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

Describing Characters in Novels

Writing techniques for novels have evolved over the centuries. "It was a dark and stormy night" was, in its heyday, a very acceptable opening. Yet, in my opinion, "Once upon a time" is a classic first line for fairy tales and probably will remain that way. So, keep in mind, some ideas regarding descriptions (of people, of places, of things) are more universal than others.

Note: There will always be exceptions. Some ingenious author will use "It was a dark and stormy night" with wild success. That's when it's great to know the "rules" well enough to break them so creatively as to make them work. This writing game is all about doing something new, unique, right?

Opening your book with paragraphs or pages of static description would not be acceptable to most readers nowadays, due to our seven-second-or-less attention spans and all the faster-paced multimedia available to us: streaming music/movies, computer games, Kindle books/games, the Internet as a learning resource or as a social site. And that's just what we can do quite alone with technology at our fingertips. Lots of competition, folks, for our downtime.

Maybe in the 1950s, before everyone had a newfangled TV in the house, you could get away with a slow-starting book, rambling on about too much info which can't be deemed all that important to the plot. For example, like describing every wildflower in the field behind a house which is only there long enough to burn down and start the fire inspector on his hunt for the arsonist.

Just recently I've stopped reading some novels. Unfinished. Removed them from my device. Gasp! Sacrilegious, right? But with my Kindle full of "new" books to choose from, and my limited free time, I should be selective. Plus reading those not-for-me stories violates one of my personal rules about not wasting time, mine or other people's. And I'm not just a reader; I'm also an author, looking for styles and techniques and tips from other authors' books that I can learn from, not to mention the copy editor side of me who loves to find those lines of taut construction which communicate with perfection. Oh, yeah, and I'm the Quote Queen too. So I'm delirious to read great lines, succinct pearls of wisdom on the human condition.

Thus, if the story doesn't grab me at the beginning, I'm pretty sure it won't once I'm deeper into the tale either. I know. Because I've read books all the way to The End that told me from page one how this tale was not to my liking. So I'm yielding to that wise inner voice now. Some authors have the "it" factor I'm looking for in my reading. And I can tell if I see it, feel it, on that first page, even if I can't define "it" for you (or me).

Now for my particular pet peeve: the police-blotter description of any character in a novel. I don't want to read about the main protagonist or even a one-off character as "six foot two, black hair, blue eyes, broad shoulders." First, it's hackneyed. Second, we're supposed to be imaginative authors, creative types. We can surely do better than that. Third, it only gets worse when more adjectives are added to this mix, as in "a lanky and dreamy six foot two, raven jet-black hair, unbelievably bluer-than-blue eyes, with strong broad shoulders that could protect her." Ugh. Can you say "purple prose"?

Besides, that "could protect her" angle irks me to no end. Especially when it's "overall" and not just at this very moment when fighting six against one is some lopsided odds. I'm looking for a strong female lead, not a wimpy woman who wants the man to take care of her in toto. That's a long-winded topic for another post ...

But the only time I think such police-blotter description is appropriate is, indeed, on a police blotter. If you're writing a detective novel, a crime series, etc., and the investigator picks up a file on a missing perp, then, and only then, is it okay to write—and for us, your readers, to read—"blond/brown, five ten, 180."

And the mirror description? Don't go there. It's been done. Too many times. It's far from being unique and original. I'd stop reading then for sure. And I wouldn't go back to finish that one either.

In fact, at present, I'm enjoying the internal descriptions of characters, completely void of any physical description at first. And any later clue to their outward appearance is maybe one telling detail, like, "He suspected, with her red hair, that she had a temper under that smile."

I'm loving that.

Plus, even in the books of old, with their purple-prose-enhanced police-blotter descriptions, I bet the mental image I had of the character was not even close to what the author imagined. Haven't you yearned to see that movie based on one of your favorite books only to be totally disappointed in the actor playing your beloved character in that story? So it's better to let the reader form his or her own impression of what these characters look like. No need for the storyteller to be heavy-handed in this area.

