Why Focus on Character Building?

We writers populate our stories with people we make up: we call them characters, sometimes Main Characters (MCs). We speak to the reader through these people and establish all the important details, like setting, motivations, relationships, goals, and plot. The Literary Terms web page has a rather complex definition of what a character is.

Coffee or Tea?

My Regency heroine, Amelia Winter, drinks tea several times a day; though coffee is available in her home, she doesn’t care for the taste. The tea is served from a china pot by a maid, poured into a fine china cup with a beautiful pattern on it. Amelia puts a touch of sugar in the cup and stirs it quietly; she sets the cup and saucer on a side table and picks up her book.

Family, Friends, and Loved Ones

Lately I have been writing a lot about characters and ways to make them more real, and you might have guessed that this is due to my own need to write a character that people like and can identify with. With the recent passing of the United Kingdom’s beloved monarch, Queen Elizabeth II, news articles appeared saying that her family, friends, and loved ones had been called to her bedside to say goodbye. I considered those three categories of people in everyone’s life and how they would interact during the events of a novel.

Life is Chaos

Just a few seconds ago, a friend on Facebook asked that we use a .gif animation to illustrate what the inside of our minds is like; I used one that proclaimed “Absolute Chaos!” I have plans and processes going on in my brain, but they do not always get to see the light of day, and when they do, I often suffer because I am no longer as young as I feel.

The World Keeps Changing

Historical fiction and sci-fi/fantasy authors have a huge advantage over authors of contemporary fiction: the past is pretty much not going to change, even if you are looking at it from a new angle, and planets or worlds that are author-created won’t change much without the writer knowing it.

Back Matter for Your Novel

I’m watching the sixth season of “The Flash” right now and they have dealt with a lot of dark matter throughout the story line. But that has absolutely nothing to do with your novel. My brain is the reason I even brought that up because every time I read “back matter” I think of “black matter” or dark matter.”

Let’s just carry on, shall we?

Notes on Google Searches

Some weeks ago, a Morning Briefing newsletter I subscribe to from the New York Times included a link to a document from Caity Weaver, one of their Style reporters. Ms. Weaver listed “Almost Everything I looked up on Google or Wikipedia from July 6^th to July 10^th, 2020, mostly annotated.” I thought how cool! And saved the link. And thought, I could do that. OF course, not sure my list will be as interesting as a NYT journalist’s, but no one is subscribing to my blog, either.

Character Development

My characters, Adam and Valerie, have been in my life for a long time now. You would think I should know everything about them. I thought I did. Then judges in a contest I entered suggested I work to make them more layered. This isn’t the first time I have been told this. But I see that when the excitement of the plot gets going, I forget to make Valerie self conscious about her weight, or pinpoint Adam’s need to clear his name. Like when you ride in a car going 80mph, it’s hard to pick up details at the side of the highway, or that’s what they tell me. Ahem. But going 15mph, all the details are clearly visible. My task now is to keep the speed up but keep the details in mind.

The News

She woke up to sunshine and a headache, as well as disorientation. What day was it? What time? The bed she lay on was lumpy, the blanket coarse. No clocks were in sight, so she reached for her phone. Her heart raced as her fingers closed on empty air.

Senses and History, Part 5: Smell

As a writer, you have probably heard that the sense of smell is the least used in writing fiction. We use words, so vision is well represented. We write dialogue, we write personal connections, so hearing and touch are all good. Taste could probably be used a bit more, outside of bedroom scenes. But smell is in itself a somewhat negative word. Writers tend to ignore it. This blog is helpful for all the underused senses. http://acreativemoment.com/2008/07/18/words-to-describe-smell-sound-taste-touch/