All posts by NewEngland_Muse

I'm a traditionally and self published author. I write in the genre of children and YA at the moment but working my way up to adults. I'm a sports loving, photo taking gal who loves to sing/dance to my own enjoyment. I love to laugh even at myself. I am also owned by 8 birds and 2 hamsters, and yes they know it. :)
Character Development, Characters, Class, Writing

Bringing Good Things To Life

1 Comment

Week 3: Bringing Characters to Life

The notes from my Character Development class.

The chart below was passed out. This is one way of testing your character from your storyline. The four sections are for action, how it is revealed, feelings and appearance.

character_trait_chart

Your story should have all of these. The action that occur and how is it revealed. How does the character feel about this occurring and lastly what do they look like physically.

If the function of our characters are not convincing or can act out or function in a believable and right proportion then the reader will get bored.

When you start revising from the first draft onward, your character should stay consistent. If you need to change their actions or thought patterns from A to B, it needs to make sense to the readers and the story.

We need to grab the audience within the first few pages about the main person or else you will lose readers.

One more thing, the naming of one’s character is not something to be taken lightly. You have a small window at the beginning of the book to grab your audience. Giving them a memorable yet interesting name will help.

There were little notes taken during this class since we discussed and asked questions throughout.

Author, Book, Electronic, Electronic submission, Publishers, Writer

Submitting my book electronically

Leave a comment

Time: 3:30pm

Date: 2.16.2012

Task: Press send

This was the day I submitted my first electronic submission. I had everything lined up. The synopsis, cover letter, query letter and edited MS for two of my books were ready to go. I lined up the publishing houses that seemed compatible. It had taken me months to get this all straighten out. The hard part was done. I thought wrong.

I opened up my email and got the right address in place. The subject line that was required was listed. In the body of the letter I placed the necessary information that this particular publishing editor wanted.

There I was done, all I had to do was press send. That is when I stopped cold. I just stared at that button, wondering why I could not press it. Time was ticking away as I mulled in my mind what the problem was. A simple process to do right? I had done all the leg work. This was supposed to be the easy part.

So after ten minutes why was the email still sitting in front of me? I knew once I sent that email I could not reach in and grab it back. It would be official and there was nothing I could do about it. I froze. The easiest part of this whole process and I just froze.

Getting up from my desk I walked around my office trying to knock some sense into me as I contemplated my goals. This was what I had been working on for the last two years. Yet here I was scared as hell to send my first electronic submission.

Finally I sat back down, closed my eyes and pressed send. While I felt a chill run down my spine at this I still felt nervous as heck. The second submission by email would be easier I thought. Again I was wrong. Setting up the second email and placing what was required I stared at the button again. It did not take me as long this time around but it was not easy either.

My body was in a cold sweat and I had goosebumps on my arms. You would have thought I had climbed the highest mountain instead of sending two emails.

The day ending with a grand total of four submissions being processed. I am hoping it gets easier and feel it will. For now my written word is out there for people to look at and decide yes or nay. There is no turning back.

I am proud of myself for getting to this point and step, even if it meant drinking two Cokes in a row for it to occur.

Author, Character Development, Creating Real Life Characters, Writing class, Writng

Creating Real Life Characters

Leave a comment

Week 2 Creating Real Life Characters

These are my notes for the second week of my Character Development class


The key thing to look for in a character- What do you notice when you see someone for the first time?

Do we try to describe the person’s characteristics below?

– physical
-personality
-speech- type of speech/ do they stutter/ accent etc-
-clothing
-their habits

What aspect do we pick up first?

Notice after you make a list what you thought of first when you evaluated the person.
What did you include? What did you leave out?

What would I notice about me from someone’s else who would be looking at me?

Characters: We have to make them believable and enjoyable.  Even the villain has to be constructed this way.  If we fail then the characters fall flat. 

Example of habits: twitch, limp, wear the same outfit repeatedly in a time frame.
curves her r when she speaks etc

If we just describe by appearance it makes our characters one-dimensional.

No matter how strong the plot or theme is,  it makes our character undeveloped which leaves readers bored and confused.

Try to get more personal with our characters:
-do they laugh a certain way
-do they have a quirk that makes them different?
-do their lip droop due to a stroke or accident?


Action driven plot- writers who write this way draw from their left side of the brain. They think in a linear function sort of way.  They like structure. They have little trouble expressing words/ descriptions but have trouble finding the right words. They have rational thinking and focus on reality.

Character driven plot- These writers have feeling, creativity and imagination.. They use the right side of the brain. They love the beauty of the language. They are subjective.  They are random and disorganize but see their story as a whole.
–

Character Driven or Action Driven? Which one is your main guy or gal?

Take the following test and see where you fit.

Answer these questions about your cast members.

1- Protagonist’s overall story goal

2- What stands in his or her way of achieving the goal?

3- What does he or she stand to lose, if not successful?

4- Flaw or greatest fault

5- Greatest strength

6- Hates

7- Loves

8- Fear

9- Secret

10-Dream

This was to show which way we lean in our writings.

If you answered 1-3 and had problem we have no dramatic excitement about our character. We are action driven

If we answered 4-10 with ease Then we are character driven in our writings.

If we answered all ten with ease then we write both ways.

If we fail to do 4-10 with ease, more likely our character is action driven, which means they are arranged in order and have conclusion but lack the human element and hence losing the audience attention. You will lose 70 percent of your readers.

Is the description of your character just surface information or does it hit the core?