A Secret to Writing Solid Characters

By
How to write solid characters has been a regular topic on my blog. Really, providing realistic characters is the key to hooking readers. Yes, of course, you need an intriguing plot, ideal pacing, and so on, but at the root of every book is its characters.

Ernest Hemingway said, "We are all apprentices in a craft where no one ever becomes a master." 

Are your characters real enough to pinch?
Well, more recently I've discovered another means of creating characters my readers can pinch.

The suggestion actually came from Katie Jennings—thank you, Katie! She’s uses this method. In fact, when I started looking at things this way, I realized I had already incorporated it into my characters without even knowing it. Still, it’s provided a means to ensure that my characters always stay true to who they are and it enables me to sharpen them.

Using this method makes it possible to know how they are going to react in situations. It can tell you roughly what your characters are going to look like, sound like, talk like, think like.

Are you curious yet?

Well, here’s the “secret”….assign your characters a birthday and a star sign.

If you had told me even seven months ago that I would do this, I wouldn’t have believed you. See, based on the way I was raised, astrological signs were not something that was to be entertained. While everyone has to decide what is right for them, I do not find referencing star signs to be spiritualistic (just for those of you with a similar background to mine). If you're open to it, basing characters within a star sign allows you to do all that is mentioned above and more.

For some great references on star signs, see:
Linda Goodman's Blog or her books Sun Signs and Love Signs

Comments

Post a Comment

Thank you for taking the time to make a comment.

Popular posts from this blog

When Family Doesn't Support Your Writing

By
If you can empathize with the title of this post, then you're not alone.  So many writers, myself included, can honestly say they have family members who don't support their writing.  Some may go so far as to tell you they don't even want to hear about what you're working on, what you've done, what your goals are.  That hurts. But think about it this way, in some ways is writing any different that an other life decisions your family may not agree with?  I'm sure, if you're like me, you get very defensive when it comes to your writing.  In fact, I'm not going to deny that it places an iron wedge in the relationships.  After all, if your focus in life is your writing, and they ask so what have you been up to ...what are you supposed to do lie, remain quiet, answer another way even though you're so excited about your current WIP you'd tell a stranger?  Ticking clocks are heard in the background while you decide.
Read more

A Big Decision...

By
Image
For those of you who know me, and follow me on Twitter, you may be aware that I’ve been debating whether to pursue publishing traditionally, or take the plunge and self-publish.  With all the “buzz” on the internet, and after great consideration, I have decided to go ahead and self-publish. I had asked myself, does this mean I’m giving up ?  And, the answer is irrevocably no.  Self-publishing used to carry a type of stigma that somehow labelled the work as adhering to a lower standard, but things have changed.  Authors are taking pride in their work like never before, and just because of the increasing ease to self-publishing, they’re not allowing this to affect the quality. In making my decision, I also considered the fact that just because a book is published traditionally it doesn’t mean that it will meet with success.  Many self-published books have received awards, honourable mentions, and have met with even more-than-modest sales.  In fact, there’s ...
Read more

Write What You Love

By
We've all heard the advice, write what you know.  There's been a lot of debate over this piece of advice.  Some see it as valid direction while others argue that there wouldn't be any books if we just wrote what we know.  For example, how many mystery novels are written by real-life detectives?  And, I guess that advice is null when it comes to fantasy genres, and historical fictional works.  No fairy from Neverland wrote a book, and no one from over a hundred years ago can write a book currently.   But, this doesn't mean that we can get sloppy, in fact more work is involved, and this is why writing what we love supersedes all, in my opinion.  How else would we get motivated, and stay motivated to see a novel through to the end? In fact isn't it love for what we’re writing what pushes us through to the conclusion even when we may find the interest in our book weaning, or through the rough middles?  Isn't it the love for what we're writing that f...
Read more