Make Your Characters Vivid

© 2008 Get It Together Productions

What keeps most readers turning the page? Not an intricate plot or big type. Readers relate to the characters. In order to create these crucial elements of your story, it is important to take a long look at your characters. Be certain you know them well and portray them the very best you can. 

Make character sketches for every major character you have. When you do that, here are things to consider.

1. What type of personality? Is your character exuberant or shy? Maybe someplace in between. Remember, most real people aren't strictly one way or another. It's the blend and sometimes mercurial traits that make them interesting. Perhaps someone doesn't like dogs in the house, but enjoys visiting the zoo. What does that tell you? Here's someone who likes things well defined and orderly. Use these types of juxtapositions to enhance your characters.
2. How will the events affect this personality and vice versa? Consider the challenges and events that your characters will come up against in your story. How will this shy (assertive), orderly (messy) person deal with what you throw at them? Decide if the event makes a change in the personality.
   If several characters are confronted with the same challenge, write the scene from each character's perspective. These sketches will be notes for you, and when you put the scene in your manuscript, it will be believable and easier to write.
3. Examine all details to make this person real. Keep in mind each character's age, nickname, upbringing, siblings, date of birth, performance in school, number and type of friends, favorite colors and foods, preferences for movies, books, shoes, athletic or not, and so on. By writing this down, you can keep the facts consistent throughout the story. Readers don't appreciate a character (even a minor one) being nineteen on page seven and on page seventy (only story month later) the same character is eighteen. Also be certain the characters act their age. If someone is fifteen and still likes to play hopscotch, let the reader know why.

Once you start writing your story, a character will sometimes "insist" on behaving a certain way, or a sub-character will want to "take over" a scene. This is a clue to rethink those characters and their importance in a story.

If you're writing nonfiction, much of this character-study work has been done for you. But you still need to decide the points that will enhance the story as you're going to tell it. It is quite easy for the research material to overwhelm your story. Be certain you don't lose your characters behind facts and figures. The statistics have to have relevance to the characters or the story won't be interesting.

Readers appreciate believable and well-thought out characters. The extra time spent in with this important element will boost your hold on editors (your story's FIRST reader) and book buyers.

Find more articles at the GITP website.

Do You Know Your Genre?

Who are you writing for? Yourself? A reader? Most writers start off with a story they really want to tell and then hope/assume other people will be as caught by the story as they are. But with all the books produced each year, that forthright premise isn't always enough.

Readers are picky, and certain expectations are attached--especially to genre fiction. To get to the right audience, you need to know these expectations.

An informative book about genre fiction is Reader's Advisory Guide to Genre Fiction, by Joyce G. Saricks. Published in 2001, ostensibly for use by librarians when cataloging and when suggesting books to readers, the book has great information any writer can use. The detailed information about the expectations for each genre can be valuable guidelines for laying out the story line for your genre manuscript.

For instance, when reading about mysteries, Saricks writes, "Although mystery remains the key, fascination with the characters' lives attracts more and more readers." This suggests that having a complicated mystery with lots of twists and turns isn't enough. Many readers want to know the intimate details about the characters.

If you're writing genre fiction, this book has information as to what librarians and readers are looking for in a particular type of story. Take notes and make certain some of the elements are in your manuscript, then your story will satisfy you and other people.

November Writing Extravaganza NaNoWriMo

It's November, and many MANY people are involved in the sometimes fun/sometimes arduous adventure of NaNoWriMo. This acronym stands for National Novel Writing Month. November is that month with the challenge to write 50,000 words in one month.

NaNoWriMo logo

You think, How silly! Well, maybe. It can often kick start a profitable project, as it did for Carol Buchannan and Craig Lancaster (I name these two of many because they’re fellow Montanans), or merely push a wanna-be writer to use words (and words and words).

NaNoWriMo also has benefits that don't involve personal writing.
Since it's inception in 1999 in a small region of the California coast, it has become an international organization with participant numbers increasing each year. As a nonprofit organization (established in 2006) it partners with schools and libraries projects, especially to aid youngsters appreciation of language and writing.

