5 Tips to Making your Characters Unique

Developing characters is never simple, and how do you keep coming up with characters after you’ve written several books?  Sometimes it seems like the characters you are working on now are just further extensions of those people you created two stories ago.

Don’t let yourself fall into that trap.  Characters need to be as individual as the people you know. Certainly the people around you all have their individual characteristics that make you laugh, make you nuts and irritate you. 

Consider doing the same thing with your characters. Here are five tips to make them unique.

1. Give them a flaw.  No one is perfect and your characters shouldn’t be either. Don’t make your hero so heroic that no one can relate to him. Give him a weak spot or a flaw that he can work on. Perhaps it is spending money or smoking too much. This can be something to keep that hero from being perfect. We don’t want perfect heroes who never make a mistake. At the same time, we don’t want a hero with such a nasty flaw they will never recover from it.  Make it simple, but give the character something to work on besides the main issue of the story.
2. Give them a real life.  No one has the same sort of life, whether it is rescuing damsels in distress or just trying to survive day to day. Give the characters a real life that gets in  the way of the story or what the character is trying to accomplish. Does her mother constantly demand things of him or her? Does her brother constantly get in trouble and she has to stop her life to bail him out?
3. Make your characters come alive through emotions. This is absolutely critical and one of the main ways to make all your characters unique.  Look for a range of emotions and determine how those emotional reactions will feed into how the character reacts to events in the story. Now you’re going to come up with a character who is different from every other cardboard character out there.
4. Give your character a secret trait – something they might not even recognize at the beginning. Is she stronger than she realizes and only the test of the story makes her discover that hidden truth about herself? Bring that out. Show the character, first at her worst and then at her best. Or show her at her best before she realizes her worth and how that trait can turn the tide in her favor.
5. Give your character a quirk. No, we are not talking about a flaw, as we did earlier. This is something different, something unique, yes, something quirky. Like what you ask? Well, what are those things that drive you crazy about the people around you? Does he tend to fall asleep at a moment’s notice? Does she always check the doors over and over to make certain they are locked? Does he not bother washing his coffee cup from the previous day, but just refill it until you take it and put it in the dishwasher? How about refusing to get rid of that old jacket he’s had for years? My Dad had a thing about cars, and he was constantly stopping at car lots when we drove through different towns, “just to check.” A few times we came home with a new car.
    
   This are all unique things that can make your characters different. They can make your characters someone memorable. Come up with some ideas of your own and then think about how to use them next time you develop a character.

5 Tips to Writing on Vacation

Last week we looked at how to get through the summer and keep writing. Now let's tackle another summer distraction: vacations. If you are heading out on vacation it may be tempting to put your writing work aside, thinking it will be easy to get back to once you return to a normal schedule. Yes, that is true but there are also things you can do while on vacation to keep from breaking the writing habit.

1. Research.  We said it last week and let's repeat it again but this time with a focus on your travels. What better time to do research for a new story than while you are visiting a certain location. Recently I spent time in Vancouver for a week's vacation and since I hadn't visited in several years, I used some of the time to drive around the city to see how it had changed in case I wanted to use it again for a story.  Vancouver's Stanley Park was the location for my opening scene in Deadly Messages, and I'm currently working on a second book set there so it was a good way to get some of that old spark back when dealing with the location. I love walking along the

 

2. Brainstorming. Don't we all get bored when driving somewhere? What better time to brainstorm a new idea with family members? Let them in on what you're writing or what has you stumped and get some ideas. We spent an hour sitting at the border crossing in a very slow moving line. Talking about ideas for a story helped make the time go faster.

3. Visualize a scene. Consider taking a few moments while you're at dinner or sitting in a coffee shop, or even the airport while waiting for a flight to study the people and situations around you. I get good ideas from overhearing conversations. But I also like to study different locations, such as a wonderful little hotel where we had breakfast. I was able to think about setting a story in a quaint hotel with its narrow halls and stone steps and a little garden off the café.

4. Come up with a new story idea. I love to think when I am out on a morning walk or just wandering the streets. Think about how you might use a similar street in the story, or think about how you might describe the people of the city or the feel of the climate.

5. Use the time to critique. Just like brainstorming, use some of that driving time or while you are sitting around waiting at the airport to go over a scene you are writing with family members. It's a good way to get a fresh perspective and you have a captive audience.

Most of all relax and enjoy your time away so that when you come home you will be ready to write!

5 Tips for Knowing When to Re-write

We all have to do it, even if we hate the thought of it--rewriting. Sometimes there is no way around it. Even the best plotted story can run into a roadblock, or the story written into the mist can hit a hall before you even know what is happening. Suddenly you  can't move forward. Suddenly the characters are not cooperating. We'll look at how to rewrite the story in coming weeks but for today let's look at how to figure out when you've hit a roadblock and there is no other way around it but to re-write.

