses them? These are the details that help your MC (main character) worm their way into our hearts. Think about the things that real-life people do that you find endearing, then attach it to a character and see if it works.

The Motivation:

What, exactly, do they want? Why do they want it? Can you make that motivation more tailored to your MC and their novel-verse? For example, if you're writing about a pirate (and who doesn't love a good pirate?), does he want treasure like every other pirate? If so, how can we tailor the treasure-seeking motivation to our pirate? What if his treasure isn't money, jewels, or gold? What if the treasure this pirate wants, is a person named Treasure? What does he want with this person? Why is he willing to sail the seven seas to find them?

What kind of character traits catch your eye? Tell me in the comments below.

Happy writing.

You Can Use Real Disaster to Create a Disaster in Your Story; or, My Neighborhood has Literally Gone to Hell by Elizabeth Alsobrooks

I guess we all know about disasters, whether on the personal, community, national or global level. They certainly make enough movies about them, even having a category for them: disaster movies. Writers need to use disasters of some sort, some degree, some length, with various outcomes and reactions, in their stories. This can be the point where the character(s) reaches that no way out, this can’t possibly end well moment.

There have been so many global disasters this year, from the pandemic, to looting and burning of entire city blocks, and more localized disasters like the one I’m dealing with right here at home, a wildfire that continues to burn and endanger the lives of wildlife and community after community in various ready, set, go stages of evacuation, with an ever-growing number of personnel from multiple states engaged in trying to get it back under control for over two weeks of what they predict will be four before it’s contained.

An actual disaster, even an internal one, can be more than a single plot point. It may be an underlying  theme. It can certainly be used to show the moral fiber of characters, by how they react to it, what they think about it, or the way it affects themselves or others.      

   

Though useful this can be tricky, too. Writing to a broad audience, most authors do not want to become embroiled in politics or controversial current events. That does not mean you can completely ignore a major event taking place on a global or national scale, and especially not within a community or family unit.

Move Past Your Backstory

 I spent the last year decluttering and Marie Kondo-ing most of my house. Most, but not all—and I especially avoided one area and that was…paper.

Most writers would understand my love affair with paper, it goes hand and hand with words. Despite most of the writing courses I took being online, I continued to print out the lessons and organize them in a trusty binder for reference. As well as keeping them somewhere on my computer.

There’s just Something about Holding it

If it’s on paper it can be highlighted, and tagged with colorful little sticky notes for easy reference. Problem was, it didn’t seem that I’d referenced many of this information for years—if ever—after the course ended. The result is a plethora of folders, binders, and other reference materials for fiction and freelance writing, in addition to the usual paperwork I’d already went through once in the filing cabinet.

Paralyzed By Preparation

Some of the information is probably long outdated, or not necessary for me since I’m probably either already utilizing these tips, or I’m not going to use them at all. But to get rid of that security blanket of paperwork and binders is scary. I pile them near as if their mere presence will make me a better writer just by osmosis. As if I have allowed pursuing perfection to paralyze me from acting.

Writing courses are wonderful. They’ve helped me so much over the years as I proudly touted one of my favorite expressions of, ‘never stop learning.’ The problem is, when do you stop building your backstory and just start doing?

Starting The Story

Freeing my house of other clutter gave me joy to be able to easily access my favorite things, and not be weighed down by other things that no longer served me at this time of my life. To do that with the papers is to recognize that I’ve already acquired this knowledge and that I just have to continue to put it to use.

We don’t want to see all the ‘backstory’ of what the character did, or the years that built up to the action. We want to see the character at the start a new quest, or fearlessly moving out of their comfort zone. It’s not that they stop learning, it’s that they realize they can apply what they learned, and know when they’ve mastered the knowledge.

The same as if you’ve worked to learn a new skill, or ability, and are just not sure when you can take off the training wheels and not just put them to the side, but actually throw them away. Often that’s when you find the freedom to truly start your story.

What’s Holding You in Your Backstory?

Author Bio: Maureen Bonatch grew up in small town Pennsylvania and her love of the four seasons—hockey, biking, sweat pants and hibernation—keeps her there. While immersed in writing or reading paranormal romance and fantasy, she survives on caffeine, wine, music, and laughter. A feisty Shih Tzu keeps her in line. Find Maureen on her website, Facebook & Twitter

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What a Character. Exploring Character Motivation by L. A. Kelley

You may think science fiction or fantasy requires little more than flights of fancy, but no matter the genre, every story is character driven. Their decisions and actions steer the plot to a logical conclusion, and that requires the author to make a host of choices along the way. Why are character motivations so important? First, they reveal struggles. Every character has them whether they’re hero or villain. Sometimes they’re minor and at other times life-altering, but the eventual outcome must make sense for the character.

Motivation can define roles. Even if a character doesn’t take a physical journey, they often have a psychological one that effects their life. After all, if a person is exactly the same from beginning to the end of the book, what was the point of recording the journey to begin? Real people are changed by the choices they make. Fictional ones should be, too.

Motivation is also intrinsic to character growth and development. Even heroic characters must confront doubts, fears, and insecurities. How and why they face them and their subsequent actions makes the story believable. Everyone has a breaking point. How far would the heroine go to defeat the villain? How far can the villain press the hero before he snaps? Most importantly, what drives a character in the face of failure? What keeps them struggling to their feet and moving forward?

Types of Motivation

There are different types of motivation. They can come one at time or several at once. A character can even be unaware of their effects. Some of the more obvious are below.

Internal versus external

Pressures that motivate characters can come from different directions. Internal motivations are those that are psychological in nature. Did a person’s traumatic childhood event effects how he or she views the world? External factors are caused by things outside the character’s control. A big one can be war, a smaller one might be putting a person in the right place at the wrong time.

Set versus flexible

Some motivation are set. A starving person will search desperately for food. Other motivations may change over time. These can occur when new relationships develop with other characters or an individual experiences a sudden loss or gain. This can be personal, professional, or economic. A change in a career path or lifestyle can also redirect motivation. Sudden discoveries about persons, places, or things often cause drastic alteration in thinking. It makes perfect sense for a character to change motivations as long as the decisions they make are realistic and work within the context of the story.

Making Motivation Work for You

Stuck in a scene with that funny dead feeling that it just isn’t

working? Try using a chart like the one on the left with three points; character action, character motivation, and evidence from the text. Key in on the action and then determine the motivation. If you can’t find any evidence in the text that ties together action and motivation, then the scene isn’t logical and it’s time for a rewrite. For a list of list of fun motivations, check out the TV Tropes Motivation Index at https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MotivationIndex

Finally, listen to your characters. Sometimes the little buggers have a mind of their own and no matter what you plotted out they steering you in a particular direction. Even though you don’t want to go there, they are generally right.

L. A. Kelley writes science fiction and fantasy adventures with humor, romance, and a touch of sass. She is a character in her own right.