The public concept of mega-writing might seem cute or masochistic, but NaNoWriMo is a valuable part of the literary community.

Learn more: at Wikipedia and the NaNoWriMo site.

Plan Marketing Now

If you have a new title in the works, or back listed books that need to be pumped, get your marketing for the entire year planned now. Begin with lists of where and why your titles would have value and generate interest. Include online sites and also the brick-and-mortar world.

Online, book events can be lucrative, from joining blog carnivals, giving interviews, and promotional coupons. It's essential to determine the sites best for your title (and if you have several titles, the sites could be different for each). If your title has a historical or holiday connection, don't wait until a few weeks before the optimum date to line up an interview or promotion; set it up months in advance.

The same is true for street-side promotion. Involve yourself in regional Literary Fairs now, even if they're scheduled for November. Contact your library and get dates for author events. Also check for a "Friends of the Library" type organization. They often sponsor author and book festivals. They have to know about you before you would be invited.

Bookstores? Go for it!
Author events at bookstores should be planned now—get your calendar filled! The chain bookstores might have to be convinced to take you on, if you aren't a "national brand"; but indy store managers, on the other hand, like to get regional authors to generate hometown business. Independent bookstores are most approachable. Be certain to have a marketing packet with you—your book cover, reviews, purchase information—and walk in, find the manager, and say you want to have an author event at their store. They often have dates open. Some will run an ad in the local paper, but you might have to do that yourself. Be certain to advertise your signing in the small and underground newspapers. Most college towns have many of those. Get on a local radio talk show to hawk it.

If your title is available in print and also as an eBook, Be certain your titles are part of the Google Ebook store; that would appeal to the indy bookstore that are participating; remind them it is a good way to highlight the store's new features.

Don't forget libraries
Book events at libraries work best if you have a presentation. Have you developed a talk from the research you've done for your books? Or could you give a presentation about getting published, or effective writing for your type of book? Write up a promo blurb for your talk. Make it professional, just as you would a book promotion piece. Then contact the education director of your library and tell them about it. Offer to give the talk with a book signing after.

Plot or Characters, the Challenge of Writing

I've read many stories where I'm not even fond of the main character, but the situation is dynamic enough to keep me turning the pages (or click the right arrow in e-books). I wonder what will happen, and mostly, how the character will develop. Having the story line build around the strengths and weaknesses of characters is a big part of this urge to keep reading.

Several years ago, a blogger ran a "which comes first" series of interviews with different authors, asking if their novels have started with the character or with the plot. The answers were interesting, and nearly 60% have said plot comes first.

I'm in the minority again. I'm one who answered characters first. Most of my novels have started with definite features of the protagonist. As I think this through, I began to know all my characters as if they were kin: their family situations (siblings, and extended family); if they're passive or aggressive, and whether or not something helped shape them that way. I know their favorite foods and pet peeves, and pretty much know how they will respond to stress, adversity, surprises, joy.

With these traits firmly in mind, I then form a story that will test my characters. Usually I have a backdrop, because that's part of the character's life. But the puzzle and mystery of forming this story is the enjoyable challenge of writing. Very often the characters surprise me, by responding with a few wrinkles I hadn’t conceived. These add complexity to the story and characters; and I write away—smiling, certain I'll have characters that will compel a reader.

Getting Paid By the Word?

Several books I've recently read (or tried to read) by well-established authors have been grossly overwritten. I wonder if they've convinced their publishers to return to the payment style in the days of Dickens--by the word.

Or, more probably, their "big name" makes editors careless with their suggestions, comments, and editing: The "Oh, he's got 15 published titles in the last 4 years...he must know what he's doing" syndrome. As overworked as most editors are, I can see them not editing for these big names, just pushing the manuscript through to proofreading and copy editing.

That makes it pretty hard on the readers who have to wade through paragraphs of redundant phrases and narration.