ideasRKnockin

How to Create a Character © by Holly Lisle All Rights Reserved No matter what sort of fiction you're writing, you're going to have to populate your story with characters, and a lot of them, if not all of them, you're going to have to create from scratch. Unfortunately -- or maybe fortunately -- there is no Betty Crocker Instant Character-In-A-Can that you can mix with water and pop into the oven for twenty minutes. There aren't any quick and easy recipes, and I don't have one either, but I do have some things that have worked for me when creating my characters, and some things that haven't. You may find my experiences useful. For what

1. Read great writers. This may sound obvious, but it has to be said. This is the place to start. If you don't read great writing, you won't know how to do it. Everyone starts by learning from the masters, by emulating them, and then through them, you find your own voice. Read a lot. As much as possible. Pay close attention to style and mechanics in addition to content. :bulletgreen:2. Write a lot. Try to write every day, or multiple times a day if possible. The more you write, the better you'll get. Writing is a skill, and like any other skill, you have to practice it to get better. Write stuff for yourself, write for a blog, write for othe

I've heard a lot of writers refer to their books as their babies. And many have even extended the analogy further—they say they gestate the thing for nine months, go through terrible pain to get it out into the world … and then it never calls or writes, and when it's out on its own, it doesn't become a rich doctor as they had hoped it would, but instead bums around the beach and drinks cheap wine out of a paper bag. It's a cute analogy. But it doesn't have much to do with writing a book. I've written books, and I've had babies, and as I, (and a whole bunch of chagrined sixteen-year-old girls) could tell you, once the baby is plante

A good question is always open-ended, and can never be answered with a "yes" or "no" you want to get your subconcious talking. So if you ask it, "Is Susie my hero?" to have it answer, "No." 'No' won't help you. 'no' gives you nothing to work with. There's NOTHING you can work and twist out of from 'no'. Zero, zip, NADA. So instead, I ask, "What could Susie do in the beginning?" This forces the Muse to be creative with their answer. Then the Muse replies, "Well...maybe Susie is a kleptomanic, and she steals something in the beginning. Something important. And now she's all tangled up in this huge conspiracy. Or maybe, now she's being targe