Tips on Creating Characters

I just read an article from Darcy Pattison on creating memorable characters. See it here: http://www.darcypattison.com/revision/why-people-forget-your-character/?utm_source=Fiction+Notes&utm_campaign=71f48904bb-RSS_EMAIL_WEEKLY_CAMPAIGN&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6e22eab634-71f48904bb-394131281&mc_cid=71f48904bb&mc_eid=3bc089de7a.

Five main points were set forth:

1. Darcy reminds us to mention our main characters (who don't have active parts in our current scenes) every forty pages or so (which Dave Farland also speaks of too), even if you only have one character note the absence of another.
2. Use name generators to come up with the right name for your character. [Here I must add in not to name any of your characters with the same first letter. So don't have Mark, Mary, May, Matt and Mike all in the same story. It's too confusing for your readers. I'd even go so far as to suggest that you never have a character name that repeats the first letter of another character name within the same book. I know I'm guilty of skimming character names while reading, reducing them to that very first letter, so Clark becomes C, Dale becomes D, Amy becomes A. So don't give your reader a chance to get confused by naming two characters with the same first letter to their name. Just saying ... Also you will find plenty of name generators online, so you don't need to limit yourself to Scrivener's option. Plus you could search baby name books and gather your own "best of the best" list to choose from. Be sure to mark out each name you've used in a previous book. That way you can create a memorable Abigail in a book or series that remains the one source (your own monopoly) where your readers can find this particular character.]
3. ID your character via a tag from the sense of sight, touch, hearing or smell. [I'd go further to include emotions (angry, depressed, manic) and even something related to their professions (artsy, aware, competitive).]
4. Show, THEN tell. [LOVE THIS ONE. I always hate it when some author tries to tell me a basic writing strategy that doesn't work 100 percent of the time, like the infamous "show, don't tell." In general, yes. But there are plenty of times when a simple "telling" transition (Three weeks later ...) or a short emotional line (Jesus wept) is all that is needed. As authors, we are told to leave out the boring parts (always good advice). That is precisely what "telling" can do. So FINALLY someone has noted the importance of "telling" when needed. In fact, this new and improved adaptation even tells us creative types WHEN to apply the "telling" portion. Just plain genius.]
5. Deepen the plot. Darcy's article reminds us that the more we authors relate the character to the plot, the more memorable the character becomes. "More at stake emotionally" as Darcy states.

Good advice. Good reminders of some things we knew. Good insights into others.

Like there are plotters and pantsters, I also believe we authors fall into two distinct camps as to plot versus character. I'm of the mind-set that the main character rules. Not that you should go the episodic route instead of utilizing a plot with its key plot points for the well-known genres, but that plot is the stage for your main character(s) to shine. To me the character arc is the learning lesson for the reader, with the story arc pinpointing the character's growth, even how we readers can duplicate his/her successful attack of a similar problem.

Had to share this with y'all because Darcy Pattison's words invigorated me as I'm writing Book 1 of my first-ever series. Hope you enjoy her article too.

"If your vocation isn’t a vacation, then quit, leap, change careers."

Denise Barker, Author, Blogger, Copy Editor
Books that Build Character(s)

amazon.com/author/denisebarker

David Farland's Family Needs Your Help

From Dave Farland’s blog:

As many of you know, Dave’s son, Ben, was in a serious long-boarding accident last week. He is 16 and suffers from severe brain trauma, a cracked skull, broken pelvis and tail bone, burnt knees, bruised lungs, broken ear drum, road rash, and is currently in a coma. His family has no insurance.

We are having a book bomb this Wednesday on behalf of Ben Wolverton to help his family out. You can view the event’s facebook page here.

For those that don’t know, a book bomb is an event where participants purchase a book on a specific day to support the author, or, in this case, a young person in serious need: Ben Wolverton.

Many of you have expressed sympathy for Dave and Ben and have asked if you could help. Now you can. We need you to help Ben get the most out of this book bomb. Right now we are focused on spreading the word and telling others about it. If you could share this event on facebook, twitter, pinterest, your blog, or through email, please do. This is a way everyone reading this can help, whatever their financial situation.

On Wednesday, we will have the book bomb. If you haven’t yet purchased Nightingale or Million Dollar Outlines, please consider doing so on Wednesday. If you have already purchased them, you can donate money to Ben and his family here.

My prayers are going up for Dave and Ben and their family.

Denise Barker

Plots, Shlots

For pantsters everywhere, you will rejoice.

For you plotters, you can carry on, just with a different focus. Or not.

This post is borne out of a recent discussion in one of my CP groups. Hope it helps you as it freed me.

Here are a few foundational elements to my theory I'm about to propose:

1. I'm a character-driven author and reader. If you give me an interesting character, I'll follow them just about anywhere. Examples from books: Eve and Roarke from J.D. Robb's In Death series; Stephanie Plum from Janet Evanovich's bounty hunter series. Examples from TV: Jessica Fletcher (from Murder, She Wrote); Alan, Charlie and Don Eppes (from Numb3rs) and all the Gallaghers from Showtime's Shameless.
2. People are basically curious. We want to know what the Joneses next door are doing in their lives. What makes them happy, successful. Individually and in marriage. We want to know what Brad and Angelina are up to. What exciting and interesting things they have done. What (remote, unfamiliar?) places they have traveled to now. What else explains the sales of the gossipy magazines at the checkout lane in the grocery store, even while most consider them to be filled with invalid info? Other than possibly living vicariously through the people made the subject matter therein.
3. Those different sections in a (physical) bookstore are about the emotions they evoke: horror, love, mystery, wonder, humor, adventure, suspense/intrigue. This is often espoused by fantasy author Dave Farland.

