Tags, markers, labels, traits. The craft masters have a lot of words for the details that help readers identify and distinguish the characters in a story. Here are 6 character aspects that you can mine for tags and 5 ways to put those tags to work. What are character tags? Jim Butcher says "TAGS are words you hang … Continue reading Character Tags: What are they?
Category: Character
Forging the Reader-Character Bond: In our own work
Forging the Reader-Character Bond. It's easier than you might think, and the results are well worth the effort. Especially if you can dig deep and come up with ways to demonstrate sympathy, jeopardy, etc. that are tailor-made for your specific character, in his specific story world. That extra specificity might be a little harder and take … Continue reading Forging the Reader-Character Bond: In our own work
The Reader-Character Bond: How the masters do it
This week, we're learning how to forge the reader-character bond. Here's how the masters do it: For these examples, I'm rereading only the opening scenes and otherwise drawing from memory. Let's Get the classic example out of the way first: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, J. K. Rowling (MG) Main Character: Harry Potter First … Continue reading The Reader-Character Bond: How the masters do it
The Reader-Character Identification Bond: 9 Ways to Create It
9 ways to forge a reader-character bond
Creating Three-Dimensional Characters: In Our Own Work
It's Three-Dimensional Characters week. Let's see if we can flesh out our characters with backstory and description, internal depth, defining choices and actions, and a future to anticipate or dread. When we last left off, we were working on a human rights attorney story and a diamond bullets story. Many of the past Friday posts have … Continue reading Creating Three-Dimensional Characters: In Our Own Work
Three-Dimensional Characters: How Stephen King Does It
Stephen King. All I can say is, no matter which of the three methods for creating three-dimensional characters you prefer, Stephen King is ALL ABOUT the three dimensions of character. Especially in The Shining. To make this exercise more manageable, I've merged Frey/Egri's dimensions (physiological, sociological, psychological) and Brooks's dimensions (Surface Appearance, Backstory, and Meaningful Choices) … Continue reading Three-Dimensional Characters: How Stephen King Does It
Three-Dimensional Characters: 3 Ways to Create One
We know them when we see them. We all want to create them. But what exactly distinguishes a three-dimensional character from that other kind? What exactly does "three-dimensional" mean and how do we render it on a two-dimensional page? Three-Dimensional Characters: What are they? Honestly, I had a hard time finding (as in, "I didn't … Continue reading Three-Dimensional Characters: 3 Ways to Create One
Character Change: In our own work
So, we're looking at the inner journey this week. Let's see what kind of an inner journey we can create for the one-liners we're working on. Here we go... 1. Our human-rights-attorney story: Set in the mid 1950's, against the backdrop of the first US Supreme Court case to affirm gay rights, a human rights lawyer … Continue reading Character Change: In our own work
Character Change: How Lisa Unger does it
We're looking at the Inner Journey this week. Here's the inner journey (to my eyes and ears anyway) of the main character, Ian Paine, in Lisa Unger's Crazy Love You (336 pages). Spoiler Alert. And Long Post Alert. Crazy Love You is about Ian, a 30-something graphic novelist who writes Fatboy and Priss, heavily based on … Continue reading Character Change: How Lisa Unger does it
Character Change: The Inner Journey, Part 2 — A Master Outline
We're looking at the Inner Journey this week (Part 1 here), and today we're looking at the structure of the character arc over the course of a story. In general, a story has four Parts with key Points happening between each Part (more on this next week when we get to the outer journey). The following … Continue reading Character Change: The Inner Journey, Part 2 — A Master Outline
Writes With Tools 