Tag Archive - writing

Secondary Characters Have a Life of Their Own

We all need a supporting cast in our novels. Secondary characters have to be in there, unless your book is about a guy stuck on a deserted island the entire time. But even in that instance, an animal or even a volleyball (sorry, had to put that in there from Castaway) can play the role of a secondary character. There are plenty of great movies where even the hero is an animal (The Incredible Journey is one that comes to mind) or something not human. but whether your secondary characters are human, feline, canine, or bovine, they need to be fully human in their characteristics (well, maybe cats can getting away with just saying no).

Continue Reading…

Bad Guys Have a Story to Tell

Last week I dove into bad guys in your fiction. Before you say you don’t have a clear antagonist in your story, think about a character that opposes your protagonist. It could even be a good friend. In some instances, supportive characters take on the role of an antagonist, so try to broaden your perspective a bit as we go a little deeper into understanding your antagonist and working on making him/her more human (unless they aren’t human, as might be the case in a sci-fi novel–but they still need to have some agreeable “human” traits, so if you think you can get out of doing this because of the genre you’re writing in, you have another think coming). Continue Reading…

History as Mystery

We’ve gone over some nifty things about character in the last few weeks. Hopefully by now you have gotten a great glimpse into how to create a complex, driven character. If you missed the posts, take a look and read through them. I’d like to add some more insights about character development today and get you to think about history as mystery.

I mentioned how it’s not all that helpful (or interesting) to spend time creating the outward attributes of your character, for what really shapes a person is their history. I showed how by creating and exploring a character’s past hurt or wound you can determine the way she looks at herself and the world. When your character believes lies about herself and her world because of this hurt, she creates a persona that’s not her true self. And when someone is not their true self, they feel restless, unhappy, and lost. Which spurs them on their journey to find their essence. It’s the place she needs to get to, and her journey through the novel is not just aimed at her reaching her visible plot goal but also her spiritual goal of embracing her essence or who she truly is. Remember the sixties and how we were all about “finding” ourselves? This is the same thing but without the drugs. Continue Reading…

Page 4 of 10« First...«23456»...Last »