1. The characters are not cooperating.  I listed that above, but that is a big way to realize that you are heading in the wrong direction. If they don't seem to work in the scenes you are writing, you may be taking them in the wrong direction. Look over what you wrote earlier, look over your character profiles, and look over the characters themselves.  If they aren't working, then you need to re-think where the plot is headed for these people. You may need to do a little re-writing that will send those characters back in the right direction.

2.  You just don't want to write. Sure, there can be many, many reasons for not being able to just sit at the keyboard and having the words flow. But often the problem is that you've hit a point in the plot where the story is going nowhere. You may need to read over your plot again to make certain that it is going where you want it. This might be a good time to re-evaluate your plot and whether it can work in the way you originally planned. It might be time to consider re-writing some of the earlier pages or planning changes in the plot.

3. The story is going in some totally foreign direction and you aren't sure why. Again, this may be

that your plot is not working. This is a good time to try re-writing a few pages and perhaps trying a new direction to see whether you like the re-write better than the original. If you do, then keep heading in that direction.

4. The villain is getting more important than the hero. This might be a function of not having the write characters in the right roles. Again, it might be time to make that hero stronger, or to change the direction of the villain. And if you're going to have a super-villain, great!  Just make certain you are setting up the story that way. That might mean a re-write of some of the earlier pages, but they might also be fun to write with this new bad guy.

5.  The motives are not coming through. Perhaps what you have your characters doing doesn't ring true. They wouldn't take those sort of risks for no reason. Perhaps you need to re-write those motives to make them stronger, or to make those changes in your characters to make them want something more. Motivation is a big factor for your characters' actions. You need to make them strong enough.

If you do find you have to do a re-write, don't despair. Next week, we'll look at how to make those re-writes work for you to come up with a stronger story.

5 Tips for Summer Writing

I don't know about you but at this time of the year I find that sometimes writing can become slow and boring. In the winter it's so much easier to sit inside and write because I don't want to get out in the cold. Now it is so much easier to want to get out and about first thing in the morning. There is gardening to be done, places to visit, and, of course, vacation.  So  how can you keep your mind focused on writing?


This year I am trying several new ideas to keep myself focused, and I know they've worked at various times in the past.


1. Don't let that vacation stop your writing habit.  Yes, you might be travelling but why not use the time to take notes for research, or take pictures for inspiration you can use later. And don't stop writing. I often find myself at rest stops writing down conversations I hear at the table next to me or making a note of what I overheard someone say in the restroom. I can always use the information later.

2.  Try writing early in the morning. Those early morning hours can be a good time to get started. There's something very fresh about a summer morning as the dawn in breaking. It's warm out and plenty peaceful so why not get out and sit on the patio editing pages or writing some new chapters.


3. Take a library tour.  Right now one of the writers I know is making the rounds of all the local libraries just to get out of the house. She's finding some wonderful locations, and her tour is reminding me of all the great libraries we have in the area that I might want to spend some time visiting.


4. Go to a coffee shop. This is something I often do any way when I need to get some new perspective or just get out of the house. Last week I found myself editing in a restaurant one day, plotting at a Starbucks another day and creating character profiles while sitting on a patio at a hotel another while I was waiting for someone another day.


5. Get out and do research. Tomorrow I am planning on spending the day at a local history museum as I gather research on a story I want to work on next. Some of our smaller museums are only open in the summer and often there are special lectures or events that can make research more fun and less of a chore.


Don't let the summer get by without some writing work. There are plenty of ways to keep busy and focused even as you enjoy the delights of the summer season. 

5 Tips for Getting Started on your Book

We all go through it when we are writing -- the beginning of a new project and starting to write those first few pages of the new book. The blank page is daunting at any time but when you're face with 100 or 200 blank pages, well, that is even worse.


How to begin?  Of course, many people begin with research, but too many let that take over their lives and spend an overabundance of time with it.  Others want to dive right in, but then the overwhelming prospect of writing it all gets to be too much.


So how do you get started?  I've been thinking that through and have some tips for beginning that next book.


1. Set a Limit on your Research & Stick to It -- Yes, you do need to do that research. If you're writing historical novels, you need to have started that long before you begin the writing. If you are writing a specific location or about a particular industry you'll need to conduct research for sure.  Just don't get bogged down in it.  Set a time limit on that research.  Know when you're going to end it and then be ready to start writing on a certain date or month.  Don't waver from that date -- it gets too easy to put things off.


2.  Get to know your characters before you start. Part of that research should be doing character profiles or studies.  Know who your characters are so that they don't continually turn against you as you write. You need to know their emotional interior as well as the physical exterior.  Get to know them and spend time with them so that when you actually write them, you don't find them acting in uncharacteristic ways.


3.  Know how you want to start the story.  What will your first scene be?  What is going to get to the action quickly and get the story moving?  As readers we don't want a long, involved set up so don't give that to YOUR readers. Bring in your characters and get them involved in something. Throw them off and challenge them from the beginning.


