Wednesday Writing Tip 4/25 ~ Breathing Life Into Characters

Continuing along with last week's tip dealing with character, I decided to go in that same category this week.  How do you keep from having cardboard, one-dimensional, boring characters?  What brings a character to life and causes readers to fall in love with them beyond what the characters think and feel?

As a writer, it is our job to fully flesh out our characters, to make them real people.  This isn't an easy task.  I've spent some time reading reviews of books on goodreads and I'm not surprised that one- and two-star reviews often say something negative about character creation and how "fake" the characters seem.

Honestly, in the course of my writing journey I have met many different types of writers.  One of my friends doesn't plan anything at all - he just sits at the computer and waits for the words to come to him.  Another friend plots out everything meticulously on note cards and knows from start to finish exactly what will happen every second of her book.  In fact, she worlds builds and includes much more stuff than she will ever use.

Me? I'm mostly fly by the seat of my pants and let my characters tell me what they want to do.  They usually speak to me at night before I fall asleep, and if the idea is a good one it sticks and I write it the next day.  This is how I work with one exception.  I know my characters inside and out, backward and forward before I ever type a word.

And what things do I need to know about my characters?  It's a simple list really.

I ask them what they value most.  Basically, what things would they give up anything for.  What kind of things do they look for in other people.  Honesty, family, love, money, power, their children.  Whatever they would sacrifice almost anything to have.  Then, I have to know what they wouldn't sacrifice.  What is so important to them that they wouldn't even give it up for their most valued things?  This will be their one value that can't change throughout the book, which can sometimes make things tricky in writing, but will help you stay true to your character without any convenient changes of heart.

I then move on to asking them their beliefs.  This is anything they believe beyond a shadow of a doubt.  These beliefs do not have to make sense, they don't even have to be true.  As long as the character believes it to be true, I write it down.  Lilly's beliefs were:  I can only trust myself.  No one will love me if they know my secrets.  I will be a horrible mother.  Zach's beliefs were:  I will never find my soul mate.  My family is most important. There is nothing worse than a liar.

Next comes secrets.  This is where the magic happens for me.  Whatever my characters are hiding from the rest of the world, whatever happened to them to make them bury the secret and never share with others, that is where all of my best ideas for my novel come from.  I can't share my characters' secrets with you, as I hope one day you will consider reading Always and Forever, but let's just say this category is for the really important stuff.  Did your character kill someone?  Did they cheat on an old girlfriend?  Have they been cheated on?  Do they long for a family even though they say they don't want one? Whatever their deep dark secret is, hold it close to you and spend your book exploiting that knowledge!

Now, your character needs a skill. This can be anything, but it has to be something that helps your reader connect with the character.  Lilly loves to cook.  Zach loves to dance.

From all of this information, you will be able to figure out your character's strength and flaw, and after all, every character needs a fatal flaw to overcome.  Lilly's strength is self-reliance.  Her flaw is that she can't trust others.  Zach's strength is bravery.  His flaw is arrogance.

Lastly, I want to know what they look like - body build, age, hair color, eye color.  This includes any special characteristics.  Lilly has an injured leg, walks with a limp, and uses a cane, which is a very important part of the story.  Zach has a habit of running his hand through his hair and messing it up.  I never really thought about the special characteristic.  Lilly's was a plot element, Zach's just kind of happened.  However, I've heard the advice from many places that a special characteristic will help readers feel like they are reading about real people.  That might even be true :-)  I haven't planned anything for my new characters yet in this regard, but something might pop up as I'm writing.

There are, of course, as many different ways to go about building a character as there are characters and writers.  The method I use is a mixture of methods suggested in two different classes I attended and blogs I've read.  I've merged them into a format that works for me.

Here is a quick recap of what I learn about my characters before writing:
1.  Values.
- Include what they absolutely will not give up; i.e., they would die for this thing.
2.  Beliefs.
3.  Secrets.
4.  Skill.
5.  Strength and fatal flaw.
6.  Physical description.
- Include any special characteristic.

