Jungle Red Writers: Do Clothes Make the Character? JAN BROGAN: Hilary Clinton's pantsuits, Rick Santorum's sweater vests, Jimmy Carter's cardigans,and Sarah Palin's glasses. What do they have in common? According to Time Magazine, the are among modern history's 10 top Political Fashion statements. As I read this, it made me think just how useful a single article of clothing can be. In one of the many Larry McMurtry's novels I have read, there is one I remember mostly because the character always wore a T-shirt with a stupid saying on it. I personally find clothing tricky in writing because I'm never sure where to squeeze it in. I also am not always sure what to include -- if you start out mentioning her blouse, for example, must you itemize the remainder of her clothing, the jeans and high heels, or otherwise sound like she's going about in JUST A BLOUSE.
In terms of creating a memorable outfit - that is, used repeatedly to mean something -- I believe I've only done it twice. HALLIE EPHRON: Clothing can speak volumes. 6 tips for characters that seduce your readers « Live to Write – Write to Live. There are many elements that must come together to produce a great story, but the most critical is strong character development. Your readers must care enough about your characters to want to find out what happens next. You characters must inspire not only attention, but devotion. They need to seduce the reader into turning the page. But, how do you create the kind of character that captures a reader’s heart like that? I’m sure there are dozens if not hundreds of books, e-books, lecture series, and workshops on the topic. I personally own an e-book by Larry Brooks called The Three Dimensions of Character, which I’m sure is quite good, but which I have not yet read.
With that completely un-academic approach in mind, here are my 6 tips for creating characters that will seduce your readers: First impressions: We’ve all been told not to judge a book – literal or metaphorical – by it’s cover, but we all do it. And how do you know if you’ve gotten it right? Like this: Like Loading... Why Your Hero Absolutely Must Pet a Dog.
Top Questions for Fictional Characters -- Questions to Help in Creating Characters. Creating the more complex round characters takes time -- time spent thinking about how your characters look, where they're from, and what motivates them, for instance. The questions below provide structure to this all-important thought process. While the reader will not need to know all the details, it's important that you do. The better you know your characters, the more realistic your story or novel will end up being. 1. Where does your character live? Michael Adams ("Anniversaries in the Blood"), the novelist and writing professor, believes that setting is the most important element of any story. It's definitely true that character, if not story, in many ways grows out of a sense of place. 2. In a similar vein, where did your character's life begin?
3. Though this might seem like an obvious question, it's important to make a clear decision about this before you begin writing -- otherwise, it's impossible to get the details right. 4. Would a rose by any other name smell as sweet? 5. 6. Why the Human Element Is All-Important to a Story’s Beginning. Why You Should Spend More Time on Character Than Action. Utilizing Character in Beginnings | Helping Writers Become Authors: Nail Your NaNoWrMo #2 – Keep Your Character Close to Home. I hate to admit it, but NaNoWrMo is different than the normal, reasonable experience of writing a novel. Time is of the essence. Normally this could easily compromise one of the core competencies (of the six, in case you’re new here) that will, at some point, need to be sparkling and compelling in your story.
Here’s a little trick to cut a ton of time out the process and get it right from square one. Which, in context to NaNoWrMo, is like bailing water out of a life raft with a bucket instead of a spoon. The Toughest Core Competency For me it’s character. Even when you plan your hero down to the fingernails, the persona, the effect of the backstory and the general nature and energy of the character doesn’t fully emerge until you bring him/her alive in your pages. Unless… … the hero is you. If you allow yourself to star in your NaNoWrMo story — I highly advise changing the name — you’ll find yourself knowing more about your hero than you ever will otherwise. Live the dream. What I’ve Learned from Lunchtime Creative Writing Workshops. About a month ago, one of my colleagues approached me and asked if I would be interested in having an informal creative writing workshop every now and then.
Huh, I thought, maybe. I floated the idea by the other four writers in our technical writing group, and it turns out everyone was interested in participating in this, except one, who was already busy with another creative writing workshop that had even more participants. We’ve met a couple of times, and the discussions are interesting. In the first workshop, we talked about letting characters drive the story, rather than the writer. In other words, you get inside your character’s head and decide what he or she would do. The author shouldn’t control the character’s actions in manipulative way. This technique — letting characters drive the story, rather than the author — poses some challenges in sketching out the overall plot. Using a pre-decided outline for story versus letting characters drive the story inShare4. How to Have a Unique Voice for a Character | General Writing.
AuthorCulture. The Do's and Don'ts of Internal Monologue. Write Yourself into Your Characters. In today’s article, Eric Kuentz gives us advice on creating well-rounded and interesting characters, by writing ourselves into them. Just Like Everyone Else You are universal. Your life is universal. Your life happens just like everyone else’s. This is the basis for writing a relatable character. Noted psychologist, Carl Jung, postulated the idea of archetypes, “innate universal psychic dispositions that form the substrate from which the basic symbols or representations of unconscious experience emerge.” Harnessing the Universal If you haven’t yet seen “George Lucas in Love”, I highly recommend it. Which of us hasn’t been that struggling young writer at the daunting blank page? Charlie Kaufman experienced this when he wrote “Adaptation”.
But drawing on that personal struggle worked, and earned both Kaufmans (yes, even the fictitious Donald) an Oscar nomination. “Write What You Know” Shakespeare famously wrote that “all the world’s a stage and all the men and women merely players.” Why You Should Spend More Time on Character Than Action. Utilizing Character in Beginnings. Why Your Hero Absolutely Must Pet a Dog.