So, authors, give your readers room to imagine the outer person of someone who's too blunt or a con artist or not to be trusted or selfish or brave or adventurous or smart or awkward or flirty or childish or manipulative or a bully or standing on a street corner looking lost or bending to feed a stray dog or ... whatever.

For me, I'm going to give insight into who my character is first and foremost, then add later a physical descriptor or two, like what would be noticed above all about this person. And I like tells. We all have them. Surely they speak to some insecurity within us, right? Those psychological details add depths to our imaginary friends without us having to write more than that. Until later. When we reveal their secrets. Pretty cool, right?

"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

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

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What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

My Author Ideas Notebook

Okay, so it's not just a notebook. It has a related box of files too. But overall I've got stuff sorted into separate folders. "Stuff" here means pages I've ripped from my old magazines or catalogs, where the people are so striking, hitting a chord with me.

When I don't have a fix on my lead character in my newest book, I can look through my Characters manila file folder and search out the ones who seem to want to tell their story at this moment. Then, where before I had no one visualized to populate my story, now I have more than enough vying to be the main character. A nice problem to have.

Same thing goes for other authorial topics. Here's my list of things I collect, set aside, waiting for an opportune moment to be put to use:

1. Characters - See above discussion. If you just throw out magazines and catalogs, and aren't the pack-rat saver I am, then visit Pinterest. It hypnotizes me for days. I have to limit my visits for that very reason. I have one obit (somewhere) that reads like a Hollywood movie. That person really knew how to live each day. Inspires me in my real life as well as in my writing life.
2. Character Names - I've bought like four baby name books that I need to completely go through and compile my list of favorite boy and girl names. I've also saved an old Louisiana telephone book to get some great Cajun names from. 
3. Places - this can be a magazine travel article about a geographic location on a map or a photo of a house that strikes my fancy.
4. Careers - give your readers a tale about someone with an interesting career.
5. Great First Lines - I love these, amassed from my own reading or via an Internet search for same. Sometimes they can be inspirational. Sometimes they make me feel insecure as an author. Ha!
6. Plots - Whether you subscribe to the one-plot theory or the thirty-seven plots or the seven or whatever, it doesn't hurt to have them somewhere handy to jog your brain. Try melding two. Try "upgrading" one with a new and different twist.
7. Clothes - sometimes an outfit can spur me on when developing a certain character.
8. Words - I'm a certified geek. I subscribe to two word-of-the-day offerings, plus I'm a copy editor with a daily relationship with Webster's. What can I say? Words speak to me. Single words even. So I keep three Brainstorming files. One is an email folder. One is a Word document. One is a physical file, in case the electricity or the Internet is down. These word entries can describe a person, a place, a mood, be used as a stand-alone title or part of a multiple-word title, not to mention in the blurbs and descriptions of my ebooks.  Have you ever played that game with your writing buddies where you each pick one word, then all the selected words are to be used in one 250-word piece, written on the spot in the next five minutes? It's totally fun. And so illuminating. Each short-short will be unique. Because each author is unique.
9. Cars - I love cars of all vintages. So I save clippings of some. One, a picture of a Jeep, reminds me of this girl who drove past the DART bus I was riding to work. I don't have a picture to memorialize that, of course, but the Jeep does that for me. Even if I don't mention the vehicle in my latest novel, it helps me visualize the girl driving it. So I'm using it for characterization more than as a mode of transportation for my imaginary friends.
10. Themes - I gravitate toward the emotional resonance of a theme. So I love to find these to help me nail them in my own writing.
11. Emotions - I have a book regarding emotions and how to show them, plus lists of gradations of them, like anger, from miffed to murderous. Helps me to broaden my range of emotions expressed.
12. Scenes - If I happen to overhear a wonderful conversation, I get it down. For later.
13. Relationships - I save magazine articles touting relationships. I do have to weed through some cheesy ones to get to those that work for me.
14. Psychology - I happen to like the psychological aspect of things, so I've saved my son's psychology textbook for my writing applications.
15. Taglines - I save great ones to help me formulate one for each of my books.
16. Favorite Movies - I have a growing list, but I have yet to see a pattern as to why I like these movies. You know, something the author/screenwriter did to engage me, which I should be able to reproduce in my own works. To me, they are all different and special in their own way, so I get lost in the magic and can't seem to work on a formula that defines my particular viewing pleasure (other than generics, like a happy ending, some humor, some romance, some action, some intrigue, yet something that won't leave me in bed that night with the lights still on).
