Tools for Developing Character!

There is SO much to know about creating a believable and compelling protagonist out there. Loads. So today, I'm going to try to brag about a few helpful tools and tips about character development that I've used now and in the past.

Some of the things I’m learning:

I’ve been studying different temperment types by using Keirsey’s Temperments. He lists four basic temperments and each have four subcategories. His lists are helpful in giving some detailed information and examples about each temperment. www.keirsey.com

Along with this, I’ve looked at Personality Plus by Florence Littauer. Again, there are four basic personality types listed here, with a detailed description of each and then the four types are blended into various other combinations to reveal other personalities. It’s a pretty simple and enjoyable read and gives some basics.

Laurie Schnebly Campbell’s website is very helpful and has FREE printouts :-) She employs many tips I’ve learned from other writings. Such as, interviewing your character – and she even gives a list of 20 questions to ask him/her; A History/Characteristics Sheet – or detailed description about your character (looks, past, interests, hobbies..etc).

Laurie discusses Enneagrams (Any-uh-grams) or the nine personality types, and what’s most interesting about these descriptions is that they express the ‘flaws’ within the personality. Laurie’s site is http://www.booklaurie.com/

As I’m completing the Workbook, Donald Maas is pushing me to create a three-dimensional character. One who will leave the reader thinking about them long after the last page. Knowing your character is the key, and studying personality types to develop a detailed protagonist is helpful in developing a deeper knowledge about your characters.

So…when I write a dialogue between two characters, they don’t sound like the same person.
When my protagonist does something unusual, it still fits within her realm of possibility and doesn’t make the reader want to toss down the book with, “No way, she would NEVER do that.”
When my readers are sorry to finish the book or feel like they’ve completed a wonderful journey with a friend (my protagonist), then I’ve developed a character with meaning….

And it’s tough work, or at least I think it is, but it’s SO worth it. When I read now what I wrote back then, I’m thankful my stick-figure protagonists are starting to grow some skin. Hope these tips will help you build more believable, three-dimensional characters.

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Pepper Basham is an award-winning author who writes romance peppered with grace and humor. She’s a native of the Blue Ridge Mountains, a mom of five, a speech-language pathologist, and a lover of chocolate. She enjoys sprinkling her native Appalachian culture into her fiction whenever she can and loves annoying her wonderful friends at her writing blog, The Writer’s Alley. She is represented by Julie Gwinn and her debut novel, The Thorn Bearer, released in April 2015. Her first contemporary romance novel, A Twist of Faith, released in December. You can connect with Pepper on her website at www.pepperdbasham.com, Facebook-  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pepper-D-Basham or Twitter at https://twitter.com/pepperbasham

Got Fire In Your Fiction?

I was one of the few Alley Cats who did not get to go to the ACFW Conference this past weekend. Since I don't feel like I have anything exciting to offer in light of all the wonderful things the Alley Cats have learned, I thought I'd do a repost of what I learned from Donald Maass and one of his books. Here ya go:

Do you ever feel like your story is just the same old story that's been written before? Do you struggle with finding an original plot that's never been done before? Well, I do, and let me say that after re-reading the last chapter in The Fire In Fiction by Donald Maass, I was encouraged.

According to Donald Maass, there really is nothing new under the sun when it comes to basic plots and storylines. Are you writing a mystery? Well, join the crowd who starts off with a murder and ends up with a solved case. Are you writing a love story? Join all the others who write about boy meets girl-boy cannot have girl-but love conquers all and he gets the girl. There is nothing original in basic plot lines. Been there, done that.

So what makes a story unique? YOU!!!!!

Only you have the experiences that you have had. Only you can bring a unique perspective to a basic storyline. The trick is being brave enough to open yourself up to what is real and honest in your life and using that in your writing. We all have experiences that have shaped our world view and how we deal with life. If we can be honest enough bring it into our writing, our stories will come alive.

Donald Maass says, "Finding the power buried in your novel...is about finding you: your eyes, experience, understanding, and compassion. Ignore yourself and your story will be weak. Embrace the importance of what you have to share with the rest of us and you have the beginning of what makes novels great."

Maass goes on to lead you into finding that unique perspective. Take common experiences and bring out the compassion and understanding to those shared experiences. For example, many people hate their day jobs and you can bring your perspective to that experience to lead the reader to relate and "get" your take on it.

Of course, then we have uncommon experiences. Where were you during 9/11? It is the same event, but everyone experienced that day in a different place and a different way. Some had family die that day. Some slept through it. Some came out of the building alive. Some watched it unfold from their office. Each person brings a different way of looking at the same thing. Use that in your writing!