I know my way will not work for everyone.  For more methods, check out the following blogs:
Anthologies Online
Holly Lisle How to Create a Character
Create a Fictional Character From Scratch

Good luck, and happy writing!!

Wednesday Writing Tip ~ Character ~ 4/18

Connecting with the Reader

Ah, characters.  The people who make your book go 'round.  Let's face it, without engaging characters that your readers fall in love with, your book is going nowhere, doing nothing.  I can't tell you the number of books I've started and quickly set aside, never to finish.  In the past, I never understood why I didn't like these books, what element was missing.

When I started posting my novel on Critique Circle, I received a critique that greatly perplexed me.  The critic told me my characters had too many internal thoughts, and I shouldn't spend so much time living in the heads of the characters.  We ended up starting a discussion about this with others, and it seemed to be split on what people believed was the correct way to go about writing.  Most men, it seems, don't like to write a lot of internal thoughts and feelings.  Women spend more time in the heads and hearts of their characters.  And, of course, this is a total generalization--it was a woman who told me I had too much! :-)

I didn't change the way I wrote after this discussion, however, but continued with the internal thoughts of the people in my little world.  After all, my argument was this:  how can I possibly care about someone I know nothing about?

I recently took a class on mystery writing and this subject popped up again.  Boy was I happy to learn that the expert teaching the class agreed with me.  Steve Alcorn says plot is events that happen in your novel to move the action forward.  But the real heart of the matter, the thing the reader cares about, is the story.  And that, my friends, is what is going on within your characters.  The emotional part of your novel.  What your MC thinks and feels, his hopes and fears.  The effects situations have on him personally.

I finally understood why some books I just couldn't care about.  It is this missing element of internal thoughts.  Of actually knowing the character, being invested in what is going to happen to her.  Caring about the things she cares about.

Take the following snippet from Always and Forever.  If I were taking out Lilly's internal thoughts, I would basically remove everything that is underlined.  Try reading it both ways, and see what you think.  This scene includes Lilly, Zach, and Zach's grandmother, Leticia:

Lilly exited the elevator at the top floor and knocked on Mrs. Woodbridge’s door. She opened it and backed into the room, dragging the food cart with her.

“Lilly, you should have had one of the orderlies bring that up.” Zach’s voice filled the room all at once and sent a shiver down her spine.

She had always been a sucker for a deep, seductive voice. Unfortunately, experience with Charles taught her a sexy voice and the face of an angel could hide the heart of a sadist. She didn’t get the sadist vibe from Zach, but how well could she really know a person she only saw once a week? Charles fooled her for almost a year. 

Lilly turned the cart in the small space and pushed the door closed. “Don’t worry about it, Mr. Woodbridge. It’s my job, after all. I’ll have dinner set out for the two of you in a moment.”

“You’ve known us three months now.” Leticia wagged a finger in Lilly’s direction. “I’ve told you there’s no need to be so formal. This is Zach, and you must start calling me Leticia.”

“Of course, Leticia.”

At night, during her most secret fantasies, Lilly always called him Zach.

***

As a reader, I want to understand characters--know their thoughts and hopes and dreams. 

One caution, however.  Make sure the characters don't experience the same thought over and over, or that they don't go on to tell another character about the thoughts they just had.  I did have a teensy little problem with this in a few chapters.  In one chapter, Lilly thought about her skills at cooking, looked at/smelled her cake, then Zach arrived and they talked about her cake, and then she explained how she loved cooking while thinking about the cake.  Overkill!  WE ALREADY KNOW LILLY LIKES COOKING!!! my crit partners screamed, and rightly so. 

Here are some more blogs dealing with this topic:

My struggles with interior monologue

Paranormal Point of View

How to Make Your Book Play Out Like a Movie - see #4

Game Changer: Create An Inner Dialogue Within Your Hero and Your Villain
Mystery Writing is Murder

Breathe life into your characters with internal dialogue, and your readers will think about them long after they put your book down!

Enjoy your Wednesday, everyone! Have a terrific week, and happy writing!