17. Favorite Books - Same thing here. I've been trying to find out the authors' magic touches in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged and in Nora Roberts's First Impressions and The Fall of Shane MacKade. Again I get lost in the weave of the storytelling web ... which says something in and of itself.
18. Quotes - I'm a quotaholic. I have my own ebook compilations of quotes (Volume Four coming soon). Each are about ninety or so pages long with maybe ten quotes per MSWord page, so I've gathered nine hundred pithy sayings within each offering, times the four volumes to date, or a total of 3,600 aphorisms that are all my favorites. I also subscribe to a couple daily quote emails too. I love quotes. They can summarize a life's philosophy or a theme or a plot-in-the-making or a conflict with just a handful of words.
19. Archetypes - This list of various types also helps with character development.
20. Enneagrams - Ditto.
21. Astrology - Ditto. Plus gets into financial and social atmospheres too.
22. My Happy Places - These are good for inserting into random scenes, like an overpass interchange, a movie theater, a farmer's market, etc. I just keep a running list in my physical Brainstorming notebook.
23. Push My Buttons - This list is my particular collection of nemeses who I've had the misfortune to run across in my lifetime, such as manipulators, liars, con artists, bullies, coattailers (my own word to describe slackers who want to ride on the accomplishments of my hard work), scammers, judgmental people, yada, yada. Good for conflict ideas in the sagging middle parts of books.
24. List of Interests - I have myriad curiosities, so my list of things that interest me continues on. I find it helpful in career hunting for my characters.
25. Branding - Knowing about this helps with creating covers. I'm not a marketing guru, but I keep a few articles handy that help me out with this.
26. Cover Art - I love the Amazon emails that depict covers. Some I like. Some I don't. I keep a folder on each to help me sort out what to use for my own book covers.
27. The Best of the Best - I keep good notes of each writing book I've read and am compiling a Plotting Checklist for my own use, but I also plan to upload same to Amazon too. This won't encompass all the tips I've read and collected, but it will cover the ones most useful in plotting. Especially for someone like me. I'm actually a hybrid. I'm a pantster who, in general, has at least three or four of the seven main plot points figured out before I start writing a new book. Still, I've read enough about plotting versus writing by the seat of my pants to realize the final edit will be less onerous if I plot beforehand. Sold!
28. Marketing - Again, not my expertise, but I save other authors' emails promoting their work. They all have their unique points, but they all also promote their work via emails. Good stuff to know.
29. Formatting - I have a fellow author buddy who is no longer local and is (was?) a professional formatter, and she was kind enough to tell me that my layperson's formatting of my ebooks looked pretty good. She actually shared her time and expertise to walk a couple of us through her formatting process. Let me tell you, that is a tedious feat and involves downloading two (free) software programs. I'd have to relearn it all over again each season as I upload a new ebook. For my purposes, I'll stick with MSWord Styles and autogenerating tables of contents. When money is no object, I'll hire my friend (or someone she recommends).
30. Bios/Blurbs/Descriptions - I've saved some tips on each of these, mainly dealing with SEO, that I've run across over the years. More updated info is probably on the Net. I'd suggest you search there for help.
31. Hobbies - Make a list of those you enjoy or those you want to do more of or find out everything about. These are good to slip into a scene to add detail. They can even serve as your main character's occupation or for a secondary cast member's day job.
32. Music - Songs can be so helpful to inspire a mood or even a whole book.
33. Art - One writing class I took years ago had us searching the Net for artwork we loved that spawned a story to be told. Very appealing to me. I have an artwork folder that never ceases to invigorate me.
34. Poetry - I'm a wordy novelist, so I'm amazed and stunned that poets can relay so much with so few words. But, there again, those are well-chosen words. Something we authors can make use of too. Of course, the two artistic expressions are different as well. While poetry can be all about the flowery prose and euphemisms and ethereal communication, that doesn't work so well in a fiction piece. In little smatterings here and there of five words or less, maybe ... But we live in the seven-seconds-of-attention generation. Readers can lose interest fast if explosions, murder, sex, etc., are not happening on each page.
35. Cooking - I love to cook, especially when I have the time and the money. But we authors can parlay those things we love into our writing too. First it adds a layer of detail to our scenes. Second it nicely works into our writing the two oft-overlooked senses of smell and taste. I love Robert B. Parker's Spenser series anyway, but the nice touch that Spenser cooks is much appreciated and enjoyed.
36. Voice - I'm currently reading a book released in 2003 entitled Finding Your Voice: How to Put Personality in Your Writing by Les Edgerton, which I am enthralled with. I'm savoring every page, and so it's taking me longer to read this one as I learn, get inspired and take note of the homework assignments that I'll do when I reread the portions I highlighted. And there are many of those. Exciting stuff here. Makes me happy to be an author.

