Guest Post Wed: Creating Unique Characters

Too many characters in novels are too much alike. As a result, the stories and the characters' actions (and reactions) become predictable. You'd already know what would happen only a few chapters in the story! This is what you want to avoid when you're writing your own story – having characters that are too much like the other characters. There are way you can create characters that are different enough from each other that your readers won't get bored. Here are a few tips on how to do just that...

Tips for Creating Unique Characters

1. Give your characters character before you give them names.
Contrary to what many writers think, the name doesn't make the character. The name is only incidental and is used to identify the character, but it doesn't make the character. Save naming your characters last. Focus first on defining your characters in terms of personality, family, relationship, situation, education, job and any other number of things that can form the individuals in question.

2. Watch people.
Take a day off and go sit in a cafe for an hour or two and just watch people. This is a fun activity and extremely useful when it comes to defining your characters and giving them specific mannerisms and nuances. Many writers find people watching a major source of inspiration. You can observe how people interact, you can get ideas for personality traits, and you can formulate your own view of just how different people are. Life would be boring if all people were the same; the same applies to the characters in your book too!

3. Write down key story points.
This can help you make your characters different from each other. How would each of your characters react in specific events? Reactions to certain situations are often used to define people -- in the press and on TV, for instance.

4. Read other authors' works.
Reading the works of other authors can give you ideas as to what kind of information you can use to make your characters different from each other. Check out novels by popular or bestselling authors. You're certain to pick up a thing or two from reading their work.

5. Brainstorm your characters.
This allows you to build up individual character profiles. You can compare the character profiles so you can look over each of your characters and identify and eliminate any major similarities that could actually lead to your characters become carbon copies of each other. Make notes about your characters and keep those notes handy; you can refer back to those notes in case you stray later and begin to get characters confused.

More than anything, your character profiles are useful tools you can use when you are writing your story.

You can refer to these profiles whenever you need to to make sure your characters are consistent with their personality and that they aren't starting to act like the same people.

Copyright © Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ

Download an excerpt of The Authentic Self: Journaling Your Joys, Griefs and Everything in Between below:

authenticself-sampler.zip OR authenticself-sampler.pdf If you want 3 writing *sparks* delivered to you every day for 31 days, check out WriteSparks!™ Daily HERE for info on how to get started -- it's free :o) Thank you for reading. Keep writing!

Best,
Shery Ma Belle Arrieta-Russ
WriteSparks!™ creator
WriteSparks.com

Guest Post: Tips on Writing Your Memoirs

Whether you have lived a rough life or had a silver spoon in your mouth, it is normal to want to write your memoirs. This is especially true if you are getting up into middle age or beyond. Otherwise, it could be a pretty short story. Assuming you are ready to put 40 years or more down on paper, here are some tips for maximizing the effect of your finished work. First of all, give yourself plenty of time for a project like this. You are going to remember things as you work through the memories that are freshest in your mind. For this reason, it makes sense to give yourself lots of time, even as much as a year or more. Hopefully, you have a supply of old photographs you will be going through at the same time. But even if you don't, you can dig out those memories that are buried within. A good place to start is with a general time line of your life. You may find that you need to make more than one draft of this line, because you are likely to remember important ...

Guest Post by Author Mary Cunningham

Cynthia's Attic - Inspiring Young Readers and Writers Writers love to write. It's a passion. But, I discovered another benefit writing for children that I didn’t anticipate. Who knew how much fun I’d have visiting schools and interacting with my target audience? I’ve created several slide presentations that are informative and fun, but the question/answer session is most entertaining. For instance, I'm amazed at the number of elementary and middle-school students who not only love to read, but want to know what it takes to become a published author. Questions like, “How did you find your publisher?” or, “Who edits your books?” One of the most asked questions is, “Who did your cover?” I love sharing information about one of the best graphic artists in the business, Nathalie Moore. Although the artist and the publisher have the final say, my ideas are always considered. Naturally, the inevitable questions come up; “How much money do you make?” (Don’t quit your day jo...

Interview Friday with J.D. Holiday

J.D. Holiday is the author and illustrator of two children’s books: Janoose the Goose, picture book and a chapter book for six to eight year olds, THE GREAT SNOWBALL ESCAPADE. A chapbook of her short stories called, Trespasses was published in 1994 and she has had short stories printed in literary magazines and numerous articles about writing and publishing published. She is a member of both The Society of Children’s Writers and Illustrators, (SCBWI) and Small Publishers of North America, (SPAN.) J.D. Holiday lives in the Delaware Valley of Pennsylvania. VS : I want to thank you for being my guest here on The Writing Mama today. It is so exciting because you are my first World of Ink Tour Guest. It’s been a fun couple of days and the tour is only getting started. Okay, so I know your children are grown and out of the house, but I’m sure you’ve had to balance your writing life around them at one time or another. I know being a parent and writer can be hard and I find ...

VS Grenier ~ Award-Winning Author, Speaker & Podcaster

Search This Blog