I believe it is Francine Rivers who says she takes her life experiences...what she is dealing with...what the Lord is teaching her at the time...to write her stories. And oh, what powerful books she writes! They speak to the heart the reader because she brings her heart into them.

What do you want readers to come away with when they read your book? What truth do you want people to know? What theme needs to be shouted to the world? Be honest. Be real. Let your experiences, your take on life, and your heart come through your writing.

I will leave you with a quote from Donald Maass's The Fire In Fiction:
"Having something to say, or something you wish us to experience, is what gives your novel its power. Identify it. Make it loud. Do not be afraid of what's burning in your heart. When it comes through on the page, you will be a true storyteller."

QUESTION: Is it easy for you to open up and be honest in your writing with your unique experiences?

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This post is brought to you by

 Sherrinda Ketchersid

Sherrinda is a minister's wife and mother to three giant sons and one gorgeous daughter. A born and bred Texan, she writes historical romance filled with fun, faith, and forever love.

Self-Editing Checklist: Scene Analysis

You've got a completed manuscript and you're ready to self-edit, right? So now the big question: Where do you start?

My answer: a self-editing checklist. (If you're just jumping in, check out my post from two weeks ago where I introduced the why behind a self-editing checklist as well as some ground rules.)

Once you feel pretty good about your overall story and characterization, it's time to start in with an analysis of your scenes. Now this can be done however you want. I usually take out my 4-page checklist and work through the entire thing on one scene at a time. If that doesn't work for you, do whatever does.

Here are the first two points on the checklist.

#1 - Scene or Sequel (as coined by Dwight V. Swain in his book Techniques of the Selling Writer). Does my scene have a clear goal, conflict, and disaster? If it's a reaction scene (aka sequel), does it have a reaction, dilemma, and decision that propels it into the next scene? I track these items in an Excel spreadsheet (the CPA in me never dies). :) It helps me make sure I don't have an aimless scene.

Resources: For the full description of the concept behind Scene and Sequel, I highly recommend Dwight's book. Or if you want shorter article-sized summaries, check out Randy Ingermanson's website or Camy Tang's Story Sensei blog.

#2 - Does the scene enact a tangible change, both inwardly and outwardly? This is a direct quote from a Donald Maass post on Writer Unboxed. To read the entire post, click here.

Your homework for the next two weeks, should you choose to accept it: Read the articles I've referenced. And if you have a few extra dollars and some time on your hands, buy Dwight Swain's book (or borrow it from your local library) and read Chapter 4. Then analyze your scene for these two points.

Do you tend to get in the trap of writing aimless scenes? What's your best advice to ramp up a scene and make it meatier?

* Book photo by winnond / FreeDigitalPhotos.net
**Flower photo by Filomena Scalise / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Self-Editing Checklist: Intro and Some Ground Rules

Does the word edit make you shudder like a mom with a pet snake on the loose? Or does the process of moving words around excite you?

It seems like most writers fall into one of two camps: We're either creators or we're editors.

I'll admit I've got a little bit of both in me. But when I'm creating, I usually have to smack my internal editor back into hiding. It's always itching to come out and spruce up the drivel I've created.

Like any good writer, I started out my first self-editing venture using the awesome book Self-Editing for Fiction Writers. I opened it up and went to the end of each chapter, using the questions to guide me through my edits.

The problem with this approach was that I kept learning new things on blogs, in books, and in classes that I wanted to add to the list. My solution? Create my own self-editing checklist. Over the next several posts, I'll share with you my 4-page checklist, piece by piece.
First, a couple ground rules.

1) This checklist gets down to the nitty-gritty details of your manuscript. Before you apply these points, I suggest you give your work a read-through and make sure you've hammered as much of your plot and characterization as possible.

2) I don't claim to be the originator of the content I'll be sharing with you. I want to give credit where credit is due. And I'll also urge you to follow up on the resources I share to get the full reasoning behind the points I mention. In fact, I'll purposely keep some things more generic for copyrighted materials so I don't get sued. :) There are some amazing teachers out there who can provide more a-ha moments than I can, and they deserve the money behind their price tags.

With all that said, here's your homework for the next two weeks. What? Did I just say homework? Okay, okay. It's homework if you choose to accept it.

If you have a completed draft that needs self-editing, read through it with an eye solely for the story. Whether you're a plotter or a pantser, make sure you're working with a story that doesn't require complete rewrites. Of course, sometimes self-editing reveals an issue that requires rewrites...That's okay. But our goal is to work with a solid story that's ready for a micro edit.

