Monday, September 5, 2016

Wrestling with Characters



Yep, I feel like this sometimes. The development of a character is a give and take. Authors come up with various ways in which they are 'introduced' to their characters.

By dreaming about a character at night.

Day dreaming about a character.

Inspiration from a person in daily life.

An event.

An alter ego.

What ever the means is that a character is introduced. Sometimes development of the character is difficult.

HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR CHARACTERS

Since I am a visual person, I may go about this differently than most authors.

1) I find a picture and likeness of my character
2) I paste them on my screen or wall
3) I jot down three good qualities about them
4) I jot down three negative qualities about them
5) I write out what I want to improve in their personality
6) I play with their dialogue
7) I note their major moods
8) I list their 'ticks' or habit, repeated words they like to say

Once I've built this, I dive into writing. When I get stuck, I go to my picture and list of qualities for inspiration.

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