So, if readers want emotions and interesting characters, we should focus on that, right?

And this therefore is my theory: It's not about plot. It's about the character arc. So while you may continue to create your requisite plot points, just think of them as hanging off the ultimate bell curve: your character arc.

In Robert McKee's Story, on pages 319–331 in the hardcover edition, he gives examples of his Principle of Antagonism, which deals with themes and emotions. I agree. Add communicating it well, being at least as smart as your sophisticated reader of today so there are no flimsy, faulty holes in your reasonings as to cause and effect, or human nature, etc., and you are set.

So, to put my theorem in a more usable format, here's the new revised "fought points" that I'm working from, at this point forward, to keep me focused on the correct nexus (repurposed from Campbell's original Hero's Journey):

• Ordinary World. Our hero/heroine (H/H) with their individual secrets, their individual fears and, whether they know it yet or not, how that may conflict with each other's set of secrets/fears, or circumstances or internal compass; H/H are familiar with this stage, representing the known, the stilled waters; whereas the unknown evokes more fears and could involve change(s) which may be unpleasant to go through.
• Inciting Incident. Thrown into the stirred waters, our H/H's secrets are threatened, or their fears are put to the test, either by circumstances or the other main characters' actions or internal guilt, regrets, depression, whatever you can imagine to put them through.
• (At least) Three Try/Fail Attempts. This represents our H/H's experiments to get out of the bad place they find themselves and back to the old one, until they grow enough to envision a better one.
• Climax. The "light bulb" moment where the H/H figure it out; their character has been changed, self-growth achieved.
• Denouement. Resolution, tying up all the loose ends of minor character arcs, or any remaining questions revolving around the main character arc and—taking this next part from most of the beloved long-term TV shows—ending on a relaxing, regrouping moment of personal reflection or introspection into their new, improved self and resultant life. And successes, hopefully.

As with any theory, this is a work-in-progress, subject to subsequent experiments and failures and more tweaking. I've always considered myself plot-impaired and now I see why. My focus was off.

Anyway, if this resonates with you, give it a try.

If this is not for you, disregard my abstraction and continue carrying on. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

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Dave Farland's Guest Blog Postponed Until November

Sorry, guys.  The release date for Nightingale has been delayed, tentatively to November 4, 2011, because of the enhanced nature of this novel.  Hang tight, all.  Dave will be with us later.  I look forward to it!

Change in Date for David Farland Guest Blog

Due to a release date change for Nightingale, the date for Dave Farland's Guest Blog here has been changed from October 18, 2011 to October 28, 2011.  I will keep y'all posted as we look forward to hearing from Dave.

And My Thanks Goes Out to . . .

First, to Margie Lawson for her Class Notes version of The (Deep) EDITS System©.

I’m an author who happens to freelance as a copy editor for one major NYC publishing house.  So I deal with spelling, sentence structure, adverb placement, noun-verb agreement and other basic grammar rules plus some not-so-basic as set forth in the Chicago Manual of Style.  Webster’s and I have become great friends as well.

So what I do and what Margie Lawson does are TOTALLY different.  Think of her like the Big Editor at the Big Publishing House you are trying to impress with your writing.  Now multiply that by twenty-five.  To the nth power.  I know.  It’s the how-do-I-eat-the-world’s-toughest-mammoth problem.  One bite at a time.  Trust me.  After you finish reading her over three-hundred pages of notes from this one class, your pulse rate should return to normal.

You can find her Class Notes on her website at www.MargieLawson.com.  I purchased the first one for $22 and even before I finished her Deep EDITS class, I bought the notes to two other classes.  She’s amazing.  I recommend every author take her classes or buy her notes.  Your work product will soar afterward.

While I’m sending out my thanks and kudos to her, I may as well mention a few other people I have never met who have helped hone my writing career.

David Farland.  Go to www.davidfarland.net/ and sign up for his Daily Kick in the Pants newsletter.  (Check out his author community while you are there.)  Although with his time constraints and writing schedule amped up even more, his Daily Kick is more of a weekly publication at the moment.  Still he gives wonderful detailed advice to authors.  I’ve been following him for years and feel like I’ve been taking a free writing class from him.  Which I have.

Randy Ingermanson at www.advancedfictionwriting.com/ezine/.  Sign up for his monthly newsletter.  You will not be deluged with email from him.  He has great content (and humor) in his e-zine and I’m a fan of his Snowflake software, too.  Check out his website and his blog and other features.  He has this hilarious recurring short-short series about his plumber Bob, if memory serves.  Find it.  Read it.  Laugh out loud.  Several times. 

I have also been blessed to take online courses from Laurie Schnebly-Campbell (see her Enneagrams book at www.amazon.com/Believable-Characters-Creating-Enneagrams-ebook/dp/B0040GJHU4 for Kindle and www.amazon.com/Believable-Characters-Enneagrams-Laurie-Schnebly/dp/0930831039 for print).  Plus Carol Hughes’s DEEP Story class is marvelous.

Authors are a fantastic group of folks—giving of their time and advice.  Mentoring newbies.  Uplifting.  Encouraging.  Exhorting.  These wordsmiths personify core values that enhance our lives and our careers.   I am proud to be among them.