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Posts tagged ‘character development’

Oct 14

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“Talk saves lives”: Rob Adams on the raw emotional heart of Tabitha Unleashed

What happens when a girl blessed—and burdened—with extraordinary abilities discovers that her hardest battles aren’t fought against supervillains, but against depression, shame, and the quiet ache of wanting to disappear?

In Tabitha Unleashed, author Rob Adams weaves high-stakes speculative drama with raw, tender humanity. Driven by the fierce bond between twin sisters, the story follows Tabitha into the blinding glare of a national stage as she risks everything to save her dying sister—while struggling to believe that her own life is worth saving at all.

I had the pleasure of sitting down with Rob to talk about the inspiration behind Tabitha’s powers, writing authentic mental health journeys, the emotional weight of sisterhood, and why the bravest power of all is simply reaching out for help.

Here is our conversation.

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Jun 24

List of filter words to avoid including really, very, just, that, I think, I feel, suddenly, believe, seems, sort of, kind of, literally, actually, decided to, began to, looked, with most crossed out.

Breaking the barrier: how to eliminate filtering verbs and master deep point of view

We’ve all heard the classic writing advice: Show, don’t tell. It’s a golden rule for a reason, but when you’re transitioning from an intermediate writer to an advanced storyteller, there are subtle, sneaky culprits that keep your prose from achieving true intimacy.

They are called filtering verbs.

Words like saw, heard, felt, noticed, realized, and thought.

On the surface, they seem harmless. They simply describe what your character is experiencing. But filtering verbs act like a glass wall between your reader and your protagonist. Every time you write “She heard the floorboard creak,” you’re reminding the reader that they are sitting in a chair, reading a book about a person hearing a sound.

If you want to pull your reader entirely inside your character’s skin, it’s time to break the glass. Welcome to the world of Deep Point of View.

What is filtering and why does it weaken your prose?

Filtering happens when a writer places the protagonist’s senses between the reader and the action. It creates a narrative distance. Instead of experiencing the world through the character, the reader is watching the character experience the world.

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Jun 22

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Reveal your characters through their circle of friends

Experts say we are most like our five closest friends. I think that’s true. Our friends usually have similar interests and values as we do. Looking at someone’s friend circle can tell you a lot about them.

I’ve started using a friendship circle to track my friendships as a way to see where people belong in my life—this helps me keep clear boundaries which is something I always need to work on.

Recently, I wondered what would happen if my main character Caitlin filled this out. Who are her friends, and how do they reflect who she is to my reader? I had her fill out my friendship circle and the results really helped me get a clearer sense of who she is deep down inside.

I’ll share my experiment with you, but first a bit about how to use the friendship circle. Read more

Mar 15

How to use the six basic human needs to make your characters come to life, part 1

The key to writing strong, believable characters is to really know and understand your characters as if they’re living, breathing human beings.

You want to know your character’s background, what makes them tick, what has happened to them to make them who they are today, what they dream about for the future, and more.

You need to know all this even if it’s not in your story. I keep separate journals for each of my main characters so I can write about them and write from their point of view.

One tool that has helped me delve deeper into my characters’ motivations comes from human needs psychology which has defined six basic human needs.

Motivational speaker Tony Robbins has written a great article on these needs, “Tony Robbins: 6 Basic Needs that Make us Tick.” The six needs are: Read more

Nov 26

Using your grief and other emotions to deepen your characters

It’s difficult to write about deep painful emotions, even in our characters, unless we’ve experienced them. And, even then, it’s not an easy task.

Strong emotions can be overwhelming. Sometimes we numb ourselves or run away in order to avoid our feelings. I used to do that until I realized on some level that the emotions would fester inside me until I actually did the work of processing my feelings and healing myself. The advantage of doing this when you’re a writer is that you can use what you learn about your emotions to deepen your characters. I wrote about this earlier in “Draw on personal pain to write believable characters.”

But I want to delve deeper into this subject today because I’m working on a scene in my novel where I’m trying to understand the complicated grief my antagonist has about his sister’s death and how it motivates him to do bad things.

Grief is one of the most complicated emotions because it can have shades of guilt, shame, anger, and other feelings mixed in. Read more

Nov 4

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Eight exercises to develop curiosity and become a better writer (and person)

Developing our curiosity can serve to make us not only more interesting people but also better writers and more creative artists.

Being curious has helped me dig deeper in my writing, develop an authentic voice, and create more well-rounded characters. It has also improved my relationships and, overall, made me a happier person.

When I was younger, if someone started talking about a subject I wasn’t interested in (history, westerns, reptiles), I’d listen but my attention would wander after a while. Over the years, I learned to look at these exchanges from a different perspective.

I started asking myself, “What can I learn from this person about this subject that I didn’t know before?” Then I’d listen and ask questions. Suddenly, everything became much more interesting, including me! These types of interactions can also be mining grounds for future story ideas and character traits.

Artists need to be curious about their world, but with the stress and busyness of our daily lives, how do we maintain our child-like sense of wonder and curiosity?

Here are a few exercises that have helped me:

  1. Have an open mind.

Practice looking at things, people, and situations with a clear, open mind. When you find yourself judging someone, let go of the judgment. Instead, ask questions. Read more

Mar 5

Draw on personal pain to write believable characters

I started reading a new paranormal novel last month that I had high hopes for based on how quickly and easily the first few chapters hooked me. The plot was refreshing, unique, and action-filled from the beginning. Interesting, quirky characters reeled me in. But it quickly went downhill from there.

I’m the type of reader who usually doesn’t give up on a book. I always have faith that the author will pull out of the temporary bog and finish, if not strong, at least well. I have only given up on two books in my life. My new paranormal novel was the third.

What went wrong? Read more

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