I hope I've encouraged you to create your own stash of go-to ideas. Want to share some of yours?

"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

http://denisebarkerauthor.blogspot.com/

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

http://bit.ly/AMAZONDeniseBarkerEbooks

http://bit.ly/BNDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/SMASHWORDSDeniseBarkerEBooks

http://bit.ly/KOBODeniseBarkerEBooks

What lies behind you and what lies in front of you pales in comparison to what lies inside of you. Ralph Waldo Emerson
When you give someone a book, you don’t give him just paper, ink, and glue.  You give him the possibility of a whole new life. Christopher Morley
The best inheritance you can leave your kids is an example of how to live a full and meaningful life. Dan Zadra

NaNoWriMo Tips: A Synopsis + Character Photos and Names

I'm a pantster, although one of my romance group authors thinks I'm a hybrid, because I usually have the beginning, the ending and the black moment conceived, just not any of the other stuff.

So take what you know and write out a synopsis, as if you were submitting same to a publishing house. Remember for these, inclusion of the ending is necessary to see if you can deliver a good tale. Regardless of whether you are seeking a traditional publisher or going the Indie route, you can benefit from this step.

So if you have seven major plot points, you are in good shape, IMO. Take them and fashion a synopsis, a summary of your plot in order, maybe expounding on each point with a paragraph or two. Fourteen paragraphs is not unusual. If you check out a few publishing houses online and see what their requirements are (which differ from house to house), a traditional synopsis can range from one page to five.

Plus, it helps to see where you have glaring logic flaws, or holes where nothing much is going on. Not that you can't go with it, as is, flaws and holes and all; you just need to be prepared to work each out as you navigate NaNoWriMo. 

Also, if you love Pinterest, as I do, find a good depiction of your hero and heroine. Post them online. Or print out one of each for your computer desk. Remember: a picture is worth a thousand words. Find one that propels you to write about the person in it.

While you are at it, peruse your baby name book collection (or telephone book or obituary pages) for the main characters' names. If doing a romance, it really helps that they go together well in the same sentence, like Barbie and Ken. Just something to keep in mind. I started a list of preferred male and female names, A to Z, from one of my baby name books. Haven't finished that project yet and still have other books to go.

Above all, remember to have fun with the whole process, y'all!

Denise Barker, author + blogger + copy editor

http://bit.ly/DeniseBarkerBlog

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More Musings From an Indie Author

I'm an eternal student.  I can see me with seven degrees--given the funds--which would have possibly detoured my career as a novelist. Therefore, I'm very happy that I was not swayed from my true purpose. But I can still study those seven main loves of mine.

In fact, as an author, research is very much a part of the job.  And I get to choose which topics.  Believe me, I will need multiple lifetimes to pursue my self-study of the many subjects that interest me.  And thoroughly enjoy the process with each project.

So, my recent readings have brought to focus two things that I keep feeling this insistent nudging to share with fellow authors.  Hope this helps someone out there.