Got it? Okay. Go!

Where do you put yourself on the creator/editor spectrum? How do you currently approach the self-editing process?

Come back in two weeks for the first official piece of the self-editing checklist!

*Camp photo from FreeDigitalPhotos.net

**Checklist photo by Rawich / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Nurturing The Writing Life

I have a new favorite writing book. It is From The Inside Out...discover, create, and publish the novel in you! by Susan May Warren and Rachel Hauck. They have a website called My Book Therapy which is a fabulous tool for writers. I got this book in October and it really helped me get my NaNoWriMo project off to a great start.

There is so much to share about this book, but something that really struck me was on page 4, the Four Keys to a Writer's Life.

Writing is much like every other discipline. It takes commitment. After all, as much as we'd like it to happen, those books don't just download from our brains automatically! It takes nurturing. Did you know that your brain has a well of words for each day, and you need to replenish those words after you use them? It takes time (something we're going to figure out how to get!), and it takes a game plan.

I was drawn to the Key of Nurturing and what that entails. Here are three ways to nurture your writing life:

• Spiritual Nourishment: Warren says that writing is a spiritual event. "You are connecting on a thematic level with your reader, and that happens in the spiritual realm." We need to make a habit of spending time with God, whether it is through His Word, or through a devotional book. Whatever feeds us spiritually and inspires us is what we need to be immersing in.
• Research: We need to make sure we know what is going on in the world. "Technology. Medicine. Trends...Know what's happening in culture and politics. Read biographies, current, and past - you'll be inspired with new story ideas...To communicate to our world, you need to understand it."
• Read Up: You need read great writing. Read the Word. Read poetry. Read in your genre. Study books you love and figure out what it is that makes you love them.  "Feeding your mind and your soul will give you the materials you can draw from as you create."

From the Inside Out is especially good for beginning writers, or writers who need a little organization. What I loved most about it was the questions it asked to help you structure your novel and create a great plot with goals and motivations. There are pages you can copy and fill out for those who like a hands on approach. 

It speaks to the writer and his/her writing life and helps to draw out the stories deep within. Check it out! You will love it!

Sherrinda

Uniquely You Ditto Writing

Do you ever feel like your story is just the same old story that's been written before? Do you struggle with finding an original plot that's never been done before? Well, I do, and let me say that after re-reading the last chapter in The Fire In Fiction by Donald Maass, I was encouraged.

According to Donald Maass, there really is nothing new under the sun when it comes to basic plots and storylines. Are you writing a mystery? Well, join the crowd who starts off with a murder and ends up with a solved case. Are you writing a love story? Join all the others who write about boy meets girl-boy cannot have girl-but love conquers all and he gets the girl. There is nothing original in basic plot lines. Been there, done that.

So what makes a story unique? YOU!!!!!

Only you have the experiences that you have had. Only you can bring a unique perspective to a basic storyline. The trick is being brave enough to open yourself up to what is real and honest in your life and using that in your writing. We all have experiences that have shaped our world view and how we deal with life. If we can be honest enough bring it into our writing, our stories will come alive.

Donald Maass says, "Finding the power buried in your novel...is about finding you: your eyes, experience, understanding, and compassion. Ignore yourself and your story will be weak. Embrace the importance of what you have to share with the rest of us and you have the beginning of what makes novels great."

Maass goes on to lead you into finding that unique perspective. Take common experiences and bring out the compassion and understanding to those shared experiences. For example, many people hate their day jobs and you can bring your perspective to that experience to lead the reader to relate and "get" your take on it.

Of course, then we have uncommon experiences. Where were you during 9/11? It is the same event, but everyone experienced that day in a different place and a different way. Some had family die that day. Some slept through it. Some came out of the building alive. Some watched it unfold from their office. Each person brings a different way of looking at the same thing. Use that in your writing!

I believe it is Francine Rivers who says she takes her life experiences...what she is dealing with...what the Lord is teaching her at the time...to write her stories. And oh, what powerful books she writes! They speak to the heart the reader because she brings her heart into them.

What do you want readers to come away with when they read your book? What truth do you want people to know? What theme needs to be shouted to the world? Be honest. Be real. Let your experiences, your take on life, and your heart come through your writing.

I will leave you with a quote from Donald Maass's The Fire In Fiction:
"Having something to say, or something you wish us to experience, is what gives your novel its power. Identify it. Make it loud. Do not be afraid of what's burning in your heart. When it comes through on the page, you will be a true storyteller."

QUESTION: Is it easy for you to open up and be honest in your writing with your unique experiences?