Dec 11
Our parents give us our first view of the world. We incorporate their lessons into our lives and, sometimes, we spend the rest of our lives trying to unlearn these beliefs and developing our own worldview.
The other day, I was wondering what the characters in my work-in-progress have learned from their parents about love.
Growing up, I learned some very specific things about love: Read more
One of the things I love about reading other people’s work is what I learn from it.
So, last year, when I was asked to be one of the judges for a prose competition, I said yes. The competition guidelines listed the areas we were to rank on a scored number system—things like characterization, setting, dialogue, point of view, etc.
Of the twenty or so submissions I read, there were a variety of stories—from a gothic, steampunk, coming-of-age story to a memoir about losing one’s memory in the aging process.
A few submissions stood out above the others like the shiny, bright agates my cousin and I would hunt for on the beaches of our childhood. These submissions wove all aspects of good writing and storytelling together into a whole that hooked my interest from the first line and never let go.
The majority of the submissions fell somewhere in the middle of the pile—not to be rude—but what I might call “mediocre land.” They weren’t poorly written but they didn’t grab ahold of me and say, “Read this, now!” In fact, in many cases, I couldn’t wait for the story to be over because I was bored.
So, what did I learn? Read more
Best-selling author Patricia Cornwell was recently featured on Sunday Morning where she talked about her heroine, Dr. Kay Scarpetta, in her main book series. In the interview, Cornwell says she gives her readers a “huge does of forensic science and medicine” but, at the same time, the story is really about her protagonist Scarpetta, what she’s going through, and where she needs to get to.
One way Cornwell makes Scarpetta human and more relatable is to give her a simple, down-to-earth trait. Read more
How extreme are your characters?
Some of the most interesting and memorable characters in literature have contradictory and irreconcilable traits. Extreme characters are a mix of traits that make them so unique that they aren’t like anyone we know.
But it doesn’t mean we don’t identify with some of their characteristics. These characters stick in your reader’s mind.
Tips:
Think of your character’s traits and consider which one you want to emphasize. Mental traits often work better than physical and can power emotional depth in your story. Surprise your reader by turning stereotypes inside out.
Here’s a profile of an extreme character: Read more
“A writer, or any man, must believe that whatever happens to him is an instrument; everything has been given for an end. This is even stronger in the case of the artist. Everything that happens, including humiliations, embarrassments, misfortunes, all has been given like clay, like material for one’s art….Those things are given to us to transform, so that we may make from the miserable circumstances of our lives things that are eternal, or aspire to be so. If a blind man thinks this way, he is saved. Blindness is a gift.” –Jorge Luis Borges
I don’t have many “off” days. What I mean is, I’m pretty good at handling life’s little surprises. I wasn’t always so cool and collected. I used to obsess and worry and play the repetitive mind-game as well as the next person. But over the years, I worked hard at letting all that go. I was motivated to change.
I knew I was making progress the year my son turned 13. It was the morning after Halloween. I opened the front door to pick up the newspaper, when I saw it—somebody, in the middle of the night, had thrown a gigantic pumpkin at my brand new car. The car’s rear end was demolished, the trunk caved in, and my deductible was $1,000 (which I didn’t have at the time because I’d just purchased the new car). I was stunned. I felt as if somebody had sucked up all the air in the world. Read more
What do you think of when you hear these names? Holden Caulfield, Bilbo Baggins, Jane Eyre, Hannibal Lecter, and Scarlett O’Hara.
Memorable character names help grab readers’ attention, and gripping characters become so real that readers remember them long after they read the last page of a book.
I collect names the way I collect other writing bits in my commonplace book. I wrote these down recently: Virgil Doty, Pernelle Parker, Carlyle Scoggins.
Here are a few things to think about when you’re creating character names:
Avoid similar sounding names – Especially in the beginning of your story, readers will be meeting your characters and trying to place them and the relationships. Jared, Jason and Joseph are all nice names but too many “J” names might throw off readers. Read more
A sure way to suck the life out of a story is by using stereotypical characters. For one thing, it usually means the rest of your story will be stereotypical – and predictable.
Stereotypical characters are stereotypes because their character traits have been repeatedly used and with little depth or complexity. You’ve seen them before: The popular blonde cheerleader, the cynical, hard-boiled private detective, and the cold-blooded hitman. They rob you, the reader, of surprise because you automatically know what will happen next. Read more
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