Memorable Characters

Now, whether they are remembered for a lifetime or just a few haunting days after reading a novel to The End, I cannot guarantee.  But please share with us, if you have the "forever" formula!

My take here is more narrowed.  I am focusing on the "memorable" part.  From the get-go.  With the initial intro of your character to your reader.  I have based my inklings of it on my own law of three:  it takes three different elements to memorize a list (or make a character memorable).

I learned this from Daddy on long car trips to visit the grandparents each summer.  He and I would be the only ones awake at 4:00 a.m. while he drove and the others slept, so we'd play the memory game.

I'd make a list of about twenty items and tell Daddy number one was water and so on throughout number twenty.  With each pairing, he took about three minutes to memorize it.  Once completed, I'd randomly pick either numbers or nouns and he would give me the number for the noun or the noun for the number.  Quite amazing.

Come to find out, he had a "master" list memorized.  So he already had a number one item, but when I gave him my newly chosen number one item, he would match up the two into some unusual combination so his mind would remember the association.

This is a lame example but his master list may have the initial item as being "fork" and my first word on my list is "butterfly."  Maybe instead of pinning your butterfly to a board like a naturalist would, we would reach for one huge salad fork instead.  Therefore an absurd match has been made (both alpha and numeric, and quite visually too) and hopefully because of that, we can retrieve the vision later--whether via "one" or "butterfly."

Kind of weird to memorize one list to help with another, but still I see the advantages.  You can take all the time you want to memorize the master list--a year, a decade.  But when you play the memory game, you only have about three minutes to deeply seat that new word in your mind.  So it helps to have this "anchor" already there in your brain.

I relayed the above to make this point:  We all have anchors.  Say "Marilyn Monroe" and I bet the visual image of her in a white dress standing atop an air-shaft grate causing her skirt to rise flashes in our memories.

I'd much prefer a Marilyn Monroe lookalike as a description of my heroine since I am so adverse to the "police blotter" character descriptions--5'6", blonde/blue, Caucasian female--showing up in novels.  Unless it truly is from a police blotter in a whodunit.

So I'm always looking for ways to picture my character to my reader without the obvious, hackneyed rhetoric.  Back to Marilyn Monroe, we could always show our female lead as blonde bombshell pin-up material.  The only fault I find with that is it dates our writing.  With Marilyn, however, we are probably okay as she is "eternal" like the Mona Lisa or Eve in the Garden of Eden.

But if you are considering "linking" your main character (MC) to an actor now part of the latest and newest TV series--that may or may not make it to Season Two--you might want to rethink your association for one of your main characters.  Make it a more long-term character, like Scarlett O'Hara or Elizabeth Bennett over your fave daytime actress, IMO.

Or in another eventuality, what if you are writing a sweet romance novel (no sex, just kissing, and that at the very end), and you have your leading man associated with a well-known public figure.  Only to find out, two days after your book releases, that he is caught in a huge sex scandal, with X-rated photos all over the Net.

Just saying . . . 

Back to the law of three.  To make your hero or heroine "congeal" for your reader, give them three points of info right out of the starting gate.  Be judicious about your selection.  Besides their name (which is another post--but don't give a ditsy-sounding name to a librarian and vice versa), and some idea of their age/sex/looks, we need a third point.

I know in my online communities I usually go with "I'm a RomSus Indie-pubbed author, Denise from Dallas."  Yes, I know, there is that porn movie Debbie Does . . . and, although not my genre, if the humor (and absurdity) of it makes for a few laughs and gets me embedded in someone's mind, then it has served its purpose.

Just what we should do with our main characters in our books.

Not that we can't lavish this detail on our minor characters.  Think Serge in one of the Beverly Hills Cop movies.  Bronson Pinchot was priceless in this small, short scene.  And from what I understand, he found this obscure accent to incorporate that helped round out an otherwise two-dimensional bit part.

Plus, I'm among fellow authors here and we have been known to say more outrageous things than anything shared above.  You know what I am talking about.  You and your writing buddies are at an overflowing restaurant talking about your latest novel.  The dinner conversation could entail one or all of the following:  "Would a severed head float?" followed by "Why not just poison him?" with an added thought of "Make it a threesome in bed so you have more suspects."