4.  Have a general idea of how your story will end. If you're writing a romance you already have some part of an idea. A romance is going to have a Happily Ever After ending so you know you will need to bring your hero and heroine together. But you might also have an idea of how you're going to do that. You can do that by going back to item #3.  Have a general idea of your character arc. If you know where the character is starting from, that can help you determine what it will take to get the character into a different position by the end of the story. This is true for romance, but it can be true for mystery, science fiction or fantasy too. Knowing who your character is can help you decide who you want the character to be at the end.


5. Start writing.  There is no way around that. Begin writing your opening scenes.  Don't worry if they don't sound perfect and don't wait for that perfect sentence to hit you.  Bestselling author and super agent Donald Maass told us at a recent workshop not to sweat those opening pages because they will take care of themselves.  You can always go back and fix them, but you need to get them started.


If you are working on a new project these ideas can help you get from the vague planning stages to the actual written word, which is what you need to get that next project going.


The bottom line goes back to START WRITING.

5 Tips for Creating Characters

Working on the development of characters is important for any writer and this weekend I received some wonderful ideas from super agent Donald Maass in his excellent workshop "Fire in Fiction" that I attended. He talked about how our characters can come alive through our work and it got me to thinking of different ways to further develop my characters and make them more individual. That is the excellent thing about his workshops. He gives ideas that the writer can then take and personalize and further develop so that their own voice shines through. 

One of the suggestions he had was to interview your characters and that really got me to thinking.  As a journalist, either working as a print reporter or as a TV news producer part of my job was interviewing people all the time.  While a lot of that work was more focused on getting information for a story, I always found that the most fun were the interviews where you got to just talk to people about themselves and their lives.  And that was what struck me about talking to our characters.

Don't we all run into situations where we suddenly are stuck in the story?  Usually when that happens to me I find that the character is being stubborn and maybe I need to work more on my characters.  What I realized as I listened to Donald Maass was that when this happens, it's probably the perfect time to interview a character.  Okay, well, then what do we ask?  And that is where I can refer back to my journalistic training.  Talk to the characters, ask them about themselves and get them to feel comfortable and then hit them with the tough questions.  Here are more tips for interviewing your characters.

1. Ask them what their hopes are for the present.  What are their goals for today and tomorrow.  Start small so that the answers will be easy to deal with.

2.  Ask what is holding them back.  Are they afraid of something in particular? Are they frustrated by something that happened the previous day.

3.  Ask them about their long term goals. That can bring some of the present goals into focus, but if you ask that first it might be too big to think about. Once they've answered questions about smaller goals, this question might be easier.

4.  Ask what their biggest fear for the moment might be. What are they afraid the other person in the story is going to do or the worst case scenario.

5.  Ask why they want a certain result.  Why do they need to achieve their goals -- both short term and long term.

These questions can't answer all the story questions you might have and you might even need to interview them a couple of times as the story goes along, but talking regularly to your characters can be a big help.

5 Tips for Accomplishing your Writing Goals

I am always looking for new ways to keep from hitting the doldrums with my writing and to keep the work flowing.  I see so many writers who have so many excuses for why they didn't write today or why they haven't been able to keep going.

When I consider what keeps me going, other than the need to write, I think of what I have heard from other prolific writers about what keeps them going. I always refer back to people like best selling authors like Nora Roberts and John Sandford.  I once heard her tell a writer in a workshop. "It's my job..Don't you show up at your job even when you don't feel like it?"  Of course if you want to get paid, you show up and do the job, just as she said.  John Sandford pointed out that when he was working as a reporter in Minneapolis he was expected to turn out stories of at least 750 words a day. At that pace, even working only 5 days a week, you could turn out a novel in 4 months.

So how can you accomplish your writing goals?

1. Set a realistic goal.  The goal to write a thousand words a day every single day might sound wonderful, but we all need breaks every so often.  Setting up the realistic goal of 750 words a day (which is only 3 double spaced pages a day if you think about it) can be done. That can give you a novel in four months.

2. Try using a timer.  One of the people in our local writing groups says she regularly uses a timer so that she doesn't feel overwhelmed. She works in half hour segments and does 5 of those a day.  She takes breaks between them. Depending on how long it takes you to write those 750 words, you should be able to do it in the 2 and a half hours she proposes.

3. Don't stop to edit.  I find that when I stop to edit I sometimes get lost in moving the story forward. However when I am writing thing just seem to keep flowing.. Things don't need to be perfect the first time around. That is what editing is for.

4.  Re-read old pages at the start of the day. Or perhaps you set aside a half hour in the morning to read over what you wrote the day before and edit then. I've heard a number of writers who do that -- rereading old pages as a way to get in the mood for the next day.

5. Give yourself time for a plot talk.  One of the other writers in one of my groups was saying when she runs into a plotting problem she sits down and keeps talking the plot over in her head. That gives her new ideas and also helps her keep the words flowing.

The key though is to keep Nora's words in mind. It's a job and if you want to get paid, you need to write.