See what I mean?

The nearby diners will probably remember y'all for a long time . . . .

The Eight Archetypes

I read in one rendition where we have all eight types within us, which is an intriguing thought.  For review, here they are with a corresponding example from Star Wars:

Protagonist (Luke Skywalker), Antagonist (the Empire), Contagonist (Darth Vader), Guardian/Mentor (Obi-Wan), Sidekicks (R2D2 + C3PO), Skeptic (Hans Solo), Emotion (Chewbacca), Reason (Princess Leia).

If we do house the complete range of types, then that explains why in one situation we act like Hans Solo while in another like Obi-Wan.  Maybe we should cut ourselves and others some slack just for this reason alone.

Plus this makes logical sense as to why authors write in many genres.  After all, we may have the complete set "in us."  Awesome, right?  

We could engage our Chewbacca and write an epic drama.  

We could channel our Luke Skywalker and create a rousing adventure story.  

We might imagine a book completely from the evil villain's POV.  A thriller, a horror, a black comedy/fantasy.  

If we are riding along with Hans Solo (put on your seat belt or, better yet, get him away from the controls!), it could encourage a humorous escapism book, an action/adventure.  

With our Guardian/Mentor on board, we might lean more toward instructional nonfiction, a How-To book, or a textbook, a resource manual.  There again, we could convert it to fiction and still use it as a teaching tool, whether for children or adults.

If we focus on our sidekicks, it could end up being a coming-of-age story, or a midlife crisis drama.

Oh, and the contagonist, such as Darth Vader.  What a red herring for our mysteries or police dramas.

Let's not forget Princess Leia.  "Bad things can happen to good people" comes to mind.  But she wins out in the end, right?  So a success story could be written in novel form, or a bio of a real-life person.  Or maybe Jane finds out "all work without play" makes her and her life boring.  So you pen a love story where the heroine grows and evolves and finds a man to spent eternity with.  

You may have your own plot variances, but that is just it.  Keep those minds churning and your imagination actively engaged.  

And have fun!  We are authors.  We chose this career as much as it chose us.  This is our goal in life.  So enjoy the process . . . as well as each completed book.  Not many people can say, "I finished a book.  A real one with a plot and interesting characters."  And even fewer individuals can honestly and proudly boast, "I've written my third/thirtieth/one-hundred-and-thirtieth novel."  

Go for it!

Denise Barker, author + freelance copy editor
Good Ole Boys, a love story
A Copyediting Checklist for Novelists

More Random Musings + An Author's List of Lists

One more thing about Nora Roberts.  She grew up with four brothers and I'm sure that added to her savvy insight into the male mind, dialogue, actions.  Plus, it is not unheard of for her to write about a family of four brothers (the MacKades, for just one example).  And I know my "Good Ole Boys:  The Prequel" that I wrote during NaNoWriMo 2011 went smoothly and I gather that has to do with the fact that I knew my character already.  He was Pops from Good Ole Boys, my debut e-novel.  I had him figured out in that first book.  Yet I still needed his given name in the second.

I'm not saying Nora bases all her male four-sets on her brothers.  Maybe she does, but I have no way of knowing that.  What I did think, though, was how great that would be to establish this foundational basis, just waiting to take on our characters within a story.  With all their foibles and flaws, values and strengths, already mapped out--based upon our own unique individual take on life.  On love.  On family.  On careers.  On fidelity.  On monogamy.  On money.  On looks.  On whatever else we have a definite and unchanging opinion.

Take those "root" characters embodying our morals and mind-sets, slap a different physical body on them, select another career, drop them in a different city, pair them up with an unlikely (?) romantic interest and . . . see what happens.  Not that the writing process is this simplistic.  But, for a blog, this pared-down snapshot works for me here.

You can always use the opposite of those mores and drives to serve as foils, useful for your minor characters.

I love Jane Austen's opening line to Pride & Prejudice:   It is a truth universally acknowledged that a single man in possession of a good fortune must be in want of a wife.

That statement pretty well encapsulates many items I want in my books:  morals, universalisms to be oft quoted by my readers, both the successful workings and equally disastrous undoings of relationships, love, plus other things.  Also, in line with my immediately previous post, confirms the theme of her book.  Sets the tone.  Gives the reader the emotional baseline for her story.

And shows us four examples in Mr. and Mrs. Bennett, Elizabeth and Darcy, Jane and Bingley, Lydia and Wickham--ooh, two more couples, I forgot about Charlotte and Mr. Collins plus Mr. and Mrs. Gardiner--without going into any of the underlying subplots of sibling interaction.  If you think of your story's byline as being your theory to prove to your readers, then these four examples are your proof.  To me, the plot is thin if you only have one.  But you don't want to clutter your premise with too many, either.

Now I'll share my Author's List of Lists.

After reading Getting into Character (another earlier post from January 2012), I was moved to compile some Cheat Sheets to aid my writing.  Two I have not yet done, one for its complexity and the other for its ease which already resides in my mind.  But the facile remains on my list as it serves as a reminder nonetheless, for while I like bearded men, I'm not explaining it well enough or completely.  I like men with well-trimmed beards.  Which must be spelled-out to adequately portray the picture in my imagination.

So here's my lists.  To be used in the process of revising my novels.

1.  Voices
2.  Walks
3.  Postures
4.  Facial Expressions / Body Language
5.  Names
6.  Colors
7.  Hairstyles / Beards
8.  Sixteen literary archetypes (eight for hero; eight for heroine)
9.  Sixteen archetypes for villains
10.  Emotions
11.  Descriptive verbs
12.  Specific nouns
13.  Six senses (I include intuition)

I found a wealth of searched-for information within www.descriptivewords.org.  Also check out online Plutchik's Wheel of Emotions in addition to Parrott's Emotions by Groups.  Within Wikipedia, I found a good list of virtues.  I got some Body Language Basics as well off the internet, although I have Margie Lawson's class notes on body language that I need to gather from and add to my current "short" list.  For voices, see www.dhorizon.org/characterBuilder/voices.html.  Find a great overview of the archetypes at http://www.tamicowden.com/default.htm.

As for the names, I've got a handful of baby name books and I should go through one letter a day and slowly build my preapproved list of names for my male and female characters that embody what I am looking for.  This, alas, is too personalized to become a list you can Google and locate.

The above list is not the end, but that should get an author started.  Remember, these lists help us zone in on that elusive yet "perfect" word we are looking for.  Not for first draft purposes.  Later.  Once you are adding finesse to your story.

Have fun, y'all!

Writing Books I Want to Read

Long ago, and for several years, I had budgeted $30 a month to take online writing classes.  Since that monetary restriction forbids me from taking the more expensive offerings, and I have already participated in many of interest, I am now opting to replace it with a purchase of a book on my craft.

Or to study those unread treasures I already have in my personal library.

I have at least four How-To-Write books I have yet to read--a couple I started so long ago that I've forgotten what I was supposed to have learned.  Therefore, I'll start over at the beginning.  Here's my initial selection for my reading list relative to my writing career:

1.  Sol Stein's Stein on Writing:  A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies (this one is loaned to me and I really need to be getting it back to its rightful owner).

2.  Linda N. Edelstein, Ph.D.'s The Writer's Guide to Character Traits:  Includes Profiles of Human Behaviors and Personality Types.  This particular book may not be one of those things you read from beginning to end, but more of a reference material to consult as we authors deem who is worthy to be our villain, or our hero.  I'll get back with you on that.

3.  Donald Maass's Writing the Breakout Novel Workbook.  I read somewhere that the workbook is good solo, without the need for the companion book.

4.  Brandilyn Collins's Getting Into Character:  Seven Secrets a Novelist Can Learn from Actors.

I cannot yet recommend any of the above personally as I still need to read them.  But they were all deemed worthy in articles or newsletters or blogs or other books or by one of my CPs.

As I actually finish reading them, I'll share some highlights from my notes with you.

Happy reading!